History Main / ThoughtCrime

* The TropeCodifier is ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' by George Orwell. To hammer it home, the main character of the novel, Winston Smith, once wrote in his diary, "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."

* In the short story "Literature/HarrisonBergeron", being ''smarter'' than another person is outlawed, and smart people must wear devices to disrupt their thoughts lest they take advantage of others with their intelligence (naturally, the Handicapper General is very intelligent, and [[{{Hypocrisy}} free of this impediment]] to do her duties).

* ''Film/THX1138'', which is ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''-esque story of a dystopian state where worker drones are forced to take emotion-numbing pills.

* ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' takes this to an even more disturbing conclusion; "Sense Offense" or ''emotion'' crime. Their leader extolls "The revolutionary concept of the hate crime." Dubbing the "hate" the important part of the "crime" essentially makes this entire trope NotSoCrazyAnymore.

* TropeCodifier comes from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', by George Orwell. To hammer it home, the main character of the novel, Winston Smith once wrote in his diary, "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."

If a reason is ever given at all, [[BigBrotherIsWatching apart from the obvious]], Thoughtcrime can be [[HalfTruth explained]] as "intrusive thoughts," and their [[HappinessIsMandatory repression]] leads to "[[BlatantLies a happier society]]".

* ''Webcomic/TheWaterPhoenixKing'': This trope [[GodIsEvil shows how obsessively petty the titular character's god was]]: [[SoiledCityOnAHill after Gurahl purged most of the world's sinful population with natural disasters and genocide]], only the ''truly'' pure of heart were left. Except, they had the occasional bad thought, overcame it, and moved on. This still wasn't enough to satisfy Gurahl, who decided decided the saints also deserved to die for the crime of free thought, and attempted to exterminate the planet Chalt for good.

* For children, having an 'attitude' and needing an 'attitude adjustment' could count. Showing any annoyance can lead to punishment or more/worse punishment because parents seem to expect their children to not have emotions.

* Criminal conspiracy statutes can edge into this territory sometimes, especially if [[PreCrimeArrest arrests are made before the conspiracy gets past the initial planning stage]]. In the US however, at least one "overt act" must have been taken "in furtherance of the conspiracy" for a conviction, but that can be minor.

->''"He could not help feeling a twinge of panic. It was absurd, since the writing of those particular words was not more dangerous than the initial act of opening the diary, but for a moment he was tempted to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether.\\
He did not do so, however, because he knew that it was useless. Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed -- would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper -- the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."''

Whenever a {{dystopia}}n, totalitarian government tries to control the speech and actions of its citizens, it'll label dissent and criticism as Thoughtcrime, and quell Thoughtcrime by every means possible. The clever trick here, since in most stories the government has no access to these thoughts, is that it trains the oppressed to oppress ''themselves'' via internalizing what is seen as disapproved thought. As well, {{propaganda}} exhorts people to turn in their friends and family.

* Following the Charlie Hebdo massacre (cartoonists and journalists who were killed by Islamic terrorists) in France on January 7, 2015, which caused the memetic message "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie") to spread on the Internet as a way of defending free speech, journalist [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW3vil_cJ7I Nathalie Saint-Cricq]] proposed, on public television, to 'spot and treat' schoolchildren who "were not Charlie". This didn't just include those who made genuine apologies for terrorism/religious extremism, but also those who expressed doubts about the message, criticized what the cartoonists did before they were killed or didn't respect moments of silence. This was [[{{Irony}} horribly ironic]] in defense of people who were murdered for "thoughtcrime" essentially themselves.

* While there are laws that make Holocaust denial illegal and punishable in Germany, it is actually considered a special case of hate speech, even without making any statements about the victims. As such, it becomes only a crime when addressed to a public audience. Private conversation or correspondence is not affected, even when overheard by bystanders.

* A certain Todd Nickerson has made some videos where he admits to being a pedophile. Despite making it clear he doesn't want to be this way and [[WouldntHurtAChild never intends to actually molest a kid]], a lot of people still hate him just for having such urges in the first place. The same reaction has occurred when other comments that could be called "positive" about pedophiles/pedophilia are made, even if simply "That person is good for not acting on their urges" or "Therapy should be provided for them" and "maybe we can find a cure". Cue many suggestions that the cure for pedophilia is death. Anything other than just stating condemnation, for some, seems to be unforgivable.

