MAGA Is Confused About ‘Animal Farm’
If you read George Orwell’s classic political satire Animal Farm in seventh grade, you probably remember the basic contours of the plot: fed up with human rule, a group of well-intentioned barnyard animals set up their own egalitarian society, with disastrous results. Published in 1945, Animal Farm has a timeless (and, certainly, contemporarily relevant) message: it’s about how the impulse to retain power will always come at the expense of our basic morality. That message, however, seems to have been lost on most MAGA influencers assigned the book in middle school (if they even read it at all). After their failure to cancel Barbie or the Wicked movies, conservatives have moved onto a new film adaptation of Animal Farm. (The animated film, which is directed by Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis, opens May 1). The problem, however, is that they’ve failed to reach a consensus on what the actual message of Animal Farm is. The right-wing outrage cycle over a movie featuring Seth Rogen making fart jokes appears to have been sparked by …
