Prison Planet Orwell Stupidity

Battersea bedroom dweller Paul Watson, UK representative for the unfeasibly batshit Alex Jones and his InfoWars conspiracy mongers, is well known as someone seriously out of touch with reality. But he has outdone himself with his latest combination of pretentiousness, ignorance and baseless braggadocio, and on a subject of his own choice, which on this occasion was Eric Blair, aka George Orwell.

Cloughie says He's A Clown, Young Man

Watson cannot just stay in his lane and spout far-right conspiracy nonsense: he must also impress on others the scale of his intellect, however pitifully small it be. And so it came to pass that his frustration boiled over with Twitter truth-telling historian Mike Stuchbery, only to end up looking like a clown (no change there, then).

The peddler of alternate reality had been courting disaster for some time with his claim to know what Orwell would have thought: after Stuchbery pointed out that the author had gone to fight fascists in Spain, and was therefore the definition of “antifa”, he scoffed “George Orwell would have supported Antifa … This is someone who has never read any fucking Orwell … 8,000 retweets? I truly despair”. And he was only getting started.

Stuchbery now pointed out what “antifa” meant - that it was short for “anti-fascist” - which Watson was, not for the first time, unable to comprehend. He therefore had to dismiss the idea: “Getting triggered by my charming northern accent won't prove that Orwell would have supported Antifa, you silly twat … Must. Try. Harder”.

The Roy Rogers tribute act then turned his attention to Hillary Clinton’s new book, which was by definition A Very Bad Thing: “This is nearly as dumb as saying Orwell, who supported unpopular free speech, would have joined Antifa, who burn signs saying ‘free speech’”. No Paul, they don’t. That’s what you InfoWars clowns pretend they do.

His inability to tell the difference between InfoWars propaganda and reality continued, as he snapped back at another Tweeter trying to let him down slowly. “‘George Orwell was Antifa’ … Odd, I've read all his books … Don’t recall anything about him donning a mask & attacking people in wheelchairs”. InfoWars propaganda is not reality, Paul. Hey ho.

But it was when he once again snarked at Stuchbery that the moment of reality hit home. After he sneered “Still peddling ‘Orwell would have joined Antifa’ Mikey? Leave the history books alone for now & read some fucking Orwell”, Mitch Benn had had enough.

“Orwell literally DID join Antifa and wrote a whole fucking book about it called Homage To Catalonia, you impenetrably thick child” he snapped. It is true that Orwell served in the struggle against Franco’s fascists, being shot through the throat by a sniper for his trouble. It is also more or less certain that had the likes of Paul Watson been in Spain any time between the late 1930s and mid 1970s, they would spoken freely only at the risk of being forcibly disappeared at dead of night. That’s where opposing “antifa” leads you.

Paul Watson talks the talk. It’s only a pity that his memory of all that Orwell he read has somehow eluded him. So when he tries to walk the walk, he falls flat on his face.