He's antisemitic, homophobic, and racist. Specifically, he snitched out Jews, Black people, Homosexuals, and communists to British Intelligence. His list, here, includes him writing:
8 variations of “Jewish?” (Charlie Chaplin), “Polish Jew, (Tom Driberg)” “English Jew,” or “Jewess.”
Paul Robeson - "ROBESON, Paul (US Negro) ...Very anti-white. [Henry] Wallace supporter."
Paul Robeson wasn't anti-white, just look at the welsh coal miners for whom Robeson Campaigned.
The testimony of Paul Robeson (one of the people Orwell snitched on), to HUAC (House of Unamerican activities committee) during the red scare.
Stephen Spender - "Sentimental sympathiser... Tendency towards homosexuality"
Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish nationalist poet, and anti-imperialist.
George Padmore, Trinidadian journalist and anti-imperialist campaigner.
His books Animal Farm and 1984 are used widely as anti-communist propaganda in schools in the US and UK. So much so that his animated animal farm film was funded by the CIA . There's a reason they teach George Orwell in schools and not Franz Fanon, Che, Huey P Newton, Malcolm X, Lenin, CLR James, etc.
(Why do you people defending him as having communist value think you know better than the CIA? I think they know how to fight communism, tyvm.)
The point stands. There are child accessible novels that look positively on communism, anarchist systems, etc. I can't think of any off the top of my head. Steinbeck is the closest I can come but his works weren't really explicitly pro-communist so much as sympathetic to the plight of working people and critical of the system's flaws.
And there is a reason why certain books are so widely read. Yes an individual teacher or school with "progressive" administrations can set curriculum that involves books that challenge the American consensus but widely and broadly these books (Orwell) are popular, are recommended, are demanded or strongly encouraged by school board policy, are bulk bought, are included in study guides and teacher materials. Same thing with the Ayn Rand trash, purchasing of which is often funded by large donations by libertarian "think" tanks and private businesses. Books are a racket. School books especially so and many schools still use overly worn, quite old books because they simply cannot afford to replace them. A teacher who wants to assign reading typically must have enough copies of that book for everyone in the class plus themselves. That's often 25-30 or more books.
What's so bad about George Orwell?
He's antisemitic, homophobic, and racist. Specifically, he snitched out Jews, Black people, Homosexuals, and communists to British Intelligence. His list, here, includes him writing:
8 variations of “Jewish?” (Charlie Chaplin), “Polish Jew, (Tom Driberg)” “English Jew,” or “Jewess.”
Paul Robeson - "ROBESON, Paul (US Negro) ...Very anti-white. [Henry] Wallace supporter."
Paul Robeson wasn't anti-white, just look at the welsh coal miners for whom Robeson Campaigned.
The testimony of Paul Robeson (one of the people Orwell snitched on), to HUAC (House of Unamerican activities committee) during the red scare.
Stephen Spender - "Sentimental sympathiser... Tendency towards homosexuality"
Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish nationalist poet, and anti-imperialist.
George Padmore, Trinidadian journalist and anti-imperialist campaigner.
His books Animal Farm and 1984 are used widely as anti-communist propaganda in schools in the US and UK. So much so that his animated animal farm film was funded by the CIA . There's a reason they teach George Orwell in schools and not Franz Fanon, Che, Huey P Newton, Malcolm X, Lenin, CLR James, etc. (Why do you people defending him as having communist value think you know better than the CIA? I think they know how to fight communism, tyvm.)
Orwell, anti-communist: A criticism of Orwell and his Work - By Isaac Asimov.
Orwell - "I have never really disliked Hitler."
Rainer Shea - Orwells 1984 - Anti-communist propaganda.
Orwell worked as a British imperial cop in Burma for 5 years. His short story, Shooting an Elephant, uses ethnic slurs and denigrates burmese people.
A reddit thread on George Orwell, Thread #2.
He attempted to commit a rape.
Originally posted by reddit user parentis_shotgun.
In fairness I don't believe any of these other people ever wrote books that could be read and comprehended by middle schoolers.
I admit I haven't actually read any of the works of any of these people. Yet. I will, I promise
The point stands. There are child accessible novels that look positively on communism, anarchist systems, etc. I can't think of any off the top of my head. Steinbeck is the closest I can come but his works weren't really explicitly pro-communist so much as sympathetic to the plight of working people and critical of the system's flaws.
And there is a reason why certain books are so widely read. Yes an individual teacher or school with "progressive" administrations can set curriculum that involves books that challenge the American consensus but widely and broadly these books (Orwell) are popular, are recommended, are demanded or strongly encouraged by school board policy, are bulk bought, are included in study guides and teacher materials. Same thing with the Ayn Rand trash, purchasing of which is often funded by large donations by libertarian "think" tanks and private businesses. Books are a racket. School books especially so and many schools still use overly worn, quite old books because they simply cannot afford to replace them. A teacher who wants to assign reading typically must have enough copies of that book for everyone in the class plus themselves. That's often 25-30 or more books.