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What are your thoughts on people who are against pacifism? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by الله@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

A prototypic Red-basher who pretended to be on the Left was George Orwell. In the middle of World War II, as the Soviet Union was fighting for its life against the Nazi invaders at Stalingrad, Orwell announced that a "willingness to criticize Russia and Stalin is the test of intellectual honesty. It is the only thing that from a literary intellectual's point of view is really dangerous" (Monthly Review, 5/83). Safely ensconced within a virulently anticommunist society, Orwell (with Orwellian doublethink) characterized the condemnation of communism as a lonely courageous act of defiance. Today, his ideological progeny are still at it, offering themselves as intrepid left critics of the Left, waging a valiant struggle against imaginary Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist hordes.

m. parenti from blackshirts and reds

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 18 hours ago

I mean, he went to Spain to fight in the civil war on the side of the Socialists (it was soc v fasc)

[–] Famko@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Sure, that's an interpretation of George Orwell's ideology, but what's your take on the quote?

[–] mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

That Orwell was guilty of the very same thing he is decrying in the quote

[–] Famko@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

Isn't he decrying the fact that not taking up arms (or advocating for) against an aggressor, such as Nazi Germany, is specifically pro-fascist, because it allows to do anything they want unopposed.

Meanwhile your quote highlights the fact that Orwell thought that being honest about the Soviet Union and its critiques in political discussions is a mark of intellectual honesty, which isn't really pro-fascist, since you can critique the United States and still be anti-communist after all.