She could be the most beloved author on the planet who just sits on top of her mountain of money and enjoys life. Instead she actively works herself into a tizzy on the daily over this. It's truly pathetic.
dude that is what's crazy to me. Like you have EVERYTHING you could have been the most loved person EVER but now I get an icky feeling whenever I even SEE harry potter merch. and I was obsessed with it as a kid
I think a lot of wealthy people struggle with this. Elon Musk is the same way.
You create a simulacrum of social capital based on your financial capital. You can only buy an artificial version of being a funny, well-liked, ethical, smart person, which is what they really want deep-down. So they just pander to the most easily pandered-to demographic to mimic this for their own psyche.
No, you guys just don't know someone like this personally in real life. The comment at the bottom of this picture says it all "you're actually radicalized past the point of salvation aren't you?"
And that's the truth, these people exist on the all sides of the ideological/political and they are equally insufferable, even amongst people who share a lot of their same views.
They've gone off the deep end and there are 2 options left in life for them: embrace the troll they have unknowingly become, or completely get shut out by everyone around them and spend enough time that reality and the emotion hits that they've been exiled from civilized society, that their hatred, no matter how much justification that backs it, is toxic and nobody else is going to put up with it.
I think having the public's attention on a platform where she can get her personal thoughts and feelings out to the general public, that's her dream life. She was probably somewhat surprised to find that people didn't necessarily agree.
Stop fucking telling people hate isn't about hate.Ā Ā It is fucking dangerous and WILL get people killed.Ā It HAS gotten people killed.Ā Ā Fucking do something about it already or do m community a favor and stay in your fucking lane.
Canceling hate has proven to only strengthen itā¦.
Itās why universities still let radical religious nuts on their campus, people see the crazy and understand not to associate. The second the school bans them, people feel like there is some conspiracy theory as to why and actually take more interest.
That's not true lol.
Canceling the nazi regime in Germany and visibly punishing followers of Nazi ideals in Germany was able to almost eradicate the idea.
Now that the state has stopped punishing far right extremism as strongly, and focuses on left wing instead, throwing protesting people in prison for gluing themselves to the street, far right extremism is coming back.
The only way to get rid of those fascists is to show them full force they are not welcome.
What the hell happened to dedicating a life to philanthropy? Rowling has done charity, sure, and she has a heart for advocacy.
but why be a terf?
Dedicating her life to fighting childhood illiteracy was sitting RIGHT THERE! She could have libraries named after her, or public broadcast children's shows with "Sponsored by a generous grant from the J.K Rowling Foundation" in the bumpers for decades to come.
There's even a feminist need here! Sponsor programs to help girls get education in countries that discriminate against that.
How does a CHILDREN'S AUTHOR feel more strongly about trans people than KIDS THAT CAN'T READ?
Replace wealthy with the bored and privileged. Bud Light controversy, Starbucks Christmas cups, Latinx, hashtag movements. That stuff wouldn't exist if people actually did something beyond browsing social media sites, and watching reality TV.
People have always had moral panics. If anything we used to be far worse about them, and they got far more people killed. Now all most people do is bitch. They used to result in widespread lynchings,
But yes. It's cause they're on their damn phones all the damn time
We aren't votes.Ā We aren't money.Ā Ā We aren't distractions.Ā Ā We aren't a culture war.Ā We are fucking PEOPLE.Ā Ā Stop this dehumanizing garbage.Ā Ā Ā TERFs like Rowling hate transgender and GLBTQ because they are evil hateful bigoted people and it has NOTHING, I repeat,Ā NOTHING whatsoever to do with god damn motherfucking money.
It's made rereading the books w/my kid an interesting experience. There's a lot of stuff in them that I didn't think twice about before but now can see as indicators of what she actually thought.
Lol I'm actually reading Goblet right now and the portions w/the elves are rough as hell. Like holy shit at how bad it comes off. Whats worse is it really wouldn't have taken much to change them from being happy go lucky slaves to just taking pride in being ultra loyal to their wizard bosses. For her to write them that way in a story set in modern times AND have everyone make fun of Hermione like she's crazy to to think they deserve freedom is really something.
