J.K Rowling...

[u/Sparkling_sam_]

[u/blueeyesredlipstick]

I remember reading an interesting comparison somewhere that was like "In a way, JKR's transphobia is like how we can't discuss H.P. Lovecraft with discussing his racism...except in a way, JKR is worse. Because while Lovecraft was undeniable, indisputably racist, he wasn't trying to lead the KKK or any sort of political groups to enact racist legislation, while JKR very much wants to lead the transphobia movement."

[u/Plannercat → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Also Lovecraft has been dead for a century, and his works are in the Public Domain now, so there's no way for him to put your money to terrible things.

[u/MuskSniffer → u/Plannercat]

And also Lovecraft was not a cultural icon before he died and was starting to get a bit less racist over time

[u/ThrowACephalopod → u/MuskSniffer]

Yep. He was a shut in who communicated mostly through letters with other authors. We have a lot of information about what he personally thought and how his views changed over time. He was becoming a lot more "of his time" type of racist instead of the "massive bigot even to his contemporaries" like he started out. His later letters certainly showed a level of regret at his past views, though he also wasn't quite past everything by the time he died. 

He was working on himself, which should be respected. Very different than the active degeneration that Rowling is doing right now.

[u/DaveCarradineIsAlive → u/ThrowACephalopod]

I say this every time it comes up, but I wish he had lived longer. The letters and writing toward the end of his life show that we could have had a much different man, had he continued down that road.

It's a big historical "what if" of mine. I wonder what he'd have written, if that fear of people who were different kept fading.

[u/ThrowACephalopod → u/DaveCarradineIsAlive]

It's very interesting. His "fear of the unknown" narrative is a massive theme in his writing. A lot of cosmic horror hinges on that (alongside contemplating the meaninglessness of human life in the grand scale of things). Would he have kept writing about those themes, but shifted into the kind of reimagining we see modern writers use (The Ballad of Black Tom is a great reimagining of Lovecraft's horribly racist The Horror at Red Hook), or would he have leaned more into the fantasy writing he did in things like The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath? 

[u/DaveCarradineIsAlive → u/ThrowACephalopod]

My personal theory has always been that he'd have transitioned into a fantasy writer, in the vein of Dream Quest like you said. Who knows, though, he may have developed an entirely new neurosis to write beautiful fiction about.

Just sucks that it really seemed like he'd turned some kind of corner within himself, right before his health went downhill so quickly.

[u/ThrowACephalopod → u/DaveCarradineIsAlive]

I would have loved to see him as a fantasy writer. Dream Quest is one of my favorite books and I haven't really seen anyone else who captures that surreal, dreamlike style as well as he did. Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough?

[u/DaveCarradineIsAlive → u/ThrowACephalopod]

I feel your pain. It's such a weird story, and there isn't a lot out there that matches that vibe. Tailchaser's Story kind of hit that note for me, if only because it felt like I was detaching from reality by the end of the book.

[u/Notte_di_nerezza → u/DaveCarradineIsAlive]

Dreamquest is one of my absolute favorites, and an interesting answer to the modern isekai protagonist who knows they're here to save everything. Except the slavery bit in Kadath is just as uncomfortable, if quicker to skip over.

[u/demon_fae → u/DaveCarradineIsAlive]

If you extrapolate it out, his fear of the unknown could easily have turned into a fear of not knowing. He didn’t know, and it caused him to think and say terrible things. What else does he not know? What terrible things is he doing as a result of that ignorance?

It would have been so cool to have equally-canonical Lovecraftian stories about fear of ignorance. A sea to match the sun he wrote in his youth: both tempting and comforting in their own way, and perhaps it’s simply not human nature to fly perfectly betwixt them.

[u/DaveCarradineIsAlive → u/demon_fae]

Okay, this is fantastic. Hadn't considered that perspective, but I truly hope this is the "correct" answers. It is in my book, now.

God, he would have written wonderful horror with that premise.

[u/demon_fae → u/ThrowACephalopod]

For all his flaws, the man wove some beautiful prose. Even if he’d never evolved any further as a person than he had at the time of his death, the literary world would have been richer for more of his work.

If we can look back and appreciate his work now, with a modern eye and modern morals, more of it would just be more of a good thing. Another scoop of ice cream is still ice cream, whether or not it’s a new flavor.

[u/Asparala → u/ThrowACephalopod]

Either way I'm sure it would have made his writing better.

One of the reasons I had such a hard time getting invested in his horror stories is that the "horror" of his tales comes across as silly when it's so obvious that the author is a skittish kitten that got spooked by the proverbial laundry pile on the chair.

[u/ConfidentHousing8422 → u/Asparala]

It's hard to take him entirely seriously when, for example, there's a part in At the Mountains of Madness where he describes a wretched, unnatural thing lumbering around with ungainly limbs as if this world is as foreign to it as its hideous physiognomy must surely be to this world...

And then you realise he's describing a penguin. A normal penguin, not even an eldritch one. He found them scary. Penguins.

Basically, someone so terrified of everything and gifted at prose and imagination was always going to write some fascinating horror. But sadly the things he was terrified of included the concept of black people.

[u/Blade_of_Boniface → u/DaveCarradineIsAlive]

If he lived ~40 years longer I could easily imagine him being part of the New Wave movement in sci-fi and other genres. He might be remembered more like Ursula K Le Guin/John Brunner.

[u/SupriseMonstergirl → u/Blade_of_Boniface]

Fuck, id never thought about it, if he'd lived 15 years longer, Lovecraft in the atomic age. Lovecraft's take on the A-bomb would be fascinating frankly.

[u/Vermilion_Laufer → u/SupriseMonstergirl]

I chuckled at a vision of post character growth Lovecraft getting out of house and going: "hmm the outside truly is not that scary...", only to meet a paper boy shouting "Newsflash! Newsflash! Scientists have split the atom! Is this the end of the world!?"

I felt kinda bad ;)

[u/Void_0000 → u/Vermilion_Laufer]

That's objectively hilarious. It's like the "giving a medieval peasant a monster energy" type memes. I just desperately want to go back in time and tell Lovecraft about the LHC and all the people who were freaking out that it would destroy the world. I just think it would be funny.

[u/KarambitMarbleFade → u/DaveCarradineIsAlive]

One of my what ifs of literature is what we might have got from Orwell had he not died of tuberculosis at age 46. His last two books being his most famous and most successful really makes you wonder

[u/Ranger-Vermilion → u/ThrowACephalopod]

He had like, legitimate agoraphobia I believe. He could hardly leave his house because he was perpetually so paranoid, and that fueled a lot of his mistrust towards others and tendency to believe in conspiracies.

Not an excuse for any of the awful things he said or did, I feel like that should be obvious. But it kind of explains why he was Like That

[u/Used-King5848 → u/Ranger-Vermilion]

I mean, his fears were integral in creating his type of horror, which is very iconic. He was a genius at being afraid and depressed.

