I’m with you on Voyager. A big problem with the story was it’s premise: it’s kind of hard to run into the same people more than once when you’re bee-lining for home every chance you get. So they should have focused more on every last stinking crew member onboard that little ship. Or start a small fleet and do it BSG style. Lots of options, but they’re all outside the usual Trek box.
While I think Orwell’s “newspeak” was contrived, it did illustrate the point in strong relief as something unfamiliar… at least at first. But I don’t think he was predicting the future. Instead, I think he was warning the reader of what dangers are already with us.
Honestly, I think this has always been a thing. The spoken word is often inexact as a form of communication efficiency; if the other party has the same ideas in their head as you, pronouns, idioms, recalling past events, are all powerful ways to compress dialogue. However, that same inexactness leaves the door open for doublespeak, dogwhistles, and suggestion in place of fact. Language as a means of control is just in how you use it; the underlying mechanisms were always there.