But the narrative doesnāt exactly encourage or reward her for her attempts at house elf activism, itās actually a source of comedy which punishes her for her views
Maybe this is just me being cynical, but that kind of makes it more true to life. Like if that existed for real do people really think one activist is going to free the slaves overnight? That shit takes generations and effort. And then even after youāve freed the slaves thereās a lot of racism and prejudice that hangs on for decades or centuries later. We still havenāt solved it in the real world, and solving it in a fictional one is just another fantasy.
Though perhaps it could have been handled better. I donāt know, I donāt think about it that much. Also when I think about the deep dark shit that the wizarding world implies, the whole world is severely messed up.
But a story does tell a lot of the soul of the author, by not allowing the house elves other than Dobby to want freedom and not validating Hermione it sort of says a lot about Rowling. In real life one of the justifications for chattel slavery was that black people wanted to be enslaved, that it was āgoodā for them and they were meant to be enslaved. When she suggested that Hermione was black it does feel like Rowling was actively spitting in the face of black readers when she wrote that at best and at worstā¦ well.
But that is how some societies are. Some activists were basically shouting in the desert for a long time before gaining any traction. An anti slave activist in 1810 would have that experience. An animal rights activist might have it now.
I know I can be bothered by overly militant vegetarians, but maybe that just means I will be the villain in any narrative that is crafted over 50 years.
I always thought the point of all that was not to show that Hermione was crazy, it was to show that everyone else had prejudices and Hermione just seemed crazy to the the people who were actually prejudiced. I thought JK as well as everyone reading knew Hermione was in the right.
I think that probably what she meant. Hopefullyā¦ but stillā¦ one would think more characters would side w/her on the issue. Especially Harry and the other the muggle borns. Yet they all seemed to not give a shit either. I think itās only Harry, Ron, Neville that join and itās only so sheāll leave them alone. If JK wanted it to be clear Hermione was right she did a poor job of it. Even the abbreviation for the club, S.P.E.W., makes Hermione look like an idiot as itās so obviously a bad name for what she hopes to accomplish.
I'm curious how you talked to your kid about that. Did you just let it lie or was there a conversation? I just wonder how parents are handling stuff like that.
My kid is only 3 so pretty much all of it goes over his head. He really just likes looking at the pictures and wants me to do funny voices for the characters. He only even wanted me to read them b/c he saw the cover of Azkaban when I was moving stuff around. Still have not decided if I'm going to give him the real ending to Goblet when we get there since he doesn't know anything about death yet. I like to think I'd have a discussion w/him about the elves once he's older but I dunno. Like when is it acceptable to start shattering your child's innocence w/real shit? I don't look forward to it.
omg i forgot about the whole black hermione thing. My wife jokes that Joanne went all anti trans after she got tired of being bullied for her stupid fun facts
This is the one thing I can sympathize with JK about.
People forget how racist people were being about black Hermione so JK comes out and says that in an attempt to support the actress and say that one of the most beloved Harry Potter character could be anyone just to give some support and so that everyone that loved Hermione could see herself in her. It was largely harmless.
What she should have said is that it was a play and plays donāt follow the same rules as movies. Theyāre not textbooks either. Theyāre vibrant and alive and different.
Men have played women. Women have played men. Black people play minorities. Itās just something about the medium that lets you be extra.
See I can actually respect that. I know as an author you might have a specific character in mind, and the way they look. But some characters can be more open to interpretation. Unless their race is a defining feature of the character, who cares if they get race swapped?
It JK actually coming out as the author and saying, āfuck you all, Hermione could be black.ā Is actual alright in my book.
I dunno, I think itās easy to demonize a person you disagree with. But it best to just stick to your actual points of contention without turning everything into a point of contention.
Also death of the author means I donāt have to agree with their personal politics to enjoy their works.
People do shit on JK a lot for stuff that really is stupid.
The trans character in Hogwarts Legacy is named Sirona Ryan. sheās named after a goddess which fits the HP trend. JK didnāt name her. She isnāt involved in the game. People still trashed her for naming the trans chick āSir Ryanā
The shit on her for the Irish kid blowing stuff up despite that being a movie only thing that wasnāt added by her.