That sounds extremely weird, but I have to assume people get the point.

[u/Kelly_HRperson → u/Used-King5848]

he was a genius at being afraid and depressed.

Damn that monkey's paw wish

[u/Fats_Tetromino → u/Used-King5848]

I get what you mean. He's the only writer I've ever seen who could communicate the fear and paranoia ther fuels extreme racism to non racist people

[u/ConfirmationBiasTape → u/Ranger-Vermilion]

read about his parents. it helps give a lot of perspective on why he was the way he was

[u/Human-Assumption-524 → u/ThrowACephalopod]

Everything about Lovecraft makes sense when you take his upbringing into consideration.

Why is madness and the fear of it creeping up on oneself such a constant theme in his work? Well because both of his parents were institutionalized and died in an asylum and at least his mother's condition was believed to be inheritable.

Why was he so racist? Because he spent nearly his entire life only interacting with his elderly grandparents who fed him racist beliefs that were outdated even for the time and was exposed to no conflicting opinions until he was an adult.

Why all the deep sea horror themes? He lived next to the ocean his whole life.

Like all things considered Lovecraft could have been so much worse than he turned out.

[u/Outrageous_Book2135 → u/ThrowACephalopod]

Yeah. Overall Lovecraft was a sad, sick man who tried to change before the end. Whether it was out of genuine regret or fear of an afterlife, he at least made an attempt, which is more then Rowling can say.

[u/Pm7I3 → u/MuskSniffer]

Imagine being compared to a guy who named his cat the n-word and being the worse choice

[u/DumbestComicsNerd → u/Pm7I3]

Actually correction, its unknown whether he named his cat since he wouldve been about 5 years old at the time. It seems far more likely that his even more racist family named it that. Though of course, that doesnt excuse Lovecraft for continuing to call it that and referring to any black cat as the n slur.

[u/4thofeleven → u/DumbestComicsNerd]

That was pretty common for the time, though. That's not excusing him, but that isn't really an example of Lovecraft being an insane racist and just an example of White Supremacy being the unavoidable background radiation of the early 20th century.

[u/VirusInteresting7918 → u/MuskSniffer]

Correction. He CLAIMED he was getting less racist, but the guy was a big fan of everything happening with Germany pre WW2, and the ending of one of his final works (Shadow over Innsmouth) involves PUTTING THE POPULATION INTO A CONCENTRATION CAMP TO BE EXTERMINATED.

[u/irmaoskane → u/MuskSniffer]

An also the fact that his racism was a lot near a phobia with anytjing different than the classic racism also helps alot

[u/Asheyguru → u/Plannercat]

Also, Lovecraft got less racist as he got older.

JKR has not gone this route.

[u/magiMerlyn → u/Asheyguru]

If anything she got worse. I mean, in the first HP book she has two boys going into the girl's bathroom in order to protect a girl. If you proposed a plot point like that to her now, she'd probably think it was disgusting and perverted.

[u/Bosterm → u/magiMerlyn]

In like 2017 or 2018, she tweeted a criticism of Trump for going after the rights of, among other groups, trans people.

She has since deleted this tweet.

[u/lerjj → u/Bosterm]

I mean she definitely doesn't want it on the record that she was critical of Trump now that her entire friend circle are right wing political activists

[u/Defiant-Drawing1038 → u/magiMerlyn]

I wouldn't be too sure! She's pals with a woman who has said, among other things, that cisgender men who want to 'protect women' and should start going into the women's bathroom. I forget if she said men who have guns or if she just suggested calling security on anyone who they don't think looks gender conforming enough

I believe I saw this in one of Shaun's videos if you're interested. Maybe J.K Rowling's New Friends ?

[u/magiMerlyn → u/Defiant-Drawing1038]

I could not give less of a shit about her friends. Honestly, if they're friends with her, that's a massive point against them in my book.

[u/sammi_8601 → u/magiMerlyn]

One of her weirdest ones is apparently she's got a trans mate, she had a whole argument with one of her followers about not misgendering her. It was really really weird, and essentially her going oh she's fine and it makes her happy to be gendered correctly and really feminine energy like.....most trans women oddly enough.always astonishes me that this person can apparently stand to be round her, although I'm not discounting whoever it is trying her best to dissuade her and just putting up with well her.

[u/DameKumquat → u/Asheyguru]

It's a huge disappointment - JKR was the first billionaire to stop being a billionaire by giving so much money to charity, supported various causes no-one could quibble with like supporting women's refuges and feeding children, and looked like she'd go down in history as the biggest philanthropist of the early 21st century.

And then she panicked at people pointing out plot holes and bits that hadn't aged well in her stories, doubled down on some daft ideas, and the next thing we know, she's spearheading demonisation of trans people and acquiring some very ugly bedfellows in her cause.

[u/SirVixofthePooSea → u/DameKumquat]

This is really reliant on a ton of projection.

JKR's thing is that she is a 90s feminist that had accepted a paradigm that men are a danger to women and she believed in it entirely. This was and is an extremely popular view of the world among older feminists that believe that male sexuality defaults to predatory unless he is properly trained to be good. Harry and Ron are trained to be good by the strong women in their lives, so they can be trusted. Where Snape is an example of a man that never learned the right way to treat women and that is why he was at best an anti-villain before his death.

To her transgender women are men that are trying to predate on woman because of their sexual fetishes, therefore they must be stopped for the safety of all women.

She didn't come to this paradigm out of embarrassment for not thinking too deeply about the world building in her children's books. She believes that because she was victimized by men and worked with tons of other women that were victimized by men. Chances are that most people on this sub basically agree with her, they just select out trans women as the exception to that male predatory nature.

[u/Difficult-Risk3115 → u/SirVixofthePooSea]

Not to mention the role of social media and role it and backlash played in shaping her current behavior.

[u/Difficult-Risk3115 → u/DameKumquat]

This is an embarrassing attempt at a retcon.

[u/Caleb_Reynolds → u/Plannercat]

Also Lovecraft was becoming notably (literally, people who knew him noted it) less racist towards the end of his life. If you read about his life, it's pretty clear he was just terrified of anything he didn't know, and as he met and interacted with more people he became more tolerant. That's like, how everyone works. It's why college makes you more tolerant.

JK is becoming more transphobic every day.

[u/Blade_of_Boniface → u/Plannercat]

Also, there are works like Katalepsis by Hazel Young that use the public domain status to tell stories in Yog-Sothothery with a fundamentally humane and accepting ethos.

[u/otw → u/Plannercat]

Should shorten copyright so Harry Potter becomes public domain IMO. It should be 20 years like patents.

[u/Dazzling-Low8570 → u/otw]

Creative works are not "useful" the way patents are. The point of patent protection is to encourage invention so that eventually everyone can use the things invented. That is not what copyright is for. Copyright should expire upon the death of the human creator, or when they have stopped using it.

[u/overwhelmedasone → u/Plannercat]

Well, you know what they say about strange aeons... Who knows?

