Hang on a minute, I thought, surely George Orwell, master of the English language as he was, can't have been that stupid? Did he really source the etymology of the word to Russian revolutionaries and their allies, rather than say to something emitting from the nether end of a male Bos taurus? Given that the source cited was Down and Out itself, it surely wouldn't be hard to check. Sure enough, the entire text is available online, and the relevant part was located as soon as I figured out that Orwell considered it two words:In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell writes that the insult "bullshit" stems from "Bolshevik", and that the association with communists is the source of the word's insult.
So, does Orwell suggest that 'bull shit' stems from 'Bolshevik'? Of course not. A tramp mishears one phrase for another, starting a fight. Wikipedia's assertion to the contrary is in of itself pure and unadulterated BS. Or rather, contributor G.W.Kyte (T-C-L)'s assertion is BS. Quite possibly unintended BS, but, BS nevertheless.Leaving the spike, we all started southward, a long slouching procession, for Lower Binfield and Ide Hill. On the way there was a fight between two of the tramps. They had quarrelled overnight (there was some silly casus belli about one saying to the other, 'Bull shit', which was taken for Bolshevik--a deadly insult), and they fought it out in a field. A dozen of us stayed to watch them.
In of itself, this abuse and/or misreading of a source is clearly nothing unusual. And nor is the fact that nobody seems to have queried it since. A random contributor, with few edits to their name, can easily do this sort of thing, especially if they cite what seems like an authority on the subject. Who is going to doubt Orwell? Which led me to wonder just how much else Wikipedia was misquoting, misunderstanding, or outright misrepresenting poor long-gone George? I had to do a little more searching. And found a few more gems. From Notes on Nationalism (T-H-L)
Um, what? 'Ignorant towards facts'? Learn to fucking write, as Orwell may well have been inclined to say in his Politics and the English Language (T-H-L), though no doubt tact led him not to.Orwell discusses nationalism and argues that it causes people to disregard common sense and to become more ignorant towards facts.
Next, not misrepresentation, just random citing-Orwell-because-we-can, in the Gauloises (T-H-L) article.
Yup, it's in Down and Out. So what? A passing comment, not a fucking endorsement. And if you read on, Orwell quite likely wishes he'd hung on the the two francs fifty.George Orwell tells of how he "squandered two francs fifty on a packet of Gaulois Bleu" in his 1933 book Down and Out in Paris and London.
I seem to have fallen down an Orwellian-bullshit rabbit-hole here, since there is evidently quite a bit more of this sort of cite-Orwell-because-it-sounds-good nonsense on Wikipedia. And elsewhere too, since citing Orwell for things he didn't say has been in vogue almost since the day he died, if not before. I'll report back only if if find more on Wikipedia though, since I don't want to drag Wikipedocracy too far off-topic.