JK Rowling’s transphobia casts and inescapable shadow over the new Harry Potter adaptation.
You say that as if pirating isn’t a thing.
I wouldn’t even pirate this garbage
That’s a whole different discussion about the “seperate artist and art”-argument, not wether or not I want her to get any money off of it.
For example: EA is a garbage company but I’m a sucker for their open world formula so I have no problem pirating their games.
So about those House Elves. What did Rowling mean by that?
idk what you’re getting at specifically but I’m not pretending that it’s a perfect work of art with absolutely no flaws. Just that I can enjoy it without being constantly aware of real-world views of the author.
Because JK Rowling puts her real world views in her world. As a kid, I stopped reading the books halfway through and just assumed that the House Elves and SPEW storyline would be resolved by the House Elves being freed. By setting up that would be storyline and leaving it at status quo, Rowling is endorsing race based slavery.
There’s a lot of small story elements that can be brushed off if they stood alone, but together add up and reveal Rowling’s conservative word view. Hagrid is naturally violent, the sorting hat, there’s a whole school house for evil kids and not one of them ever breaks expectations… I could go on if I wasn’t on my phone.
My whole reason for dropping the books halfway through was nothing ever changed. It was frustrating.
Ok, and some people are able to put that aside and enjoy them anyway. If those people are pirating the content she gets no money. If those people are able to say “yeah, that part is bad/shit/wrong” then her shit beliefs aren’t being propagated.
The people who care about this sort of stuff are already aware. The people who don’t aren’t going to be reading articles like this anyway.
This discussion is about whether or not there are ethical ways to consume the content, not about the merits of the content itself, which is the rabbit hole you seem to be stuck in.
We know. We aren’t defending it. We’re just saying that it is possible to get the content in ways that don’t enrich the creator’s bank account, and it is possible to consume it without going “Rowling was right”.
nah. There are Harry Potter fans who’s world views are shaped by the franchise. To the extent that they’ll write articles defending the House Elf Slavery. Here’s one example. https://web.archive.org/web/20191002072741/https://www.pottermore.com/features/to-spew-or-not-to-spew-hermione-granger-and-the-pitfalls-of-activism
So your priorities are a wizard book for children that you like some of, then below that, in second place, the rights and lives of persecuted minorities.
“to the well trained mind, doing mental gymnastics to ignore harm to minorities is the next great adventure” - Professor Domblewomble, probably.
is endorsing race based slavery.
Wouldn’t something similar affect most of Fantasy? In TLoTR there are many races that are evil, with no redeeming qualities whatever. The race makes them evil, endorsing some racists ideas too.
I actually don’t like most fantasy, but Lord of the Rings is a bad example of that. Most of the races are not evil, but had evil or faulty leadership. The Uruk-hai weren’t a natural race, but a corruption created by Sauron.
Most fantasy that do have evil races are descended from D&D, which has self described, biological determinist, Gary Gygax to blame.
I rather pirate this so my friends and family won’t get tempted to give this cunt any money.
I’ll agree but also say even putting her aside, these look like they’re going to be garbage, the movies did not need a reboot. Just over a decade since they finished and they decide it’s time to reboot them
me neither but I will watch it if its conveniently free.
As we saw with Game of Thrones, even pirating testifies to the popularity of a property and generates revenue.
Cool.
Now tell me about how pirating Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is ethical consumption.I would read mein kampf but there is a bunch of other historical literature I should likely get around to first.
I read it.
I’m not an expert, but that guy was fucking bonkers
I’m okay with YOU thinking that’s unethical.
I think stuff about you too, all good
yeah I actually blocked him. Im leaning toward blocking if folks treat questionable things as the greatest trajedies in all of history.
False comparison. One is a children’s story (which does not mention the issue at hand) and the other is mein Kampf.
Children’s books are different because their intended audience is children! Apples and Oranges!
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Poisoning-young-minds-in-Nazi-Germany%3A-children-and-Corelli/198bafb16c54b40f9fd8e4c043df4327fb57c325Harry Potter does not mention trans or trans issues once dude. I read them cover to cover.
Tell that to the
House Nhouse ELF, slave… Or the Nazi Jewish caricatures running the banks… Or the dozens of other dog whistles in there.I get it, you’re ignorant and tolerate racism, sexism, misogyny, slavery…
Oh wait no I mean, Raceuffleism, Sexofflepuffletuffism, slavertifflepifflery, and misogynotiffery.
Yes trans and gay people don’t exist in the Harry Potter universe because they were all killed.Besides are you a pedophile or something? Why are you obsessed with some children’s story?
Disengage
Wow. The absolute insanities in jumps of logic. There’s no sense arguing with you.
Disengage
Reductio ad absurdum (Latin for “reduction to absurdity”) is a form of argumentation that disproves a statement by showing that its logical conclusion is absurd, contradictory, or untenable. It works by assuming a premise is true, following its logic to a ridiculous result, and thus proving the original premise false.
Yeah they’re two different things, that’s why I’m comparing them. That’s how comparing things works.
The similarity is: they are both biggoted pieces of fiction, and there is no ethical consumption of biggotry. Even if you pirated it.
Great, I have another concept then. Apples and oranges.
Both round sweet fruits. There are a lot of things you could say similarly about the two of them.
They’re as classic as unoriginal thought, cliches, and a stubborn refusal to be responsible for supporting racism, classism, and transphobia.
Oh fuck, better tell every historian that’s ever read Mein Kampf that some guy online thinks they’re all nazis
Critique is different than consumption, but nice try bud
How do you accurately critique something without consuming it? You can’t analyze something critically without knowing what it is.
Edit: typo
Splitting hairs.
Disengage.No.
How can you accurately critique something without consuming it? You can generalize about it or say you won’t consume it for whatever reason, but to actually critique something you have to know what it is saying.
Disengage
There is no ethical consumption.
I used to say that it didn’t matter. A person like JKR is so obscenely rich that the entire world could boycott all Harry Potter content and it wouldn’t affect her at all. But now she’s directly lobbying for hateful policies with her wealth. Now it truly is inexcusable.
And yet millions of fans will mindlessly tune in.
And as much as Harry Potter fans might be excited to see what HBO has cooked up, there’s no way to watch this show without supporting Rowling’s bigotry and the structural violence she’s inflicting on a vulnerable minority.
Gotta say, I’ve never been so motivated to pirate something and not watch it in my life.