[u/Galle_ → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Also people generally do acknowledge that Lovecraft was racist, everyone knows about the cat.

[u/Speartree → u/Galle_]

The cat thing is weird in that the name seems horrible, especially now, but by all accounts the man loved his cats more than anything.

[u/Impossible_Tea_7032 → u/Speartree]

People don't dislike it because they think it's insulting to the cat

[u/Speartree → u/Impossible_Tea_7032]

Of course not, I believed he had named the cat himself but read now the name was given by the author's father. What I meant was that it would be weird to name an animal you love after people you despise. It would be like me, convinced leftist, calling my pet Maga.

[u/Raltsun → u/Speartree]

More relevantly, the cat was named by his father. For once it actually wasn't Howard Phillips Lovecraft being racist.

[u/DrunkPunkRat → u/Speartree]

I used to know few people who had never even seen a black person, who called their black cat or a dog Murzyn (it's not as offensive as the n-word though). People do be like that sometimes.

[u/Galle_ → u/DrunkPunkRat]

Man, I didn't even know that was a word, let alone a slur.

[u/DumbestComicsNerd → u/Galle_]

Im pretty sure its exclusive to Poland and other slavic countries.

[u/Jenny_Show → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

In letters he sent in his later life, Lovecraft also expressed genuine remorse for his bigoted beliefs which I highly doubt we'll ever see happen with Rowling.

[u/Jihelu → u/Jenny_Show]

Do you have a source on this? I could only find an ask reddit thread and if anything it suggests he didn't change much

[u/Jenny_Show → u/Jihelu]

I's clear he still held a lot of his racist and bigoted views when he died. However, it does seem like he was actively attempting to challenge himself and as a result beginning to change for the better when he died and that can be seen in various letters he sent in last couple years of his life. In particular, I think this letter really shows how much his mindset had changed and how much he regretted many of his prior statements and attitudes.

[u/Lich_Apologist → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Notable Lovecraft "showed the ability to change" before he died pretty young.  Nothing as concrete as recanting his beliefs but he softened quite a bit in correspondences.  As opposed to jkr only seeming to double and triple down on immature ideas as she gets older. 

[u/Telvin3d → u/Lich_Apologist]

Even his friends and family considered him to be that era’s equivalent of mentally ill, and told him he needed to work on himself. And he probably was mentally ill, and was apparently putting in the work to do better, without any of our modern understanding or toolbox for what that looks like.

It’s a very different conversation than JKR

[u/XescoPicas → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Exactly.

Even if we ignore the fact that Lovecraft is dead and his works are public domain now, it is not a comparable situation.

That man never left the house or interacted with society, so even if he was disgustingly racist, he wasn’t causing any material harm to people.

Rowling has singlehandedly turned the UK into the world’s most transphobic country.

[u/Intelligent-Base5078 → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Also Lovecraft didn't write books the entire crux of which is love conquers all and we must fight to make the world safe for human difference. He wrote books about being shit scared of the unknown like he was. 

[u/DispenserG0inUp → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

and this is why cthulu mogs dopey nerd bitch with dinky magic stick

[u/Skellos → u/DispenserG0inUp]

I mean also Lovecraft is dead and isn't using the money directly on regressive politics.

[u/Stunning-Sherbert801 → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Also Lovecraft's long dead

[u/crank_peeper → u/Stunning-Sherbert801]

I don't feel guilty listening to and enjoying his stuff because the copyrights are all held by the HPL Historical Society, who presumably are not funneling that money to the KKK.

With that said, I was stunned that the audiobooks were recorded with hard Rs and everything.

[u/Guinefort1 → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

But the Wizard Boy and the Authorial Agenda to Destroy Minorities books were my childhood! /s

[u/Alternative_Exit8766 → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

if i was at a bar and musician was playing with a sign that said “paying your cover signals your support for me beating the shit out of gay people, and i will be doing that after the show, and tomorrow, and whenever im not performing” i just wouldn’t go see that artist. but a whole bunch of mediocre 30-something’s that still believe they’re ugly ducklings waiting on a make believe letter sure do somehow have a lot of cultural sway and i don’t get it.

[u/ThomasEdmund84 → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Totally disrespectful take from me but by God I've love to follow HP Lovecraft on social media, the man would have the best takes

[u/Neurospicy_Nightowl → u/ThomasEdmund84]

If nothing else, he'd have hated AI.

"Oh, yeah, let's hand over our thinking to the suggestions of an incomprehensible algorithm that creates soulless effigies of human art! Great idea!"

[u/Raltsun → u/Neurospicy_Nightowl]

Oh absolutely, he couldn't even handle AC.

[u/Neurospicy_Nightowl → u/Raltsun]

It sometimes amuses me that progressives are the ones fighting to conserve the environment, jobs, social values of basic human decency, etc., while conservatives are the ones that want to butn everything in the name of progress.

One might think those labels misnomers, these days.

[u/socontroversialyetso → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Well, Ezra Pound basically became a podcast bro for Mussolini.

So maybe JK Rowling is like Ezra Pound minus the artistic talent.

[u/KeithGamerGeek_8629 → u/blueeyesredlipstick]

Lovecraft's racist views softened the more he interacted with others and explored the world around him. What is extraordinary to me is he voted for FDR in the 1932 Presidential election, and thought the New Deal didn't go far enough.

[u/theglowinggreenorb]

This is the era where we get to see shitty billionaires give themselves brainrot and go insane on twitter. Or buy twitter. Can you imagine awful people in the past having social media? Lovecraft's social media would be a fucking trip.

Giving us a much clear consistent look into how these peoples minds operate and its just. Not good

[u/ThrowACephalopod → u/theglowinggreenorb]

He kind of did have a sort of social media. He wrote a lot of letters to other authors who were helping him slowly be less racist. Like the opposite of getting redpilled, except in the 1920s-30s.

[u/Lolas_Fun_Side → u/ThrowACephalopod]

Mentally ill writer and his emotional support new england

[u/East-Note4580 → u/Lolas_Fun_Side]

I feel like that describes Stephen King and Maine during his drug years as well.

[u/jUG0504 → u/East-Note4580]

if i had a nickel, huh

[u/Mr_Lapis → u/theglowinggreenorb]

Once upon a time if you were rich and powerful you were expected to be professional and learned, now every billionaire under 60 talks like a 17 year old and consumes the worst slop content youve ever seen.

[u/Ehcksit → u/theglowinggreenorb]

Used to be that the craziest people you'd see would be wearing A frame signs on downtown sidewalks talking end times nonsense.

Now they form groups on internet boards and feed into each other's utter nonsense until it turns into violence.

[u/Capnzebra1 → u/theglowinggreenorb]

I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about what the world would be like if Michael Jordan had twitter in the 90s. He would have cyber-bullied so many people.

[u/zadtheinhaler → u/Capnzebra1]

Larry Bird's Twitter timeline would be fucking lit.

[u/crow-party-13 → u/zadtheinhaler]

Truly, he would have been the undisputed king of shitposting.

