A reminder about George Orwell being a Democratic Socialist

Since I continue to see so many people try to exploit the novel 1984 for their anti-socialist rants or often anti "socialist" rants (since many people do not seem to have a grasp on what that very broad political spectrum is), I thought I would drop this small reminder.

George Orwell was a Democratic Socialist. He disliked Stalin (he was still influanced by other Soviet marxist such as Trotsky) but that doesn't mean he supported your right wing politics (usually I see it his work misquoted by the far right tho).

Emmanuel Goldstein is Trostky.

Orwell was part of the Independent Labour Party during the Spanish Civil war and strongly supported Democratic Socialism.

His political views were also heavily influenced by anarchist theory, theories that would include standing against right wing government over reach while supporting community and individual involvement.

"The other crucial dimension to Orwell's socialism was his recognition that the Soviet Union was not socialist. Unlike many on the left, instead of abandoning socialism once he discovered the full horror of Stalinist rule in the Soviet Union, Orwell abandoned the Soviet Union and instead remained a socialist—indeed he became more committed to the socialist cause than ever." - John Newsinger

It's also funny that so many prudish people cling to 1984 when they often have more alike with the Junior Anti-Sex League of the novel then they do Orwell. He was homophobic, so that could be the where they try to grasp straws. His homophobia was also no where near that of those trying to oppresse the queer community while trying to spin Orwell for their own agenda. He didn't like those "sandal wearing" "sex maniacs" of the sexual revolution (straight or gay) but no where could I find him supporting any sort of state oppression against anyone. Some one being prejudice (Orwell) is one issue, but some bigot pushing oppression by the state (the GOP for example) is a major issue.

Interesting note, one of the queer writers that Orwell would talk down about, Stephen Spender, (I'm not sure there was any true hatred between them) believed "Orwell's occasional homophobic outbursts were part of his rebellion against the public school". Remember the public school system he speaks of his not the one we have now.

He was against perpetual war (he would had supported the withdraws from the Middle East), he would had been disgusted by those trying to push survilance on teachers over their ignorance on "critical race theory", and he would had supported teaching accurate history (which many seem to think is "CRT"). He sure the fuck would had been disgusted by the cult of personality that is MAGA.

He was very much against the poverty that is caused by exploitation of the classes.

He spoke of Stalin's censorship not of a private company not allowing a user to share disinformation or hate propaganda. You are not being arrested for a Tweet. Unless you call for violence, you are highly unlikely to see any actual censorship from the government, even then the US gov often looks the other way. A school library deciding to not put a book on their shelves is not censorship, this does still happen to literature on "both sides" (if you only look at life in left or right). If the government makes a book illegal, that censorship. Not offering you a soap box? Not censorship. Should a public or school library not put a book on their shelf? Depends and I'll leave that debate up to the locals, but it's still not censorship. Down votes? Not censorship the censorship Orwell was talking about.

So in a nut shell, Orwell would had been disgusted by the right wingers and even more of the far right wingers spinning his words for their bigotry and disinformation. He supported anarchy and democratic socialism.

Maybe read "Why I Write" by Orwell. It's an essay written in 1946 about how he dislikes totalitarianism (the real shit not you upset cos you were asked to wear a mask during a pandemic or shop somewhere else) and how he supported Democratic Socialism (that thing many people claim is "cOmMunNism").

"Big Brother" can be "left" or "right".

There is this idea that our government is trying to exploit pleasure instead of using the boot. If this were true NYPD wouldn't be chocking people to death over petty crimes. If this were true we wouldn't had just ended a 20 year war. People may gamble and enjoy porn, but that's called liberty. In general the US goverment stays out of the gambling industry or pornography industry unless they are regulating it (usually heavily) or trying to stop it. When the government starts handing out MDMA like it's throwing a rave and jack off videos like it's a creepy box in your Uncle's basement, (tho thats a bit more Huxley) I would not at all compare it to the "mind control" or emotional control written about in the novel 1984, especially since Orwell was writting about Nazis and Stalin's Soviet Union, which he did not consider socialist.

I would compare the internet to Huxley's dystopia (Brave New World) over Orwell. Orwell's dystopia had everything heavily controlled while Huxley had too much info to the point it was difficult to tell what was accurate. No, Facebook pretending to care about covid disinfo and not allowing it in order to protect their finances does not count.

I also find it interesting that many white wash Orwell for some agenda and the idea of "Newspeak" while pushing for political memespeak that is very similar. I wouldn't say political memespeaking is Newspeak but it can be.

Orwell was a prudice dick at times but he would had spat in the direction of the far right wingers trying to twist his words. He wasn't being a prophet, he was pointing out shit that was happening during his life and history doesn't repeat itself but it can play many of the same notes over and over again. He hated Stalin. He hated Hitler. He sure the fuck did not hate socialism and anarchy.

Support "socialism" or actual socialism is your choice but stop pretending that George Orwell wasn't one or that he would support half the shit people say he would. He is very clear in his essays about how he felt politically.

Stop cherry picking parts of his work while ingnoring the rest of its context.

Also, stop clinging to the thoughts of dead men so hard.

If you're curious, if I had to label myself politically Libertarian Socialist with anarchist tendacies.

Now back to our regularlyhalf assed scheduled non-political postings.

https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/European_Unity/english/e_teu

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/why-i-write/

https://dleybz.medium.com/orwell-was-a-socialist-e444d34f3fbe