[pjc50]

The problem with a lot of conservative journos is their inability to make the distinction between left-wing political thoughts, tending to lump everything under "socialism". This renders them unable to understand why Orwell was a left-wing anti-communist and in particular anti Stalin.

This is like dealing with the kind of writer who thinks that java and javascript are the same thing.

Similarly part of what makes Orwell both interesting and entertaining to read is him skewering some of the excesses of the left of his time, without fundamentally being hostile to egalitarianism. It's criticism because he wants a better left, not a non-existent one.

[thundergolfer]

> anti-communist

I don't think he was. He was anti-Stalinist, stemming from anti-totalitarianism, but I don't he was generally hostile to communism.

> without fundamentally being hostile to egalitarianism

Which puts it much less forcefully that you could. Orwell was a socialist. He fought with the Marxist POUM in the Spanish Civil War. He was fundamentally pro-egalitarianism and dedicated his life in a big way to egalitarianism as realised by Socialism.