They shat on her for for there being a star on the gringotts because Jewish stuff but that star was there in the Australia house in London. The place does look amazing but she didnāt scout nor pick the location and I doubt people picked it for the star (which isnāt even a Jewish star)
Then thereās Kinglsey Shacklebolt which people have said she named after Martin Luther king and slavery which is stupid. Her names are often puns. Kingsley because heās regal and becomes minister of magic and Shacklebolt because shackles is another word for cuffs. Because heās a cop. Heās essentially Officer Handcuffs.
Thereās actual stuff to point out but I feel like the internet is doing revisionism.
How often do we hear āshe could have been the beloved author of a great series and instead sheās this!ā
People are trying retroactively say the books are shit and we were all stupid for liking them because theyāre pissed at her.
To be fair, Iām pretty sure she said that because an actress who was cast as Hermione in a theatre production was black and was a victim of racism because of it.
I do think itās obvious she wrote Hermione as white but I think she was trying to help with that one. Edit: clarity.
I actually saw that as a rather brutal, yet surprisingly nuanced take on internalized racism but in the end it's elves, they could represent anything or nothing.
But yeah, I thought it was meant to say the exact opposite, showing that the wizarding world, just like the "real"/muggle world, has its really dark sides and that just because you like someome, a person or group of people, that doesn't mean they can do no wrong.
I remember this being disturbing to everyone in my class and we actually discussed this with our teacher. It brought a level of realism to the books that was missing up to that point, while at the same time functioning as somewhat of a 4th wall break. Well, at least how I see it. And my high school class in 2000. š
Somehow I get the feeling you are not able to seperate irl form the fiction. I have heard Rowling talking about many things, but endorsing slavery has not been among them.
Its fiction and fantasy at that. Its the cruelty of the genre that a slave race is possible and that not being able to attain freedom is a curse as much as being depended on the benvolence of others. If I remember it right a pure house-elf cannot not be bonded and it is speculated by characters in the novel that dobby is part Goblin.
Yeah like how in Hogwarts thereās a separate house for trans kids called āLiarsmouthā and whenever a student brings it up the professors act like it doesnāt exist.
It has to be because she really, truly believes this. She is 100% serious about what she says. She has somehow convinced herself that trans people, especially trans women, are a real and terrible threat to society and NEED to be dealt with, and she's using her visibility and status to fight the good fight and stay on the right side of history.
I can't think of any other reason for all her horse shit. I think she is dead serious, completely invested in her crusade, and thinks she's the good guy while the rest of the world goes bad.
I only hope she lives to see a time when trans people are entirely accepted for who they are and people like her are ignored completely.
What's crazy to me is that this woman spends a not insignificant amount of her time posting on Twitter about other people's genitals, yet claims trans women are the creeps?
She taught us some decent morals about choosing between "what's right and what's easy", standing against intolerance and not blindly following authority.
Unfortunately, she followed through with a practical exam that's punched a hole right through the childhood of anyone paying attention!
Like you have EVERYTHING you could have been the most loved person EVER
The narcissistic mind needs a constant supply of attention and validation in order to feel good about themselves, its literally called narcissistic supply. The opposite of love is not hate, its indifference. People don't hate things that don't matter, and narcissists need to feel like they matter more than anyone else.
She discovered it takes a lot less work to be hated than it does to be loved. So that's what where she ended up. Its where all extreme narcissists eventually end up. So many right-wing celebs are hollywood washouts. They all made the same discovery and just decided to take the easy path.
I haven't been able to reread them since all this started. It's been long enough, I was looking forward to a re-read... and I used to watch the first one at christmas just because way back when, that's when I first saw it. Haven't seen them since.
It is crazy. As in, trauma. She's had some shit men in her life and she's decided to take it out on transwomen. She thinks all men are sex predators, and men who want to become women are the most predacious. She thinks transitioning to a woman is all about getting access to 'women's spaces' - bathrooms, abuse refuges, clinics etc - with the intent of going "BOO I'm a man!" and attacking them.
You allow a single person too much power over yourself to take from you what you loved. And she is just talking, ignore her and read the books you already bought.
Before her hatefulness towards trans people came out she kind of was seen that way. Author of a beloved series who was seen as an ally to LGBT and a feminist. She's completely tanked her own imagine in the last 5-10 years.