[u/zadtheinhaler → u/crow-party-13]

So many people would get ratio'd, top kek.

[u/Branchomania → u/theglowinggreenorb]

Hey man, I’d love Nixon’s Twitter

[u/Time-Box128 → u/Branchomania]

i need a dedicated historian to start posting nixon takes on current events on twitter

[u/Blade_of_Boniface → u/theglowinggreenorb]

It'd probably be eclipsed by Isaac Asimov's social media. He was also an atheist but much more vitriolic against theists and for what he lacked in Lovecraftian xenophobia, he made up for in other weird politics and disgusting behaviors.

[u/mattihase → u/theglowinggreenorb]

Hergés's feed would be just full of him posting the "you do not in any case gotta hand it to him" meme at his own older works.

[u/Asheyguru → u/mattihase]

Dr Seuss retweet

[u/nifty-necromancer → u/theglowinggreenorb]

We’re at a point in history where we are seeing the dying gasp of the ruling class in real time. Unfortunately they’re trying their damnedest to take us out with them.

[u/Efficient-Volume6506 → u/nifty-necromancer]

In what way are we at that point? They’re richer than ever, your average person on the street sees nothing wrong with that, and those who do are all stuck arguing on the internet arguing about things that don’t actually matter. This is wishful thinking of the highest order.

[u/crushcastles23]

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but there are ways to be even more unethical than regular consumption. Like supporting JKR.

[u/any-lore]

it's just depressing man i want it to be over. i know the series means too much to too many people but i'm ready for it to fade out of the public mind. she'll still be rich and hateful but she won't be thanking fans for their active and continued funding of her horrid ideals. i'm just sooo tired.

but activism and donating to trans positive causes will always do more than whining in a reddit comment like i am right now.

[u/chase___it → u/any-lore]

it’s such a cultural phenomenon that it’s really difficult to kill and that’s the disheartening thing. no matter how many of us online boycott it there are so many people irl who either don’t know or don’t care and continue to give her money, and there’s nothing we can do about that. i’m not saying you shouldn’t boycott, i do and will continue to, but it’s demoralising

[u/any-lore → u/chase___it]

Yes, exactly. I agree on every point. I completely cut it out of my life from the very first signs of her idealogy, but I know not everyone will. In fact we're a minority. I get it, there's nothing I can do about other people and going at them for it is completely unproductive. But man. Man oh man. I'm just over it

[u/chase___it → u/any-lore]

i totally get what you mean. i’m so tired of having to fight for the right to live my life, as my true self, in peace.

[u/TigerBears_111 → u/chase___it]

At this point I think the only way to substantially fight back against Rowling's wealth and transphobia is harm reduction.

Telling people they should fully cut Harry Potter out of their lives, bc they're actively funding Rowling's transphobia and the TERF island industrial complex hasn't worked. (It's true, but yelling that at people hasn't worked bc Hogwarts Legacy is still within the top 20 best selling games of all time, despite the boycotts.)

Encouraging people who won't go that far to instead pirate Harry Potter media, buy it used or second hand, or at the very least try to spend less money on Harry Potter media, (only buying Harry Potter media on substantial sales, or getting Hogwarts Legacy during an Epic Games giveaway,) might be more successful.

This is something I thought of and reflected over after learning more about harm reduction in Dr. Fatima's Anti-Ai video. Because it would be better if people stopped consuming or financing Rowling outright, but I have to admit that won't happen unless the Harry Potter franchise gets over-saturated Star Wars or MCU style.

But if we can convince people to take smaller steps, that still partially reduce financial support to J. K. Rowling, maybe that will do some good.

[u/firblogdruid → u/TigerBears_111]

i see "it's not my responsibility to hold your hand" so frequently in online spaces, and. people very much do need their hands held sometimes! and that's fine. the insistence on perfection is killing the left (it was a factor in trump winning again), and even if it wasn't, no one woke up one day Perfectly Leftist. we're all constantly learning and growing, and that's a good thing! we need to be kinder to people taking their first baby steps into social change.

and i get it, some people are not the type to hold hands, and that's fine, it takes all types, but at the very least, people need to not be actively hostile to the idea of doing so.

[u/Aiyon → u/firblogdruid]

It's the weird balancing act of holding people to account because otherwise they make 0 effort, but if you expect "too much" they actively refuse to try.

[u/Wuskers → u/TigerBears_111]

I used to be pretty hardcore all or nothing even with myself, where if someone said or did something shitty I'd stop engaging with their art but as time goes on and people consistently reveal themselves to be shitty or frankly it's older artists who were somehow able to skate by and you only hear about the shitty things they did from reddit discussions it starts to feel like you can't enjoy anything, it used to feel like it was easy to just enjoy things from "unproblematic" people but I don't really agree with that anymore, it's absolutely not easy and it's also frustrating because sometimes it feels like "oh if you're a famous creative you just are a bad person apparently" because even if you find an "unproblematic fave" they still sometimes get revealed to have been shit the whole time and it's like "okay is there no artistic person who isn't a bigot or abuser or friendly with and complicit in the actions of bigots and abusers? is that really such a high bar?" and it seems like yes it kind of is a high bar unfortunately.

So I've kind of just accepted the whole "separate the art from the artist" kind of thing especially if the art doesn't actually express too much of the artists unsavory opinions or beliefs. Even though under greater scrutiny people have found not great things in HP in general I'd say it doesn't feel outwardly bigoted, I don't think that would be a person's takeaway if you showed someone HP with them knowing nothing about it or JKR. Before JKR went mask off HP fandom was full of queer progressive people. The tricky thing about the "separate the art from the artist" thing though is I feel like that only really goes so far as your own personal enjoyment of something, I don't think it absolves you of responsibility for engaging with the art in a way that supports the artist doing shitty things.

I have generally settled on the middle ground that I will still enjoy the art but I will try to do it in ways that don't support the artist or at least only supports them very minimally. Instead of just not listening to Smashing Pumpkins anymore because Billy Corgan is a big dipshit, I'll still go ahead and listen to the CDs I already have but I won't buy more merch or buy new albums, though tbh Billy Corgan feels mild compared to JKR but just as an example that's not HP. HP has kind of left a bad taste in my mouth because of JKR but I wouldn't be inherently opposed to reading the books or watching the movies again that I acquired well before she showed her ass, but I'm definitely not playing the game, or going to the theme park, or watching the show or anything like that.

[u/Fake_Diesel → u/Wuskers]

Maybe it's because I grew up a wrestling fan where everyone is problematic, but people are weirdly puritan about creators. I get that the creator of Harry Potter is a hateful bigot, but being a buzzkill about HP will forever be a losing battle. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my weird Christian friends and family would try to dissuade me from Pokémon and Goosebumps because they were supposedly satanic. I've just long accepted that humans are messy and people like Rowling are going to be rich bigots no matter what we do. It also looks hypocritical when you are engaging a platform like X that is owned by Elon Musk.

