One Main Criticism I Have With Animal Farm

I recently read Animal Farm, and I absolutely loved it. While I know it is somewhat based of the Soviet Union, I could find many parallels in the book that relate to many other situations that have happened in history like the French Revolution or Nazi Germany. For example, when Napoleon took the dogs and indoctrinated them into his ideology to the point where they are able to kill others for him, this is similar to the Hitler Youth in a similar manner, and to many other practices used by authoritarian governments. There are many other examples that also show the practices people can use in order to gain more power or control the people can also be found throughout the book. However, there is one main criticism I have with Animal Farm that subtracts a lot to its message. The fact that most of the animals in the farm are stupid.

Throughout the book it is shown time and time again that most of the animals on the farm are stupid. For example, when Snowball gave a proper education to the animals, not many were able to read. Some can form letters, but not put them together. Others only had the capacity to learn the first five. There is several other examples that shows that even if the animals put a lot of effort to learning, most would still not learn and much and stay dumb and stupid. This idea is enforced and is a major plot point throughout the story. It is one of the main reasons Napoleon comes into power. If we apply this idea into real life, the story describes that the reason some people come into power is because they are smart and the rest (working class ) are stupid. They are not able to make decisions for themselves, so it makes that they should not have any power. Would anyone really trust the working class to make any of the financial decisions? They are physically incapable of learning how to read. They are biologically stupid.

Obviously that is not how it works in real life, and that is not what happens, but it is an argument that has been used by many to manipulate others. An example of this is Social Darwinism which has been used by many as proof that a group of people is biologically smarter or stronger than another. People have used this "theory" in events such as the Berlin Conference, the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, etc.

When we read the book, we can see so many solutions if the animals had the ability to learn, just like humans in the real world. If George Orwell made the animals have human intelligence, he could talk about many other aspects societies and governments face when in revolutions or times of crisis, or other main ways people can manipulate others to gain more power and support, and what they do to face backlash.

TL;DR - Animal Farm is great, but because some of the animals are born naturally stupid, it subtracts from the main goal of the book and re-enforces horrible arguments that can be used to harm others.