[darkwing104]

History shows that in the last 100 years most (if not all) Socialist Revolutions were led by Intellectuals who never got their hands dirty in their lives (Outside of propaganda posters)

[Niuhuru]

Only initially. Lenin lead the government for a while, but then Stalin came along. I don’t think Stalin was an academic.

[shibumi]

I don’t think the term “intellectual” applies to these people outside of their own megalomanical fantasies.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Hitler was a war hero, Stalin was a bank robber, Mao was a soldier in the army that brought down the Quin Dynasty. Lenin was radicalised by the execution of his elder brother for plotting to kill the Tsar.
Not trying to suggest that these guys were admirable, but they weren’t quite in the same league as the effete intellectual ‘radicals’ Orwell was refering to, who strut and preen as self-imagined revolutionaries whilst living in a privileged bubble that makes their ‘rebel without a clue’ attitude seem so ridiculous...