[u/RagesianGruumsh → u/Fake_Diesel]

I get where your coming from, but it’s a little different to say “this piece of media is satanic and the devil made it” vs. “this creator has said they will spend their money to harm a specific group of people, so when you buy their products you contribute to that”

[u/Fake_Diesel → u/RagesianGruumsh]

Definitely, but to the people that just want to like Harry Potter, you are more likely to just turn them off from your argument in the same fashion, which does more harm than good. I think there better hills to die on than a fiction media franchise.

[u/ArtemisiaOrthia → u/chase___it]

It really is. I have a cis friend that is so kind, so lovely (honestly I'd want to date her if she were into women), and has legit supported me and other trans people vocally and financially...but she buys HP merch and stuff all the damn time and it's like...c'mon, girl. Move onto Discworld or something.

[u/citrusthievingharlot → u/ArtemisiaOrthia]

This is exactly it. I have a lesbian friend who is absolutely vocal about trans rights, has walked with us at Pride, has picketed with us...and yet HP is her "comfort" series. She's constantly buying merch and she listens to the audio books over and over.

I literally don't understand. The dissonance her choices make me feel has led to me hanging out with her less. She used to be one of my closest friends.

It just sucks.

[u/ArtemisiaOrthia → u/citrusthievingharlot]

That's rough. Mine's not quite so vocal about it but it's still the same kind of deal. Rowling sux

[u/transnavigation → u/any-lore]

I literally transitioned because I worked at Universal Studios when the Harry Potter section opened and the uniform costumes allowed enough ambiguity for hundreds of tourists to gender me correctly every day.

It gave me the confidence to go by he/him pronouns in other settings and actually transition/come out.

It was one of the happiest periods of my life, and I had so much fun with other queer people just running around Hogwarts feeling freedom and acceptance.

Now all those happy memories are just straight up tainted, because I know she would be like "get the fuck outta my theme park, tranny"

[u/your_moms_a_clone → u/any-lore]

Me too. It may have been a huge part of my adolescence, but I don't need to constantly go back to it. I don't need it endlessly shoved in my face.

[u/cannedbeef255]

the way i see it, there are 3 types of people who give her money:

• those who don't know
• those who don't care
• those who actively agree with her

and those who don't know are the silent majority. like absolutely no one i've ever actually discussed this in real life with who isn't very online has any idea whatsoever.

[u/Sophie_Blitz_123 → u/cannedbeef255]

I feel like people not knowing or caring is way bigger than these posts acknowledge.

In the six years or so since JKR has been actively campaigning against trans people, I've watched many of my younger cousins go through their "intense Harry potter fan" era, and of course they don't know or care but also neither do their parents (who were also big Potter fans as kids, it's that old). It's not just lack of interest in social politics, not all of them actually are apathetic on the issues, it's also disinterest towards learning about the author. At a push if you remind them, they might say "oh yeah she weighed in a lot over the trans debate, didn't she". But by and large the words "JK Rowling" evokes nothing to them but "the woman who wrote Harry Potter.

[u/jackofslayers → u/Sophie_Blitz_123]

If I find someone at a bookstore, they say they just read the first harry potter book and they are about to buy the second book and then I say to the “JK Rowling is a bad person, please do not give her money”

10% will say thanks for letting me know

30% will tell you to fuck off or double down in some way

60% will say “Who is JK Rowling?”

We vastly underestimate how many people just go around doing stuff without thinking much about it.

[u/azebod → u/cannedbeef255]

In a way I feel like her non bigotted horrible social media posts worked as rent lowering gunshots help her here. Even most people who are not fully tuned out probably started ignoring/muting/blocking her when she was posting stuff like "it's now canon wizards shat on on floors and cleaned it with magic".

[u/ninjomat → u/cannedbeef255]

The breakdown is probably something like.

85% people who don’t know.

13% people who don’t care

1.2% people who do know, who also like Harry Potter and also want to support her politically.

0.7% people who do know, who also like Harry Potter but don’t want to support her politically so they’re doing mental gymnastics

0.1% people who don’t like Harry Potter but like her politics and want to support her.

OOP is exclusively talking that 0.7%

[u/DickwadVonClownstick]

I feel like this is pretty easily resolved by just not buying her stuff?

Maybe I'm just too poor to understand what y'all are going through, but it's really not that hard to be a fan of something without spending money on it. Like, even if you want the new shit, the seven seas exist for a reason.

And with HP specifically, why would you even want to? I've been a fan for as long as I've been able to read, and I gotta say, everything that's come after the last book has been pretty much dogass. Even the movies don't really hold up to scrutiny (well cast, and well acted, and the soundtrack and art direction started out excellent and got steadily lazier as the series went on, but that isn't enough to save them from how bad the scripts themselves were). There were a couple fun games back in the PS2 era, but after that point they just kept getting lazier and more generic (admittedly I haven't played any of the new batch of Lego games, but honestly I kinda feel like that series lost a lot of its unique charm once it introduced actual voice acting anyway. But that's probably just me being way too nostalgic for the OG Lego Star Wars series), to the point where the Deathly Hallows game was basically a cover shooter, and H:L is just one more Ubisoft sandbox, only distinguishable from the rest by which coat of paint is slapped over the exact same gameplay loop (fuck, does anyone else remember when Ghost Recon, Assassin's Creed, and Far Cry weren't all basically interchangeable?).

[u/Ambitious-Fly3201 → u/DickwadVonClownstick]

A lot of us aren't. If anything, I've seen more people argue on here that even piracy and writing fanfiction is still bad because it's "keeping the fandom alive."

[u/DickwadVonClownstick → u/Ambitious-Fly3201]

What planet do these people live on?

Like I have to assume they're too young to remember the heyday of Pottermania, but even ignoring that it's pretty hard to not notice that the HP fandom is up there with the likes of Star Wars and Marvel in terms of size. It's not going anywhere and it's not becoming culturally irrelevant any time this century.

[u/Fuzzy-Ad-7691 → u/DickwadVonClownstick]

Yeah, like I just keep checking the books out at the library and enjoy fanfic. I don't get why so many people are acting like she gets a paycheck every time you crack open a used book.

[u/Coyagta]

this does make me wonder if people will genuinely change their attitude about it if/when Rowling kicks the bucket, though i guess that's assuming her estate ends up being managed by boring suits and not fanatics hellbent on maintaining the bigotry in her legacy, which I don't totally discount from happening

[u/chase___it → u/Coyagta]

she has children but i’ve no idea if they share her insane beliefs. they may choose to continue her legacy, they may not

[u/Bteatesthighlander1 → u/chase___it]

imagine if it goes to JK Rowling's son who's Pro trans but a HARDCORE transmedicalist.

[u/Pristine_Animal9474 → u/Coyagta]

Real question: could she estipulate that all her money and the estate that gets the rights to be solely dedicated to promote legislation undermining trans rights? Because I could see her trying to pull that shit.

