> No, they are popular because someone who lived 80+ years ago got it right, when all the Pompous People got it wrong. When everyone who was anyone was a Commun

> No, they are popular because someone who lived 80+ years ago got it right, when all the Pompous People got it wrong. When everyone who was anyone was a Communist and thought Stalin was just great, and the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War was the essence of Purest Virtue. What did he get right? His analysis of the Soviet Union that we read is Animal Farm is plain Trotskyism. I don't see any original thought. The idea that all would have been well if just Trotsky instead of Stalin won the power struggle does not hold up to any serious thought. If anything "mister world revolution" would have been by far the worse alternative. What did the POUM, that weird Trotzkyist faction that he joined in the civil war, achieve again? Nothing. If anything the Republican movement suffered from lack of unity. Those weird sectarian splitter groups did more harm than good. > Really now? Before 1948? If you wouldn't mind, please enumerate those "substantial" things and tell us who did them all better, before Orwell. We could always cite the classic Brave New World but how about The Iron Heel by Jack London which perfectly predicted the rise of fascism. So many better takes out there.