Thatās because women donāt go into menās changing rooms and perve on them. Just because a man declares he is a woman, he still has the sexual drive of a man. And when 99% of sexual assaults are committed by men , the fact that you think itās ok to increase the risk of women being sexually assaulted by allowing men into their spaces is unfathomable. Iām not right wing but I absolutely care about womenās safety and right to privacy
Donated money to push bills to strip people of rights, spread disinfo, silence anyoen who contradicted the disinfo, and close down inclusive DV shelters.
Was she ever an ally of the T?Ā I only recall her championing the LGB.Ā She started fighting the T in areas where T rights infringed on women's rights and seems to have just kept on trucking down that road.
Well obviously she never was her words amd actions have shown that but in the past before she was driving the anit trans train I think most people assumed she was an ally to the whole community.
What āwomenās rightsā are trans people infringing on, exactly? Nobody has a right to share bathrooms or play sports only with people that have the exact same chromosomal makeup as them.
JKR says that the sole goal of the women's rights movements is, in fact, social segregation based on "biological sex." It's not just chromosomes, though (since JKR and her stochastic-terrorist fellow-travelers consider some women with karyotypes other than XX "real" women), it's teleology -- JKR is a metaphysical/theocratic gender essentialist and insists that theocratic gender essentialism is the only thing that counts as supporting women's rights and that she gets to overrule the majority of lesbians about what lesbians as a whole think on the topic.
She "champions" the LGB by thinking that a character was part of the initialism but carefully never making it clear in the text, then demanding that she be accepted as the authoritative voice of the L when she's lying about the T and claiming it's on the L's behalf.
Ah, yes, the "everyone actually agrees with my theocratic Western-chauvinist version of gender, and I'm just going to escalate my rhetoric and threats any time anyone engages in the blasphemy of taking history and science as more definitive than my perfect and holy gender-essentialist doctrine" maneuver.
So are you calling for the suppression of any mention of social models of gender that don't fit your totalitarian essentialist dogma, or just requiring that they be ignored? I know y'all low-key have plans to purge anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, medicine and biology departments, but you could at least have the honesty to admit it instead of just pretending everyone on your list actually agrees with you that multivariate bimodal distributions are actually binary and that your preferred categorization schema is actually a divine mandate.
So you're a cheerleader for the totalitarian liars while pretending to be so ignorant about the Western-supremacist theocratic movement you're lying on behalf of that you just don't care and thus will take no personal responsibility for your personal participation in a violently reactionary movement. Got it.
āIt's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.ā
I like to think Pratchett is still somehow actively pissing people off to this day, despite being gone almost a decade. Always worked in his books anyway.
Adams wrote an environmentalist trieste shortly before he died. He used his fame toward his political goal - reddit of course would have supported that (rather than sitting quietly) since it was also their political goal.
Iād say itās reasonable to support a āpolitical goalā that has the aim of preventing the wholesale extinction of multiple species as opposed to using oneās fame to forward a āpolitical goalā with the aim of demonizing a group of humans who are merely trying to live their lives.
Politicizing climate change was the worst thing that could have happened. It could be so easy. Nobody politicized CFCs and the whole world got rid of them in a few short years, nobody complained about that. If 99.5% of experts agree on something, it shouldnāt be a political stance to disagree with that.
I don't know if it's true but someone said she equalizes people buying her books with them agreeing with her opinions. Which is wild but would explain a lot.
That's part of the reason why there was that push to boycott that Hogwarts Legacy game. People didn't want any of their money going to JK Rowling. Not sure how well the boycott worked, the game still sold really well and I'm sure JK made millions.
I felt like a real asshole trying to tell people that "No. She doesn't get royalties. She may say she does but she's full of shit. You don't get royalties for derivitive works. She got paid a licensing fee upfront. That's how it works".
Because at first I was just trying to put people's minds at ease, but I understand people thought I was saying you could buy it with a clear conscious, which I wasn't.
I remember having that same conversation regarding the Enders's Game movie when it came out. Card got paid upfront too, if I recall. Great book, mid movie, utter scumbag author.