* Criminal conspiracy statutes can edge into this territory sometimes, especially if [[PreCrimeArrest arrests are made before the conspiracy gets past the initial planning stage]].

** This is something the military categorises as "dumb insolence" or "eyeballing" - not receiving an admonishment meekly or with appropriate deference to senior rank. This is something generations of Drill Sergeants and instructing NCOs have learnt to recognise, even where it doesn't actually exist, and the sanction can then increase accordingly.

Whenever a {{dystopia}}n, totalitarian government tries to control the speech and actions of its citizens, it'll label dissent and criticism as Thoughtcrime, and quell Thoughtcrime, by every means possible. The clever trick here, since in most stories the government has no access to these thoughts, is that it trains the oppressed to oppress ''themselves'' via internalizing what is seen as disapproved thought. As well, {{propaganda}} exhorts people to turn in their friends and family.

It is nearly impossible to remove Thoughtcrime policies once enacted. The definition tends to expand until ''[[WhoWatchesTheWatchmen whistleblowing]]'' is illegal--after all, only a [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets communist/fascist]]/[[AcceptableReligiousTargets atheist/religious fanatic]] etc. would be deceptive enough to claim that our glorious and beneficent regime could possibly make errors, suffer from wishful thinking, or be corrupt.

** ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': Under Torquemada's rule over Termight, it is illegal to even think of opposing him, and his Terminators scan the planet day and night to look for thought offenders. Purity's father was sent to the vaporization vats for committing thoughtcrime ''in his sleep''.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E9RandomThoughts Random Thoughts]]", the crew of the ''Voyager'' come across a people who are extremely telepathic, so sensitive that any extreme emotions would incite them to act out on those feelings; having violent thoughts is a crime in and of itself. Torres is put on trial for having a brief violent thought when someone bumps into her, and Tuvok's investigation into the planet's culture finds a sort of "violent thoughts" BlackMarket. Of course, it examins the issue that when something is so taboo, it means their own people are unable to handle it when confronted with the situation.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the [[SecretPolice Nightwatch]] organization was set up to report not just actions, but potentially seditious attitudes (as could be "inferred" from casual remarks and such) among Earth Alliance personnel and citizens. [[spoiler: As Earth Alliance [[SlidingScaleOfLibertarianismAndAuthoritarianism slid further into despotism]], it is mentioned that [[MutantDraftBoard PsiCorps]] was routinely used by the Clark dictatorship to telepathically scan for supposedly seditious (anti-regime) thoughts.]]
* A mundane variant comes from the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol "The Happiness Patrol"]], where [[HappinessIsMandatory enforced cheerfulness was the law]] on the planet Terra Alpha.

* Touched on in the aptly named ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Thought Criminal". The criminal-of-the-week is a man who has constructed a sex torture dungeon across the street from a playground, fantasizes about using it, and has all the signs of becoming a rapist and murderer of children. However, he hasn't actually done anything yet. The episode then revolves around arresting a man for something he ''might'' act on (and he almost certainly will), or letting him walk and taking the chance of future victims. [[spoiler:The jury finds him not guilty, possibly with this trope in mind]].

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had an episode where they came across a people who were extremely telepathic, so sensitive that any extreme emotions would incite them to act out on those feelings; having violent thoughts was a crime in and of itself. Torres was put on trial for having a brief violent thought when someone bumped into her, and Tuvok's investigation into the planet's culture found a sort of "violent thoughts" BlackMarket. Of course it examined the issue that when something was so taboo, it meant their own people were unable to handle it when confronted with the situation.

[[folder:Stand Up Comedy]]

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': The third [[AlternateHistory Lostbelt]] is one where Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, achieved immortality and conquered the world. He did achieve world peace, but only because the humans living there are kept illiterate, have no concept of family, and aren't allowed to venture outside of their villages. If any person shows signs of "[[InsistentTerminology Confucianism]]", which is to say learning how to read, making art that doesn't worship the emperor, or leaving their village to explore, Qin Shi Huang's response is a ColonyDrop that [[DisproportionateRetribution wipes out their entire village.]]

* Music/DavidByrne: [[Music/ReiMomo "The Dream Police"]] is about a legal system that arrests and prosecutes people based on the crimes that they commit in their dreams.