Thread by @buffsoldier_96

Everyone professes to love Orwell, or at least the version
Orwell they see. But this wasn't always the case. There was a time when he wasn't that well known and actually not that popular, particularly on the Left.

One reason I admire Orwell is because I think he would follow an argument to its full conclusion so long as it was arrived at honestly & honourably. Even if he was uncomfortable with it, or it might offend his friends he would stick by it. Sounds easy but its hard to practice.

His critique of Stalinism in the 30s & 40s was very necessary for the left especially as leftists were pressed at the time to support the USSR because its encircled by fascism & capitalist imperialism & you shouldn't criticise it in public because that is giving ammo to the enemy

Orwell thought that was rubbish because that would be sacrificing what makes a radical radical which is independence of mind and its the height of delusion to ignore what was going on in the USSR because it didn't fit your worldview. Stalinism was as much the enemy as fascism.

Again this was very difficult to do in the 30s & 40s and its why Orwell spent so much time focusing his efforts on critiquing Stalinism because many leftists including honourable ones like Du Bois & Robeson *genuinely* saw the USSR as a haven of liberation & progress.

There is a section of the left even now that still hates Orwell's guts. For example Alexander Cockburn always had an axe to grind with Orwell for basically exposing his dad as a fellow traveller for his Spain reportage or Michael Parenti calling him an "anti-Communist snitch".

They think he was too angry, too insistent, too public in airing the left's dirty laundry in relation to Stalinism like he broke some implicit leftist omerta. You can, most of the time, detect a neo-Stalinist type through their reaction to George Orwell. Its often a big clue.