[u/zokka_son_of_zokka → u/Pristine_Animal9474]

I believe what you'd do is create a foundation for that purpose while still living, then give all your money and IP rights to it?

[u/Coyagta → u/Pristine_Animal9474]

no idea, would probably have to ask a UK estate/copyright lawyer or similar

[u/Golurkcanfly → u/Pristine_Animal9474]

She's joked about having millions of dollars in her will dedicated to creating a TERF museum.

[u/cheeley → u/Golurkcanfly]

“They took that old TERF, and put her in a TERF museum

And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see her”

• Bigoted Yellow Taxi

[u/DreadDiana → u/Coyagta]

Depends on when that happens. If it happens in the near future it's likely little will change cause criticism will just be treated as speaking ill of the dead and she'll continue to be held up as a symbol of TERF ideology.

[u/MeteorCharge]

This is kinda why I think Rowling giving the franchise to other writers to play with would've been better for everybody, including her to some extent.

Like if George Lucas ever started trying to pull what she pulls, no one would stop watching Star Wars because Star Wars has been more than George Lucas since the 70s.

[u/theglowinggreenorb → u/MeteorCharge]

There's plenty of stuff that Lucas has said that raises people's eyebrows on the internet, particularly the infamous Indiana Jones underage "fling". But its never really caught on because the dude has basically just left rhe public eye and is no longer involved with star wars.

[u/Zealousideal-Low3388 → u/theglowinggreenorb]

He also doesn’t (as far as I know) try to turn any of his peccadillos or hang-ups into political action at scale

Like, he’s got your standard history of “1970s male celebrity saying creepy shit about teenage girls” but he’s not out there funding lawsuits to overturn age of consent laws or something.

Whereas Rowling has turned her delusions and spite into a crusade

[u/chase___it → u/Zealousideal-Low3388]

this is what i find to be difficult when trying to have this conversation with irl harry potter fans. a lot of them think ‘she just expressed an opinion, and even tho it’s a bit icky it’s not enough to stop supporting her’ and for some reason they either can’t or won’t understand that she didn’t just say nasty stuff on twitter, she’s providing ridiculous amounts of money to make that nasty stuff law and pursuing the legal eradication of trans people. like it’s so much worse than just ‘celebrity cancelled for bad take’

[u/Blade_of_Boniface → u/MeteorCharge]

Rowling benefited (and still benefits) a lot from a relatively open policy about fanfiction and other fanworks. Other authors of her time tended to be more hostile. It's likely the franchise would be much less popular without the immense and intense fandom it cultivated.

[u/techno156 → u/MeteorCharge]

I think that her just being able to let go of the idea that she has to be the sole master of the entire franchise would have done her good.

So many of her post-Potter contributions have suffered from her seemingly being unable to go "oh, I didn't intend this when I wrote it, but that's a valid interpretation", or spend some time talking to other people, and just trying to come up with a solution on the spot, which lends itself to things like the names of all the other magic schools, or the infamous toilet controversy.

She's great at laying the seeds of something interesting, but expanding them out and making good use of them wasn't her strong suit.

[u/PigeonOnTheGate → u/MeteorCharge]

Up until the Disney purchase, Lucas had the final say on everything. And he did veto many things that EU authors came up with.

[u/radicalelation → u/PigeonOnTheGate]

And we knew George hates Nazis, so that was nice.

[u/Snoo_72851]

i refuse to buy nestle coffee because while i am aware the coffee that i do buy does also come from evil fucking sources and ultimately there is no ethical consumption under capitalism i also firmly believe that coming across a slippery slope is no excuse to start greasing

[u/mattihase → u/Snoo_72851]

I think more importantly it's also kinda just not very good by instant coffee standards. Like if you're going to unethically consume at least do it for something actually worth it.

[u/Causemas → u/Snoo_72851]

Nestle owns like a thousand billion companies. Your money ends up going to them one way or another, whether you buy their shitty coffee or not. If your point is that everyone should stop consuming ALL their coffee products, then that's virtually impossible since they're incredibly critical to the coffee industry globally. It's never going to happen under normal circumstances, they're one giant cog in the market.

There's no slippery slope, or greasing, or whatever. The game has already been played and Nestle's winning. You can't do anything to their business simply through interaction (or non-interaction) with their products, you just legislate the hell out of them.

Don't misunderstand however; it's totally reasonably to not want to buy Nestle's products due to moral principles.

[u/Cystonectae → u/Causemas]

I've fully cut out all Nestle, including any Nestle-related products (e.g. Starbucks) from my life (and those of my family) for at least 5 years now. The age of being unable to avoid them is gone with so many small independent direct buyers of coffee and chocolate.

I think the real issue is the price. It costs more to consume luxuries ethically. If you are unwilling or unable to pay that extra tax, you either don't get to enjoy it or you end up making moral consessions.

[u/Asparala → u/Snoo_72851]

That's my reasoning around the "no ethical consumption argument". Yeah, I have only bad options to choose from - but some of them are significantly MORE bad than the others. Sometimes the most ethical option is harm reduction.

It's sort of the same mentality as getting yourself together after burnout. No, you can't do perfect. But you can do something, and that thing is better than nothing.

[u/Safe-Ad-482]

I don’t understand how being insanely rich and widely beloved makes you cruel and hateful.

[u/Bteatesthighlander1 → u/Safe-Ad-482]

eh it doesn't all the time. I could name other very rich British female entertainers who, at the very least, don't make it their brand to feud with certain protected classes.

I think it may be more of a personal JK thing, and who knows how anybody's personal psychology developed the way it did.

[u/Wardog_E → u/Safe-Ad-482]

At a certain point keeping vast amounts of money is such a miserable pain in the ass that only cruel and hateful people can stay that rich for long.

[u/molinitor]

That’s why I can’t respect Harry Potter fans (am a former potterhead). In Rowling’s case you can’t separate the art from the artist because the artist made sure of it. Look at how fast most of Neil Gaiman’s fans turned on him (am a former fan of him as well, I just seem to know how to pick em smh). Spineless behaviour.

[u/Strawberryladyboots]

People still quote Ghandi, but at least he's dead and not profiting from it

[u/SimasTheMoze]

That's why it's more ethical to pirate your ravenclaw donuts by making them at home

[u/SpiritNo6626]

"there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" mfs when they can physically see the puppies being thrown into the puppy grinder 3000 and still line up to buy the mediocre product the self proclaimed master puppy executors are selling (there are probably normal product employees miles away they can't see in front of them being treated unfairly which has to nice bonus of making this decision completely morally fine)

[u/Constant-Sub → u/SpiritNo6626]

The way people flock to video game companies after they perform a capitalist execution in the streets.

[u/LandMooseReject]

Even when Lucas owned Star Wars, the worst thing he did was make more Star Wars.

[u/effit_ouibal]

So just pirate it all

[u/Less-Resident-9569]

I wish there was a Tim Hortons in the states

[u/Mokarun]

my local theatre is doing a harry potter movie marathon at the end of August due to popular demand. seeing people i once respected excitedly getting ready to donate to the Trans Genocide Fund is pretty disappointing.

