When I read it, I was frustrated that it was a socialist dystopia, but I think it holds up as a valid critique of surveillance-state authoritarianism, regardless of the x-coordinate on the political compass.
Nah, he was a great anti-Stalinist socialist. Sure he had some flaws, but the list was mostly of Stalinist sympathizers and people unfit for counterpropaganda.
Incidentally, Orwell never got to see his books truly take off. He died of tuberculosis at age 46. However, his more explicitly anti-communist works were picked up by Allen Dulles, at the CIA and turned into children’s cartoons.
In 1950, after Orwell’s death, the CIA arranged for an animated film to be made based on the book. However, it pushed several changes. It transformed Orwell’s generally positive depiction of Snowball (Leon Trotsky), emphasized that the animals on some neighboring farms were perfectly content with their treatment by the human farmers, and changed the ending to show the other animals rising up to overthrow the pigs. The adaptation was unpopular in theaters, but it was widely shown in US and UK classrooms and was translated and distributed in other countries.
In an ironic twist, the books about state manufactured propaganda and national indoctrination became tools of state manufactured propaganda and national indoctrination.
Huh, never knew that, thanks. That quote is about Animal Farm though. In the second source you linked, it literally says at the end that 1984 was propagandized, but that it unwittingly gave people a lexicon for criticizing the US. So it was proagandized, but backfired? Idk, I’ll have to read into that more, but TIL!
> Became superpower after suffering heavy loses in WW2> Sent first human/animal/satellite/woman in space> Made a feudal shithole empire into a literate scientific country> Supported many national liberation movements across the globe> Defeated nazis> Lifted millions out of poverty> Best women rights and racial policies in 20th century (better than that of many countries today)
Broke: Using an AI to arbitrarily blacklist books based on a black box algorithm.
Woke: Banning 1984 because it’s capitalist propaganda written and published by war criminals.
When I read it, I was frustrated that it was a socialist dystopia, but I think it holds up as a valid critique of surveillance-state authoritarianism, regardless of the x-coordinate on the political compass.
Specifically Stalinist dystopia
Orwell was a socialist
social fascist
Nah, he was a great anti-Stalinist socialist. Sure he had some flaws, but the list was mostly of Stalinist sympathizers and people unfit for counterpropaganda.
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Got any sources for that? I’m not sure I understand your viewpoint
The Life and Times of Reading Toxic Men #14 | George Orwell: The Colonial Cop and the Cynic of Power
Incidentally, Orwell never got to see his books truly take off. He died of tuberculosis at age 46. However, his more explicitly anti-communist works were picked up by Allen Dulles, at the CIA and turned into children’s cartoons.
In an ironic twist, the books about state manufactured propaganda and national indoctrination became tools of state manufactured propaganda and national indoctrination.
Real “Don’t Build The Torment Nexus” moment.
Huh, never knew that, thanks. That quote is about Animal Farm though. In the second source you linked, it literally says at the end that 1984 was propagandized, but that it unwittingly gave people a lexicon for criticizing the US. So it was proagandized, but backfired? Idk, I’ll have to read into that more, but TIL!
And this is why everything goes to hell when we let the deranged left or right run anything.
“deranged left”
> Became superpower after suffering heavy loses in WW2 > Sent first human/animal/satellite/woman in space > Made a feudal shithole empire into a literate scientific country > Supported many national liberation movements across the globe > Defeated nazis > Lifted millions out of poverty > Best women rights and racial policies in 20th century (better than that of many countries today)“deranged right”
> Its the jooz muslims brown blacks broooHey now. The deranged right aren’t all bad.
They gave us AI and vaccine denial and climate change, which I’ve been raised to believe are all good things.