Orwell's book's structure was dictated by the publishers, but I still love the content. My allusion was because I am wondering why the description needs to insult pure mathematics in order to promote Street Fighting Mathematics.
And similarly to Orwell's book, it seems like Street Fighting Mathematics does actually have interesting content, despite whatever the reason may be that they need an "antidote" for general mathematics.
I think the author meant the same thing as Feynman when he described the "Greek" and "Babylonian" approaches to mathematics.
For all but a select few (pure mathematicians), the "Babylonian" approach is a lot more fun. Both approaches are clearly necessary and useful in different settings.
With the advent of systems like the Lean theorem prover, the two approaches may start to see a lot more overlap.
And similarly to Orwell's book, it seems like Street Fighting Mathematics does actually have interesting content, despite whatever the reason may be that they need an "antidote" for general mathematics.