Etymology Compound of wrong + think, probably modelled on earlier crimethink from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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Usually Beliefs or opinions that run contrary to the prevailing or mainstream orthodoxy.
In other words I spent yesterday in bed with a headache not merely because of my bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers and wrongthink, but because both my grandmothers had migraine, my father has migraine and my mother has migraine.1979, Joan Didion, The White Album:
The third, and most grievous of all the wrongthinks, is suggesting that men and women are, in general, physiologically and psychologically different from each other, and thus they tend to excel at different things.2017 August 8, Ben Domenech, “Could This Man Work At Google?”, in The Federalist:
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Fang, fearing for his job, had to issue a Maoist-style apology for reporting wrongthink.2020 November 6, David Bernstein, “The Revolution is Eating its Own”, in The Volokh Conspiracy:
If "radicalization" once meant the process by which someone embraces a violent ideology that commands them to wage war on civilians, it has now become a synonym for wrong-think. Once a description of the moment before physical violence, inextricably linked to real world, physical harm, radicalization now refers to anything on the wrong side of the reigning orthodoxy, something that does harm to nothing more than the sensibilities of those in power.2021 April 2, Simon Cottee, “The Word ‘Radicalization’ Has Lost All Meaning. That’s Very Dangerous. Opinion”, in Newsweek:
Neighbors turning in neighbors for wrong-think cultivates the habits of an unfree society.2025 October 31, Greg Lukianoff, “Why FIRE is now judging bias-reporting systems more harshly — and why I changed my mind”, in The Eternally Radical Idea:
Heather Heying’s observation is brutal: young women especially began treating ideologies the exact way evolution wired them to treat babies. Climate change, social justice, whatever the cause of the month is — it gets defended with literal mama-bear ferocity, the same neurochemistry that once guarded a toddler from predators now guards an abstract idea from wrong think.2025 November 29, Ed Morrissey, quoting Camus @newstart_2024, “Saturday's Final Word”, in Hot Air:
Post a conservative story on Facebook or search for it on Google and out pops Snopes, a partisan site, to warn you of wrongthinking.2017 June 30, Henry Wolff, “The Freedom Center Beats the Southern Poverty Law Center”, in American Renaissance:
Hasbro has sent a clear signal to men, to Trump supporters, and to anyone who wrongthinks: you are not welcome, and we will purge you.2017 December 21, Ganker, “A joke, a media storm, and a destroyed life... Is ‘Magic: The Gathering’ the next Gamergate?”, in Ganker:
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Wrongthinking friends are kicked off of PayPal and Etsy and Twitter, of course, with increasing frequency.2022 June 13, Abigail Shrier, “Welcome to the Party, Pal”, in The Truth Fairy: