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Does Orwell’s 1984 belong to the left or the right? (thespinoff.co.nz)

submitted 2 days ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/fiction

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I think the author’s intent was for 1984 to be read as anticommunist propaganda.

Previously:

Orwell was often disparaging the Soviet Union.

He was also a racist, antisemitic, homophobic, backstabbing snitch: Orwell's list.

He was also an imperial enforcer in British-occupied Burma. “I loved Burma and the Burman and have no regrets that I spent the best years of my life in the Burma police.”

Animal Farm was Cold War agitprop, which the CIA airdropped on eastern Europe, and they made it into an animated film that you may have seen. The CIA funded the film adaptation of 1984 as well.

More receipts here.

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I think the author’s intent was for 1984 to be read as anticommunist propaganda.

He had to flee Spain to avoid being arrested by Stalinists in the Spanish civil war, when they suddenly declared their Anarchist and Trotskyist allies (whom Orwell was fighting alongside) to be 'Secret fascists' [1] and began to round them up to for uh... Fun times by all.

So yeah that tracks.

[1] Homage to Catalonia, Chapters 10 and 11

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I’m aware; I’ve read it. Considering everything else about Orwell, I don’t think he was a very reliable narrator of events during the civil war.