Animal Farm : Slogans and Gaslighting

[GollyGoshGreat]

Until yesterday I’d never read any of Orwell’s Animal Farm. When I got to the ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ sheep chant, I immediately recognised the parallel with ‘TWAW’ slogan. Moving on to the gaslighting of the animals when the pigs move into the house and alter the seven commandments, I shuddered.

Wondering if anyone else had thought about this, I searched online and I came across this Jo Bartosh article .

I know the parallels with 1984 are there with 2+2=5 etc. but I wonder what Orwell would have made of the TRA movement.

I actually think Animal Farm is the more appropriate tale than Nineteen Eighty Four for the TRA movement.

The animals are initially united in their rebellion against oppression - women would have been very happy to have common cause with those who wish to challenge the gender system.

But then, the pigs manipulate the situation so that they end up at the top of the pile - all are equal, some are more equal that others. And so the TRA movement, parasitic as it is, has manipulated various ideas of equality to put themselves at the top of an oppression hierarchy so that instead of dismantling the oppressive gender regime, they have reinforced it and made themselves part of the elite class.

Yes. Word for Word.

Thing is though, those books were written of their time, when people were innocent to this crap.

These days, if you wrote Animal Farm, there would be a point where the animals got together on a forum, got out the biscuits and started vociferously saying Fuck This for a game of soldiers. No. Not doing this.

And spent a hell of a lot of time trying to explain reality in very small words to the pigs, while patiently banging on and on and on to the animals still taken in by it all that they really needed to do some thinking and stop co operating.

And the pigs would spend a lot more time throwing tantrums.

And the pigs would spend a lot more time throwing tantrums.

Yeah, good point. In this respect, Animal Farm is indeed kind of dated.

It's a while since I read it, but I do seem to remember the pigs doing some proper offended pouting when the donkey has the temerity to start seeing through their lies. I think I shall have to get a copy and reread it.

Well, I believe as soon as there is some animal that questions stuff, you either have Squealer make the sheep cry the *four legs good...' mantra, that drowns everything out, or Napoleon/Squealer loosens the attack dogs, which they took from their mothers early to train them...

And of course, whenever the pigs are caught in some lie, they rewrite some commandment (animals do not drink [new insert: too much] alcohols, no animal is allowed to kill another animal [new insert: good reason]...)

No 'you are erasing me' tantrums, though.

arranfan it's difficult to view that billboard as advertising, surely. I mean, exactly what is it advertising? I can see parallels with messages about religion on the sides of buses perhaps. It'll be an interesting one to watch.

The difference between the animals and TRAs is that the animals existed before they became aware of their oppression and then rebelled, whereas TRAs didn't exist as such until the rebellion came along.

What's it's like now is that the animals decided to rebel, the neighbouring farmers decided they wanted a share in Manor Farm, declared themselves Furries, and demanded the animals make it all about them.

ASA on billboards:

It goes without saying ads on posters and billboards and in other outdoor public spaces, should not mislead, harm or offend. But the targeting and placement of these kinds of ads are also particularly important.

The way in which ads are targeted can have a significant bearing on their acceptability under the ad rules. Targeting is especially important when considering matters of taste and decency because the likelihood of an ad causing offence is inextricably linked to the attitudes of the people who see it.

For example fashion ads featuring semi-nude models may be acceptable in women’s glossy magazines but they wouldn’t be appropriate on posters or billboards in public spaces where they could be viewed by children.

Advertisers should also be mindful that the unsuitable targeting of ads for certain products automatically breaks the ad rules. For example, no medium with more than 25% of its audience under 18 years of age should be used to advertise an alcoholic drink.

www.asa.org.uk/media_channel/Poster_and_other_out_of_home.html

I don't think the complaint will be taken forward by the ASA but I will be very interested in the reasoning if I'm wrong. And, it will be particularly interesting if AncientLights is correct and it's taken as a parallel for religious advertising.

I don't know if the obliqueness of the advertising matters in this case? I think most people have no idea as to the issues - and I can't see whether or not the poster had something like, "Paid for by Standing Up for Women".

In the light of the discussion here, I'm wondering if SUFW could re-write Animal Farms commandments.

OldCrone

Who were you quoting in your first post in this thread? ‘Woman/ ˈwʊmən noun an adult human female’...This definition has been derided as exclusionary and transphobic, and reported to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Surely Owen Jones has to be Squealer?

Animal Farm also reminds me of one of the classic Adrian Mole books - Mole, who very much sees himself as a literary intellectual, is astonished to find that AF is an analogy of Stalin's Russia - 'I thought it was a book about animals!'

God I miss Sue Townsend.

Juells - I'm not OldCrone but the quotation is from the start of the linked Medium piece by Jo Bartosch.

medium.com/@josephinebartosch/illiberal-liberal-consensus-785ad953831

DUH!

Me too, Freespeecher. I bet she'd have had some pithy words to say about the TRAs nonsense.

Freespeecher Little OJ won’t like that comparison at all!

It's a shame I was already aware that Animal Farm was a satire on Stalin when I first read it so I missed out on the 'innocent' just-about-animals experience that some of you had, followed by a later 'Oh, I never thought about it like that!' revelation.