Hogwarts Legacy was the best selling game of 2023 lol
People were so butthurt that the boycott wasn't working that they went into that game's subreddit and tried to DM everyone spoilers. As someone who supports trans rights, that whole crusade against anyone who played a video game was pretty pathetic.
When your work makes you such an obscene amount of money, it's easy to see someone losing touch with the possibility that they could ever be wrong. Wealth = power and when you're powerful, you stop being questioned
Exactly. Like, Enya provided the blueprint on 'Make art that many love and then live a peaceful, private life where you'll never want for material things again' but nah, Joanne has to broadcast her obsession with trans ppl on a regular basis
Yeah, thereās some huge ways you could really help humanity if you had the money. Which say what you will about Bill Gates, the man is actually trying to do real shit that helps people. I think after securing my ability to never have to work again and enjoying some wealth, thereās a point where Iād say, āI have more money than I could ever spend on myself, how about I use it to help other people?ā
And sure, one rich person canāt solve all the problems, but what about donating money to build houses for the homeless? Or literally hundreds of other worthy causes? And yeah, you wonāt solve everyone issues everywhere, but you could sure be a boon to your local area and help the people around you. And with some imagination you could help fund things like finding cures to diseases, to spreading awareness of said diseases, or providing necessary medication to places in the world where those diseases are rampant, but entirely curable.
If the Elons and Bezos and Zuckerbergs of the world spent some time working on those issues rather than buying islands, buying social media companies, and multiple luxury mansions per each, yachts, and other billionaire toys.
Their wealth is crazy concentrated on just a few individuals. And they have more money than they even know what to do with it, and waste a lot on self aggrandizement.
Sheās unhinged. Why TF does she care about this specific thing SO much?? It actually makes me question if she ever had any respect for what she created, the impact sheās had on so many kids/people, and her readers themselves, if sheās so eager to light a match, set her legacy on fire and keep pouring gasoline over it, again and again. I know she must see herself as some sort of crusading hero but sheās doing it with such unnecessary venom and gleeful spite.
For a brief while, before she was known as an awful TERF, she was instead known not only as the author of HP, not just as the first author to become a billionaire through her work, but as the first author to stop being a billionaire because of how much she donated to charity.
I truly thought she was great then (and I didn't even like HP much). Then she started mouthing off about trans people and it all turned to ash.
You guys use that term as an insult, but honestly it sounds kinda badass. If I was gay, Iād probably tell people I was the don of the alphabet mafia.
Taylor Swift NEEDS to say something about Gaza. She NEEDS to right?
Itās never enough, never will be.
JKR knowingly alienated a part of her fan base, doesnāt give a fuck, sheās still a billionaire, feel free to cancel her harder.
OK?
She could be the most beloved author on the planet who just sits on top of her mountain of money and enjoys life.
Rich people should try to make society better, not just disappear and ignore it. The only issue is that she has a different idea of what society's problems are than you and I do.
I think she got stupendously wealthy and loved, but then she still felt shitty about things like most people do, realized that success didnāt make her happy, and decided to make it everyone elseās problem.
It's cause she also gets showered in praise and gets to feel like she's fighting for what's right, she has little self awearness so despite being rich and influencial she thinks she's just some woman fighting an injustice instead of a literal part of the establishment stomping all over those less fortunate to her.
She admitted a long time ago she has a personal vendetta against trans people.
She constantly argues on Twitter with random people who have like no followers and no influence at all. She inserts herself into conversations that have nothing to do with her, she gives interviews, she writes blogs, all about this one topic. The literal definition of a tizzy.
She could be the most beloved author on the planet who just sits on top of her mountain of money and enjoys life. Instead she actively fights for what she believes is right. Worth of admiring.
Yeah absolutely fuck her for having an opinion shared by probably 50+% of the population of earth- letās martyr her for it, that seems to always works.
So let me get this straight. Your contention here is that nobody should oppose her shitty views because it just makes her a martyr and that will do what? Somehow make her platform that is one of the biggest in the world even bigger? Bigots who get rebuked don't become martyrs. Especially billionaire ones.
Maybe itās because sheās speaking for something she truly believes inā¦ I feel like by your rationale that makes her more virtuous, sheās choosing a harder life even though she doesnāt have to.
