François Truffaut’s 1966 film “Fahrenheit 451,” adapted from Ray Bradbury’s iconic dystopian novel, presents a chilling vision of a future where firemen don’t put out fires, they start them, setting books ablaze to enforce a regime of ignorance.

Nearly six decades after the film’s release, its fictional world feels less like a cautionary tale and more like a mirror held up to modern America. The flames may be metaphorical now, but the erosion of truth, the cult of distraction, and the political weaponization of apathy burn just as hot.

In the film, society has normalized book burning, but the deeper decay lies in how people have come to accept, and even prefer, a life without reflection. This is not a story about forceful censorship, but one of self-erasure, where citizens no longer need

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