Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by
instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It
includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to
perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest
arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being
bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable
of leading in a heretical direction.
The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous
thought presented itself. The process should be automatic,
instinctive. Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak.
He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop. He
presented himself with propositions -- 'the Party says the
earth is flat', 'the party says that ice is heavier than
water' -- and trained himself in not seeing or not
understanding the arguments that contradicted them.
