The Abysyan problems ...

[archaeolept]

Hee, hee, hee. Orwell was a liberal (subspecies socialist) before he wised up. 1984 is a warning against letting those sorts of people take power

ooh, i can't let this horrible misconception, very common in the US though nowhere else, stand.

Orwell was always a socialist, and never gave any indication of ceasing to be one. But he was on the libertarian wing of Socialism; ie. democratic and liberal, like many modern european socialist parties. He hated all forms of authoritarianism; fascism and communism most notably, but imperialism and the authoritarian tendencies in capitalist democracy aas well.

In fact, in Spain, he fought w/ P.O.U.M., an Anarchist militia.

However, in the 80's in the U.S., a number of american rightists (many of them ex-trotskyists who would eventually become known as the neo-conservatives, such as irving kristol) attempted to appropriate him to their Version of anti-communist conservatism. The anti-communism was accurate; nothing else was.