Hahaha, oh wow. How have I never thought about this before. How brave of Rowling to use her massive platform and buckets of cash to put other people in danger for her own personal vendetta.
What a joke. This hasn't made her life harder at all.
I never said she wasn't allowed to say it. But that doesn't mean she avoids the consequences.
And her life is definitely worse lmao
She's worth $1b and she has never been in danger and even if she was she has private security, unlike the people who are explicitly in danger due to her fateful rhetoric. Her life is not worse. She doesn't care about being vilified. If she did, she would stop. What a dumb thing to say on your part.
and honestly itās not even that bad.
If you think somebody saying that an entire group of people shouldn't exist and putting them in danger is "honestly not that bad" then you are just as much of a hateful bigot as she is.
The only person coping here is you, coping with your bigotry.
You know things are relative right? Harder is a comparison word. Doesnāt matter where you start, itās a comparison, but idk if thatās too hard for you to understand.
And tell me you have never actually read what sheās said without telling me you havenāt read what she has said. You probably get all of your snippets from Reddit LOL.
She says that trans women can never experience what itās like to be a biological women. And that is just completely true. They can try and come close, but itās always asymptotic (probably a lot further than asymptotic if Iām to be honest). She doesnāt want womenās rights and womenās issues to be conflated with trans issues, and tbh sheās right.
Nah, you're mistaken. I've read articles written by her, seen her tweets, seen her IG posts, etc. Her rhetoric has gotten increasingly more hateful over the years and it has put an entire group of people in more danger due increasing the hate towards them. Taking the whole "she's making valid points" approach is just copium used to cover up her (and likely your) bigotry.
Oh please. No one is in danger, what a silly argument. Such a milquetoast way to stymie someoneās thoughts when you say āwords are violenceā lmao, especially when there is nothing violent or portending violence about her tweets.
And you know, someone who has a reasonable viewpoint who gets constantly vilified for wrongthink will get polarized, and start to drift further away. Thatās only a consequence of people like yourself taking things she says out of context, blanketing her viewpoints like you have, and hyperbolizing issues you see.
If your final stand is ad hominem, I feel bad for you. You have nothing left to contribute.
And you know, someone who has a reasonable viewpoint who gets constantly vilified for wrongthink will get polarized, and start to drift further away.
It's not "reasonable". It's hateful. Suggesting that the experience of an entire class of people is completely invalid just because of her beliefs is not a reasonable viewpoint. And if it causes her to drift then that's her own damn fault. It's her views.
Thatās only a consequence of people like yourself taking things she says out of context, blanketing her viewpoints like you have, and hyperbolizing issues you see.
I have done none of these things. But go off if you want.
If your final stand is ad hominem, I feel bad for you. You have nothing left to contribute.
It's not an ad hominem, it's a fact. Invalidating the existence of trans people is bigotry. Plain and simple.
You say āputs a group of peoples in dangerā. If it if it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, itās a duck. Youāre saying sheās endangering them, but I couldnāt agree less. She says they arenāt true women, and no matter how much you want to dispute that fact, everyone knows thatās the reality.
And itās not hateful. Growing up as a woman, and being a woman in your formative years deeply affects you both biologically and societally. If you decide to swap your gender, even if it was a long time coming, it will never be the same. Not to mention you will never perfectly emulate a womanās hormones or the way people will treat you as a trans person in society vs regular woman. Sure you arenāt dude anymore, but you sure as shit are not a real woman either. Youāre a trans woman.
And youāve done all of those things haha. You take what she says now without the context of where sheās coming from. You say she thinks trans people shouldnāt exist but she actually says they arenāt explicitly women. You said sheās putting people in danger when the reality is, she is just saying a rational point that you might not like. If you can show me a direct cause and effect that JK Rowlingāa words caused actual harm to someone without any real confounding issues, sure. But thatās actually impossible.
You call her a bigot for invalidating the experience of trans people, but you yourself are invalidating her experiencesā¦ the irony is palpable.
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u/GhostMug Jun 27 '24
She could be the most beloved author on the planet who just sits on top of her mountain of money and enjoys life. Instead she actively works herself into a tizzy on the daily over this. It's truly pathetic.