this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Right at the beginning of the book, it says most of the surveillance state is pointed at government employees and that it doesn't matter too much what the average workers say and think. But for some reason, nobody responds well when I remind them of that.
Yeah 1984's assessment of the average worker is basically that they are meat robots who have no effect on the world and that it doesn't matter what they do or think because nobody does or should give them or their affairs the slightest thought
Orwell was a "socialist" though
Bri*ish socialism has always been deeply aristocratic at its core and Orwell can't help but exemplify that colonial cop mentality in his writing
His interview with Stalin is hilarious, and it's very interesting to see Stalin calmly explain himself to a dunce.
Agreed.
Full transcription of the interview here.
Audio narration from Socialism For All here.
goddamit, yet another tally in the "modern US is where Britain was a century ago" column
hot damn Stalin really has a firmer grasp on English history than the englishman
"The material conditions are such that the treatlerite strata of society is demanding more treats because their treat allocation has been somewhat reduced.
Therefore a materialist analysis of the political situation is uncalled for given that these people are demanding more treats. Also I got invited to the king's court to speak to him, which further proves my point somehow. The only conclusion that can be gleaned from this is that class conflict, which is based on material conditions, can be abandoned as it is deprecated by the current material conditions and it is trumped by the centrality of idealism."
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The same guy who refers to the working class as sheep in animal farm.
Oh that's interesting. I'm gonna use that next time.
I read 1984 when I was young so it's been a long time and I never really got into it so it didn't leave a big enough impression on me that I could recall more than the broad brush strokes so this is handy info to have at my disposal.
At the risk of coming off as stuffy, I'm not a big fan of the internet neologisms because they're kinda cringey and we already have so many good euphemisms that we could use instead. (I guess it says something about literacy when the discourse demands a single word replacement which is prosaic instead of using something that has a little bit of metaphorical flair to it.) It always baffles me that someone who is mildly opposed to those neologisms, who refuses to use them, and who also is a very vocal critic of Orwell that takes any opportunity to shit on him ends up being the #1 defender of Orwell's work and of internet neologisms.
I really don't want to be in that position lol
Honestly... I never finished it. Made it through the first coupla chapters for a high school class, and I bullshitted my way through the rest of the group discussion. From what I gathered, I had read more of it than most of the other students.
I did finish it but it was a hell of a grind and there was nothing notable about the final act that it left any impression on me so I doubt you missed out on anything.
1984 really felt like Orwell had a hot idea for a dystopia so he wrote the world and then... idk that was about it. The End.
It's worse, he really hated the Soviet Union and used any tiny excuse or premise he could invent as an opportunity to "criticize" it, including during WW2 (notably, he did not do this to the fascists of the time). You can tell because he truly tortures the plot and setting of 1984 to make sure you couldn't possibly mistake the antagonists for fascists or any other ideology than his warped view of the USSR. If you haven't read the Isaac Asimov review of 1984, it's worth reading. He makes this point a lot better than I could.
The review you mentioned, in case anyone wants to read it.
I know that everyone here is probably already aware of this but, on the odd chance that someone isn't already, did you know that Orwell not only straight up plagiarised the concept for the story of Animal Farm but he also decided that, instead of the story being an anti-nazi, it would be better if it was an anti-Soviet parable instead?
Very likely. It's not actually a very good book.
I find it so weird how people don't just use sayings, like "punched his own ticket" or "caught the bus" or something new, and instead make a coinage that is comically crass in its grasp on language (De-alived would be more appropriate, for example).
I'm really partial to "clocking out early" but I'm totally with you on this.
I haven't looked into this but my hunch is that since it's very online terminology that it's probably an adaptation of unsubscribe, hence the un- prefix.