this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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JK Rowling has challenged Scotland's new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.

The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.

She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.

Earlier, Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a "rising tide of hatred".

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.

Ms Rowling, who has long been a critic of some trans activism, posted on X on the day the new legislation came into force.

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Please do. She may see herself as some kind of martyr, but everyone else just sees her as an idiot.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I may not have the whole facts and information, but to me, it is beginning to sound more like a witch-hunt. Just let her have her opinions and move forward

[–] Syndic@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How's telling her that she has shitty opinion a witch hunt, but her using her fame and wealth to spread her shitty opinion way beyond what a normal random person could ever do, isn't?

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

As mentioned, I do not have all the details. I have heard some of her ideas, but I don't follow her that closely. Many famous people have terrible ideas and many fans to spread their ideas to. To me it mostly looks like people being hurt even more by JK, because they like the universe that she has created but her ideology does not fit their own.

It's fair to feel like this, but she is just one person sharing her ideas. Nobody goes like: "JK is against trans people, so I am too". At least they shouldn't and at least we should expect most people don't. Just let her have her opinions and leave it at that

[–] Syndic@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

As mentioned, I do not have all the details. I have heard some of her ideas, but I don’t follow her that closely.

Well then maybe, you should look a bit deeper in the topic before you propose that she's the victim of a witch hunt? I mean it's really not that hard, all the controversial shit is right there on her own twitter and can easily be found.

It’s fair to feel like this, but she is just one person sharing her ideas. Nobody goes like: “JK is against trans people, so I am too”. At least they shouldn’t and at least we should expect most people don’t. Just let her have her opinions and leave it at that

What? Of course people are constantly influenced by other people's opinions. That's how opinions form in the first place. And a world famous author with tons of followers on top of a shit ton of money to throw at groups actively advocating for legal restrictions on transsexual people obviously has a lot more power to influence people's opinions and shitty laws than you or me in that regard. So no, she's not just a person sharing her ideas, she's an incredible influencual one sharing her hate in a time when the transsexual community is under active attack in several modern countries not only resulting in hurt feelings but actual people ending up dead!

[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's becoming harder and harder to be a Harry Potter fan nowaday.

I don't really understand what it is about X Formerly Known as Twitter that turns previously respectable people into, well, this.

Everybody should take a break from social media once in a while, it's better for your health.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't like Harry Potter to begin with, but I don't really have a huge problem separating the artist from the art if the only thing they did was be hateful.

Roald Dahl was a major antisemite, but I still think he wrote great children's books and suspense/horror stories. H. P. Lovecraft was bigoted about pretty much anyone who wasn't a white man. Again, a really good writer.

Where is becomes hard to separate them is when they actually do something about their disgusting ideas. