emma's Reviews > Animal Farm

i'm sure this book was very good when it came out in 19whatever (i could check this but warning - i am going to spend this review being as annoying as possible to a certain group), but it's way, way better now.

in whatever time of the 20th century this came out during, this was thought to be written in opposition to stalinist russia. that's fine. whatever. not exactly a hot take for a white guy from the western world to be anti-USSR.

but now...now it's abundantly clear.

if it weren't already obvious that this book is written about how bad totalitarianism is (as opposed to being specifically about communism), take a look at the world around us, then check it against orwell's political views, then come back to me.

a certain political faction (of evil morons) in my certain country i live in (take a wild guess) likes to call certain things (the ones that are against them) "orwellian."

nonwhite people entering your country? orwellian. having to be nice to others and not call them slurs? orwellian. the idea of people not appreciating your opinions and thereby being "anti-free speech" (even though that is not what free speech is)? orwellian.

ignoring the fact that the very idea of their using the word orwellian to serve their purposes is far more, well, orwellian, i'll just come out and say it: because people on the right don't know how to read, they haven't ever actually really thought about or analyzed either this or 1984. so they assume that george orwell is on their side - the pro-rich getting richer and anti-poor not being poor side.

but, my dear conservative friends, orwell was an outspoken democratic socialist from top to bottom.

so maybe pick one of the copious number of far-right classic authors to support your dumbass point.

oh? there aren't really any to be found?

bummer. maybe next millennium.

part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago and either make myself or others angry