Reminder that George Orwell hated communism, was not a leftist. He had better reason than most of us. In the Spanish Civil War he fought with the POUM who were attacked by the Stalinists. First slandered in the news as traitors, and then in a full-scale assault in Barcelona. https://twitter.com/adotson12/status/1215031653086715904

The P.O.U.M were Trotskyist, though Orwell claims he only “fell in with them” as a reporter for the war, and he saw first hand the Communist news reports that they were murderers and traitors, which he knew was a lie, he had fought with them and took a bullet in the neck

While Orwell called himself a socialist before the war, this was mostly based on his experiences with the working class in the poor parts of England, whose only redemption he thought would be socialism

He went to Spain to report on the War and ended up fighting with the anarchists and communists. It was here that he was given first hand experience of the traitorous, murderous, power hungry nature of true communism. He came to oppose it the rest of his life

1984 and Animal Farm are NOT about “totalitarianism,” but about *Communism* He knew how dangerous its spread would be and he advised Jospeh McCarthy on how to prosecute communists

Don’t let anyone tell you different: Orwell is NOT a leftist. He was one, but when he saw what it was really about, he made his life’s mission to oppose it