> They're making a reference to the novel 1984, in which governments routinely recast history such that the current status quo "has always been this way".

Though the reference they're making is so irrelevant to this story that it verges on a non sequitur. This action is more akin to developing a spam filter for your email service than a government totally rewriting history for political reasons.

If you're going to reference a work as well-known as 1984, make sure it's a very apt reference.