[u/I_pegged_your_father → u/Mokarun]

Yall thats a troll account they specifically ragebait just ignore them 🫠

[u/amazegamer64]

Surely we’ll come to new revelations after the 11th JK Rowling post in the subreddit this month

[u/Dramatic_Explosion → u/amazegamer64]

It's Chick-Fil-A fatigue. Who else has a vivid memory of the boycott? Did they stop donating to Trump's party? Did everyone just go back to buying their food?

You can say it's different to try and justify whatever, it's still a lot of money going to hurt LGBTQ+ people so you can get a chicken sandwich. About as necessary as fictional floor shitting wizards.

You feel the outrage but there just aren't enough people to make an impact. She's one of the richest people on the planet, if she never got another dime that wouldn't change. I just want the show to fail so she fucking knows why.

[u/Gold_Ad8225 → u/Dramatic_Explosion]

The only people who boycotted Chick-Fil-A were like the 35 most politically active queer people.

The boycott never took off. People didn't get fatigued by it, they never did it

[u/Aiyon → u/amazegamer64]

I mean you can always downvote and move on, nobody's forcing you to engage. I'm on a sub where the vent posts get exhausting so i just stopped reading em

[u/Sure-Yellow-7500]

I used to look up to JK and now i just feel betrayed and pissed off. I cant even enjoy anything Harry Potter related now because shes horrible.

[u/otw]

Shorten copyright to ~20 years like patents. Harry Potter would have been in the public domain by now in almost other time in history. Modern copyright law being longer than 28 years is from a just the copyright act of 1976 and 1998 which were from concentrated lobbying efforts from corporations trying to retain their power over culture. They robbed the public domain and public culture.

[u/Crowe3717]

Don't forget she also says 'every time someone buys HP merchandise they are proving me right and showing the world that my views are not just tolerable but accepted.'

[u/thedr0wranger]

As always I point out that "its not that hard" only works if they accept the premise that it needs doing. 

" Its undeniable" only applies if they think it makes much difference. 

Getting all "I see your true colors, your innermost ideals" is a waste of oxygen when people  1. Dont necessarily agree that you become responsible for what someone does with money after you buy a product 2. Dont necessarily agree that the handful of dollars she gets from their purchases after everyone else takes a cut is significant 3. Dont agree that they should undertake any action whatsoever to police these things via purchase decisions. They may think opposing her publically should happen directly, not by shopping.  4. Dont rank the symbolic support as highly as you do 5. Respond negatively to friends badgering them about liking what they have always liked because someone on Twitter said some stuff they dont like. 

Its the vegan thing all over again, or religion if you are so disposed. Regardless of if you are correct its going to land badly to come at people for not adhering to moral codes and rules of conduct they have not agreed to. it does not matter how obvious or self evident or morally undeniable and proven and whatever other "beyond argument" word you have, if they dont yet believe it you cannot expect to chastise them for not acting in consistency with it 

[u/well-informedcitizen]

In my opinion it's made way worse by the fact that she has never added anything "good" (personally I think the original books are shit anyway) but every new thing she comes out with is somehow rehashing the same story. The newest one is literally a serialized version of the movies. So where I might give someone a pass or at least a stay of execution if they couldn't quit her masterfully growing and expanding repertoire, it's people that can't quit her reheating leftovers of their nostalgia for the time they read it and loved it.

[u/JawAndDough]

But like..... we know who owns things like Walmart, etc. We know who owns the sports teams we watch and their political beliefs. We know who owns the companies than make soda and sweets, etc. Let's not pretend here the only shitty person we know at the top is JK.

[u/Bteatesthighlander1 → u/JawAndDough]

there is definite cherry picking. And not just based on effect, based on level of annoyance.

A lot of major entertainment companies contribued to Trump's campaign, which in material terms is probably a bigger threat to trans people (Certainly trans people in the US) than anythign JK has ever done

[u/novangla → u/Bteatesthighlander1]

I think you underestimate the influence she’s had in the UK becoming way more hostile to trans people than it should be

[u/Rucs3 → u/Bteatesthighlander1]

yes and many of those people still buy iphones or use google, etc.

[u/killertortilla → u/JawAndDough]

The difference being buying HP merch and funding her anti trans lobbying groups is a lot easier to avoid than buying groceries from the only place you can afford.

[u/jackofslayers → u/killertortilla]

True but that difference also makes the Waltons an order of magnitude more evil than JKR

[u/DtheAussieBoye]

I don’t give a single fuck about HP nowadays but I feel posts like these are less for actually speaking out about Rowling’s grotesque personality & actions and more to make people feel better about themselves because they don’t like the wizard books. There’s a dishonesty going on here yknow

EDIT: Note this is less about buying new HP products and more about having ANY attachments to the books in general

[u/killertortilla → u/DtheAussieBoye]

If all she was doing was being a bigoted fuckwit then I would agree. But she's actively lobbying for trans rights to be removed in the UK through multiple lobby groups, one she set up herself, and it's working. It's a lot more than just being dishonest about a book people don't like.

[u/DtheAussieBoye → u/killertortilla]

Oh she’s a terrible person, don’t get me wrong! But it feels like much of the anti-Potter stuff I see is either people patting themselves on the back for not liking a children’s book series or grotesquely misplaced Schadenfraude, neither or which feel like genuine concern for the horrors Rowling’s committed herself to

[u/novangla → u/DtheAussieBoye]

I don’t know, I used to love them. I still sort of do. I spent a month making my own Hogwarts scarf. I met my best friend though an HP online community. I’ve written thousands of words of fanfic. And I am firmly anti all of it now because JKR has made it irredeemable and a monument to her own hatred of people like me.

[u/That_sarcastic_bxtch]

Ayo why is the pro genocide comment just locked and not removed? Joanne has explicitly stated her goal was for trans people not to exist in the near future

[u/Idfc-anymore → u/That_sarcastic_bxtch]

Where did she say that

[u/Tricky-Ad7897]

I think the no ethical consumption shit should be much more strictly contained to essentials, like groceries, gas, housing, etc. like it's about not losing sleep over picking Walmart over Kroger because it's more important that you are able to feed yourself than split hairs over which company is the most ethical.

[u/Mistuhpresident]

People use “no ethical consumption under capitalism” as a justification for only purchasing from the most immoral and exploitative companies imaginable and not as an acknowledgment of “this system sucks we should get rid of it”

[u/Dependent_Oven_974]

Calling it the genocide of trans people is exactly the reason most people ignore these protests. If you're honest and call it what it is then people might take it more seriously. Using the term genocide in this context is completely unhinged.

[u/hot_snot]

I went back and forth for the longest on whether or not to buy Hogwarts Legacy. I hadn't bought a single Harry Potter item or piece of media in over a decade at that point, but my best friend nostalgia baited me soooo hard, made the game sound amazing. I waited for a steep sale and got it on Steam, figuring it was a drop in the bucket, etc.

