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Orwell is a fantastic example. He's also a profoundly amusing example, since quoting him is inversely correlated with (1) actually agreeing with his politics, and (2) familiarity with (dystopian) fiction outside of a 10th grade English class.


It seems blatantly accusing everyone mentioning Orwell of being uneducated and misinformed has itself become a meme. Sadly the effect of the unprovoked and needless regurgitation of such ad-hominems is that people regret mentioning him, even when, as you yourself proclaim, the mentioning is perfectly valid.


Everyone is uneducated and misinformed, but some are more uneducated and misinformed than others!


Despite being a socialist, Orwell was very critical of the socialists of his time (especially the Soviets and Spanish communists), to the extent that he gradually became a Labour reformist later in life. In all, his most significant contribution, as he himself perceived it, was opposition to totalitarianism and to the corruption of language and thought by the political Left. On that, one can certainly "agree with his politics" without agreeing with all of it.


I would argue that he was in opposition to the corruption of language and thought period. It doesn't matter by whom. It does not matter if those who abuse other are fascists, communists or capitalists. Left and Right are not sane political words, they are the very thing he criticized.

Orwell was a well reflected critical thinker and he spent a lot of time studying propaganda, social-political-philosophy and the life and reality of the lower class. He was a social-liberal but not a free-market-libertarian. These words have far more meaning then left and right. But more even then a social-liberal he was against "ideological-identity-ism" for lack of a better word.

Those who believe he was primarily an author of dystopian fiction should probably read "The Road to Wigan Pier" for some dystopian non-fiction. Those who claim to know his political opinions should read his collected essays. Anyone who can think critically will not not agree with all of them, but the world would be a better place if more people agreed with some of them.




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