Has anyone identified Orwell as the father of gonzo? Because I would argue this and Down and Out in Paris and London are very early examples of the style. It has grime, first person narrative, vice, slang I mean what more defines the genre? He literally tells you about being in the literal shit, man. Down and Out in Paris and London also has an extended period where George is working in kitchens which is downright Bourdainian with all of the gross-out insider voyeurism.
Also people who use the word Orwellian need to read more Orwell.
So then also Orwellian are anything Hunter Thompson or Anthony Bourdain did. Q.E.D. Gonzo journalism? Hella Orwellian.
Anyway I don't know how close they were or weren't to getting some sort of actual democracy (the kind that democratizes the money too), but you have to admire the hell out of someone who saw fascism coming and took a stand against it. Although apparently that was also kind of a thing: people came from both sides to fight for their radical politics of choice. Which makes a certain amount of sense, given other wild international projects of the intra-world-war period like the Free State of Fiume.
He also managed to survive the stalinist rat-fucking once the pro-russia factions started turning on the other leftists instead of fighting the fash, because red fash is still fash. Fash solidarity or something. There's that old quote from I think Hitler about how the thing about totalitarianism is that it makes everyone who fights you also totalitarian which is true only if you limit the 'everyone' to 'state actors'. The non-state actors tend to go the other way and work in decentralized cells. I forget what my point was other than if the state tells you that they just need some authority for a minute because they need to fight some 'ism', you're going to be taking your shoes off at the airport for the rest of your life.