I guess I should have made that more explicit in my first post. Yes, I find that most arguments referencing 1984 tend to be from right-wingers arguing against liberalism in general, dishonestly equating liberalism with socialism with communism, and that they assert that 1984 is an example of socialism in action, instead of, as you reference, the danger of corruption leading any movement, no matter how well-intentioned, down the path of totalitarianism.

And yes, Animal Farm is another great example. I was one of the few in my high school class to understand the significance of the ending scene, that the pigs (Stalinists) wound up nearly indistinguishable from those they’d replaced. Then again, most of my class had to have the allegory pointed out to them, despite that we’d already covered the Bolsheviks in World History earlier that month, so I can’t be too proud of that insight.

Considering that Orwell’s own views hewed towards democratic socialism, it’s somewhat ironic that a majority of those citing him in support of their own arguments do so in an attempt to argue against socialism in general, and inevitably have no actual understanding of the concept.