The Humanist's Anthony Lock on why Christopher Hitchens' overwhelming hatred of totalitarianism puts him squarely in Orwell's tradition of leftist apostasy: "Try as best as you can, he challenged us, to not allow one belief to squander clear thinking about another … [or] a kind of worship whereby anything deemed negative against the topic or person, even the act of criticizing, is illicit. This is totalitarian, he warned: a control over one's head and what can be said, creating corrosive preconceptions."
Hitchens and Orwell
George Orwell on the real meaning of Animal Farm: get rid of the pigs
Like most Americans, I was forced to read George Orwell's Animal Farm at some point in high school. And, like most Americans, I was taught as part of that public… READ THE REST
Similarities between Tolkien and Orwell
Superficially, Tolkien and Orwell pose in opposition: Tolkien the devout Catholic buried in English origins, Orwell the committed Socialist unraveling English outcomes. But much was shared, writes Darcy Moore, in… READ THE REST
China has a very Orwellian reason for banning typing "1984" on social media, while allowing people to read Nineteen Eighty-Four
Chinese internet users can't type the numbers "1984" into social media, but Chinese bookstores freely sell copies of Orwell's novels, including Nineteen Eighty-Four, as well as other books whose titles… READ THE REST
Microsoft Office Pro 2021 is down to $29.97, plus free training
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Pay once for Microsoft Office Pro 2021 and get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, and more —… READ THE REST
Make ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools work better for you with this $30 prompt tool
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Go from idea to an optimized prompt in seconds with this lifetime subscription to Prompting Systems,… READ THE REST
Make an old PC feel new again with this $10 Windows 11 Pro deal
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Give your PC a major productivity boost with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license, now just… READ THE REST