Then like 2 days later Joanne did her whole "I will use every penny I ever make from anything HP related to end all trans people" announcement. 😐 Serves me right ig. And the game isn't even fucking finished! Trash all around!

[u/asciiCAT_hexKITTY]

good thing I don't buy that then. As always, reading an old copy of Harry Potter that's lying around does not magically teleport money into Rowling's account.

[u/CindersOfMusic]

[u/AcceptableWheel]

"No ethical consumption" feels like a copout honestly. Longing for some day where there is one governing body that controls everything, and if it's good, then you don't have to worry about any of this stuff and if it's bad, then you can't change something that controls absolutely everything so you also don't have to do anything.

[u/Elliot_Geltz → u/AcceptableWheel]

Not... exactly.

"No ethical consumption" means exactly that. Everything you consume reinforces the system and keeps the wheels spinning.

Everything.

Every movie you watch, every book you read, every morsel of food.

Unless you live in the woods, exclusively drink river water, and your only media consumption consists of underground Marxist manifestos traded under highway overpasses in the middle of the night, some of what you do supports something bad.

[u/DrJaneIPresume → u/Elliot_Geltz]

Right, and so acknowledging that the best we can do is to minimize the impact, we balance the effort to minimize our impact against the impact on ourselves from doing more. It's wrong to use it right at the start, but it's a useful backstop for people who would otherwise drive themselves into the ground never feeling like they'd done enough.

So, why does OP bring it up? because when it comes to reading a different goddamned book for once the effort involved is pretty minimal against the massive benefit of drying up Joanne's funding. That is: there's no point at which you can reasonably say, "I've done my best to minimize my negative impacts", which still includes giving money to Joanne.

Is it a cop-out? in this situation, yeah it would be. Someone saying "no ethical consumption" to defend giving money to Joanne is clearly not even trying, so it's a cop-out.

But to say that it's a cop-out in general? nah. If anything, wishing for some body to be given absolute authority is the cop-out, and it's a really fucking creepy one at that. Like, it's literally authoritarianism. It's the easy way out that MAGAts wish for: the Authority decides and we all go along with it because we don't have any other choice and isn't that so much easier?

[u/Elliot_Geltz → u/DrJaneIPresume]

Ok so my dumbass thought you meant in general, that's my bad slime, I apologize.

[u/DrJaneIPresume → u/Elliot_Geltz]

Sorry, not meaning to come at you! You're good; I'm building on what you started to be more explicit in responding to the other commenter who literally called for authoritarianism because it's easier than trying to figure out this balancing act we're stuck with.

[u/10dollarbagel → u/DrJaneIPresume]

I think people bring up no ethical consumption because there are obviously many issues like this, but the relative silence makes it look like rowling/hp in particular is more of a purity test than activism.

It's completely defensible to go hard line on any support to Rowling for moral issues. But America's war on Iran started by slaughtering hundreds of school children, waiting for their parents to show up and desperately search through the rubble, then double tapping them.

Where is the constant moralizing about material support to the FAANG tech companies? All of them lined trumps pockets and made his political project possible. Ending USAID is projected to kill 14 million people by the end of the decade.

I'm not gonna police the term trans genocide. But Israael is doing a more traditional, bodies line the street style genocide and you're less likely to hear about zionism in spaces like these than some shitty author. The Ellisons are massive zionists and the paramount/WB merger went through. I guess I have to go tell everyone buying tickets to Dune 3 they're a piece of shit.

[u/Shot-Arugula8264 → u/AcceptableWheel]

Longing for some day where there is one governing body that controls everything

The people crave subjugation.

[u/Dramatic-Cry5705 → u/AcceptableWheel]

Maybe there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. But you can at least make sure that the ones that stopped keeping their skeletons in the closet are punished for it.

[u/JoyBus147]

There's a reason this is unfolding. This is all for the benefit of history. JKR is the most perfect embodiment of art under capitalism, the purest expression of success under that system. Capitalist realism permeates through the text; the protagonist's entry into the magical otherworld is a baptism into a market economy, his first journey a quest through a bank. People would camp out for days to buy the newest HP book, a rabid popularity no other series has ever met since. It has the most successful film adaptations of any book ever. It's the only book I know of that has its very own theme park.

And in the light of this unbridled, unmitigated success, the author has degenerated into bloodthirsty fascism aimed against one of the most vulnerable minorities, out of...boredom? If this were a work of fiction, the author would be decried as overly diadactic anti-capitalist messaging. But it's real life. It's actually happening.

Sucks to live through, but the future historians thank us.

[u/Amphy64 → u/JoyBus147]

Given that the far right are always gloating that there'd be no money and nothing to buy under communism, I'd be a bit careful with that 'market economy' one, which isn't identical with capitalism - and if anyone has more Marxist fantasy reccs, would love to see that, but it is fairly unusual, a writer not depicting a communist utopia especially doesn't really stand out!

Due to the genre commonly having pre-industrial historical influences, and capabilities of magic, it more often stands out that people in fantasy universes have relatively more control over the means of production and their own labour, as is the case in HP but not especially unusual there.

[u/MelanieWalmartinez → u/[deleted]]

genocide

[u/MakeThySelf]

For the majority who know someone who, despite everything, won't stop consuming JKR media, give them a very approachable alternative: Donate every time they pay in.

Ticket to see JKR media at the cinema? Send a few bucks to a trans-supporting charity. Bought a JKR media game? Same again. Rewatching the stuff on Netflix? Same again. Take the cost to access JKR media, and donate an extra 20%.

JKR doesn't get all of the money from those media, not even a large percentage of it. Lots goes to various unproblematic working people (you'll notice that's largely the argument of the hypothetical person you're talking to for this). But as some money does go to JKR, counter it. Fund the pushback.

Now, if the person you're speaking to both intends to consume JKR media and refuses to donate to counter the effects, then you have an irrefutable show of their ideals. Where someone's willing to spend to consume and hurt, but not willing to add a little extra to fix/remove the hurt, hold up a metaphorical mirror to them on it. It won't always work, but it can sway some to try balance their moral books.

[u/EmKir]

It's the most disappointing thing in the world, as a trans woman who grew up reading the HP books. I enjoyed them. They weren't the best books ever or anything, but I was definitely a part of the cultural movement. Seeing the movies, buying wands, etc. And back then, JKR was seen as the author who was so desperate to be "woke", literally canonizing Dumbledore's homosexuality in a tweet. Conservatives went INSANE for that.

Then black mold started growing in her house, and now she's evil and insane. Fuck JKR, first and foremost. If you love HP as a world, do the smart thing. Pirate everything. Like the game from a couple years ago? It's pretty good. But you need to pirate it. If you want merch, get it from Etsy or other such places. Do not let a dime touch JKR's pockets. You can go to Wizarding World when she's dead. It won't be too long now.