Christine Lemmer-WebberOct 8

It's really fucking insulting that Musk wore that "What Would Orwell Think?" shirt, itself Orwellian. Especially because we actually *know* what Orwell would think.

I've been reading a lot of Orwell's articles and letters from around 1939-1943 and it's really eerie just how much aligns. Orwell was writing for left-leaning newsletters that literally called themselves "anti-fascist" and was more afraid than anything about the world domination of fascism and nazi'ism.

Show threadChristine Lemmer-WebberOct 8

We know what Orwell would think because Orwell was literally writing about many of the same things that are happening right now, just 90 years earlier. He's very clear about what he thinks, and when he writes, you realize just how many of the same things are happening *right now*.

It's right there. We know what Orwell would think. He wrote about it.

Show threadChristine Lemmer-WebberOct 8
I'm thinking of writing a blogpost with excerpts of Orwell's writing from the period because it's incredibly prescient and eerie and insightful and I am learning a lot by reading it.
Show threadChristine Lemmer-WebberOct 8

If you want to read what Orwell thought, there is a book written from this exact time frame prescient to this moment in history collecting Orwell's letters: "My Country, Left to Right"

I highly recommend getting a copy

EDIT: copy here https://orwell.ru/library/articles/My_Country/english/e_mcrol (thx @Greg ) though that's only of one of the letters. There's many others in the *book* "My Country, Left to Right"

Show threadChristine Lemmer-Webber
If you read nothing else of Orwell's writings, read this review of his of Mein Kampf https://bookmarks.reviews/george-orwells-1940-review-of-mein-kampf/
George Orwell's 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

Book Marks
Oct 8 at 3:01pmWeb
Show threadChristine Lemmer-WebberOct 8
Most of Orwell's writings here: https://orwell.ru/library/index_en
Show threadAJ SadauskasOct 10
@cwebber Amazing summary.

The only thing I'd add is we know what he'd think because *he voluntarily enlisted* on the side of the Anarchists against Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War.

He even wrote a whole bloody book about it. Homage to Catalonia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia - Wikipedia

Show threadJared White (ResistanceNet ✊)Oct 8

@cwebber The man could write.

(I read 1984 once, when I was much younger, and it is the most frightening thing I've ever read in my life. The ending still haunts me…)

Show threadJules 🍺Oct 8
@jaredwhite @cwebber I could not finish 1984, tried reading some of the appendices about things like minispeak, absolutely terrifying 😔
Show threadBill HookerOct 8
@cwebber I think people are drawn to struggle and sacrifice because it gives them a sense of meaning without having to think too deeply about what that meaning IS. I wish they would so willingly struggle and sacrifice to end war, mend the environment and cure disease. It's been tried -- war on cancer, and so forth -- but like Orwell's tin pacifists, it won't do. Why? WHY???
Show threadEmB PhiloOct 8
@sennoma @cwebber
What if the ‘tin #pacifists have already died a on few hills; even significant ones, and the #dystopia is accelerating like an avalanche of boulders?
Show threadChristine MalecOct 11
@cwebber Few, that was chilling...