Gotta admit that i had a slightly more forgiving reading of the novel, and assumed it was the main characters alienation from the rest of society, and him still being stuck in the indoctrination of the party, that resulted in him being unable to see the proles as people.

I always had the idea that Winston had a lot of prejudice, doomed to failure because the party had programmed people to such a degree that even a would be revolutionary would act according to their idea of a revolutionary, and be easily caught and executed, or broken down again. After all, a revolution without support from the proletariat would be pretty much completely toothless, so making anyone within the party incapable of understanding them and gaining their support is a pretty good guard against party members taking advantage of their privileged position to help overthrow the party.

Since the book was not written from the point of view of a prole, we only have the word of a smug git like Winston to go by regarding how they really act. If a prole exhibited revolutionary tendencies, they were probably dealt with in some similar way, also indoctrinated to revolt in a controllable manner, or, as they existed outside of the party, probably just found by secret informants, and obliterated with overwhelming force.

But, it was a few years ago that I read it, and I was one of those people who smugly told people to read it all the time, no matter how relevant it was to the conversation.

I was such a smug little git. And I know I sometimes give Orwell more leeway than he probably deserves.