• soft [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    To say a few words about this, we have here our friend and Definitely Real Socialist, Comrade Orwell. Come on up.

    England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to sremoved at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box. All through the critical years many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British. It is questionable how much effect this had, but it certainly had some. If the English people suffered for several years a real weakening of morale, so that the Fascist nations judged that they were ‘decadent’ and that it was safe to plunge into war, the intellectual sabotage from the Left was partly responsible.

    Wow George, um... wow. :rust-darkness:

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Reactionaries of all imperialist nations believe this about their own country. You will hear the exact same whining in Germany, in France, even in the US, even though all of these are marked by being incredibly full of themselves and having their own brand of megalomaniac national exceptionalism.

      George Orwell was just an all around garbage human being, this is just as much evidence of that as his anti-communist main works, his inability to shoot at his fellow nazis in the Spanish Civil War, him having served as a colonial cop in India, him sexually assaulting his own cousin, his snitching on British leftists complete with anti-semitism and homophobia and so on and so on. Fuck George Orwell and fuck all the artless, bloodless drivel he's written.

      Oh, and also, fuck the UK and burn all of London to the ground. It is extremist NOT to hate the English.

      • Sharon [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Thanks for saying this, I fully agree. I tried so hard to make sense of his writings and life because the mainstream "leftish" sphere holds him in such high regard. I know now that he is kept front and center in order to absorb the energy of young leftists. It would be too dangerous if people found more authentic idols to emulate...

        • emizeko [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          you might have already read these but I found them really good

          https://redsails.org/on-orwell/

          https://redsails.org/jones-on-animal-farm/

    • glimmer_twin [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      that it is a duty to sremoved at every

      My drunk brain has been trying to figure out what triggered the filter in this sentence

      Edit: oh. Oh god. I figured it out.

      • soft [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        https://archive.ph/zDFxK

        I don't recommend reading it. All I could think while reading it was that Orwell was at best being a raging patsoc for an empire that rivalled even the US for its monstrousness. :pathetic:

    • AcidSmiley [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Tory leadership is full of pick me ultra-assimilationists like him. All trying to be "one of the good ones". See also Maggie Thatcher, or Sunak's main competitor Liz Truss, or former competitor and TERF attorney general Suella Braverman, and sho on and sho on. I'm sure their fellow Torys love all of them for "not being easily offended" at slurs and "being able to take a joke" at their people's expense.

      England needs to be reduced to cinders.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Diaspora populations can be host to some of the biggest Uncle Toms (or local equivalent) around. After all, many of them had the choice of where to go and chose to go to Britain.

      • ButtBidet [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I REALLY hate to comment on India, as I know fuck all. But every reactionary Indian I meet has a super sus class background. Like his grandfather was a huge landlord before land reform, or their family were brahman.

        I guess this fits most reactionaries I meet anyhow.

        • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I'm basing my post on what I've experienced with various East Asian diaspora populations. Ofc each place and group of people has their different historical and materialistic circumstances and I don't intend my post to be anything except the broadest generalization.

          • ButtBidet [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Oh, I'm more adding to what you're saying than disagreeing with you. I've totally seen many immigrant populations as full of chuds. I suspect that the barrier to entry for non whites is higher, more money makes it easier to immigrate, and being a leftist would make it hard to get a visa.

            The most obvious examples would seem to be Cuban Americans and many overseas Vietnamese. (sorry to generalise)

            • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Yeah I think your analysis is reasonable for many groups. I'll just add that Cuban Americans and Vietnamese Americans are a little different since they're fleeing from a socialist country so are already more likely to be enemies of that country's revolutionary government.

    • cawsby [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Indian Americans can be MAGA/Modi dual nationalist types.

    • Fishroot [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      consider how India's today's caste system is maintained by the Brits, people at the top of the caste are also the ones who are part of the diaspora.

  • Sen_Jen [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    What's he gonna do, out every single Irish person in prison?

  • mazdak
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    deleted by creator

  • star_wraith [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    So China's de-radicalization programs in Xinjiang are evil commie genocides and slave labor. But this is OK somehow...

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Lmfao rip literally every member of greenandpleasant.

  • edwardligma [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    okay but what about people with non-extreme hatred of britain? like people with only an appropriate and proportional amount of eternal teeth-grinding rage at its very existence and only occasional ideation of weeping tears of joy as it sinks into the sea, those people will be fine right?

    asking for a friend

    • Commander_Data [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think that would be a really cool defense at trial, actually. Have your lawyer just lay out all of the rotten shit that Britain is for.

  • VILenin [he/him]M
    ·
    2 years ago

    The camp guards will be teenagers wearing funny hats as they die of heatstroke from standing in one place while the entire cursed island melts into a homogenous liquid blob

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Nah, British people hate teenagers too much to even make them concentration camp guards. Honestly it’s more likely they’d put all teenagers in the country into the camps.

  • Fishroot [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    In North Korea, the Koreans are forced to worship their country and leaders. They are sent to the gulag if they show disloyalty.

    • Grimble [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Get ready for media outlets to mysteriously find "rehabilitative" qualities in it when that happens. And for any criticism of it to be taken as malicious.

      I can imagine regular people laughing this off if the UK does it. But since America is the top dog right now (or thinks they are) and inherited the old Empire's global information monopoly, things would totally get more complicated.

  • betelgeuse [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    If you ever get cornered just say "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" and they'll think you're on their side.

    • Homestar440 [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Ooo, just call your People’s Liberation Army “Dumbledore’s Army” and you might could do a revolution