With Donald Trump in the White House we may have entered a post-truth era. As Orwell wrote in his great essay "Looking Back on the Spanish War:" "If the Leader says of such and such an event, 'It never happened'-well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five-well, two and two are five. Orwell added, "This prospect frightens me much more than bombs." Today, in a country where magical thinking is heard at the highest levels of government, facts are up for grabs. You have your narrative and I have mine. Recall Trump aide Kellyanne Conway's now infamous "alternative facts" comment. Are we sliding toward a dystopian future? Not necessarily. Informed and organized people, unafraid and willing to challenge power, can change the system.

Arun Gupta, journalist and activist, was a founding editor of The Indypendent and the Occupied Wall Street Journal. His articles appear in Alternet, Truthout, The Guardian and Z. He also appears on Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera.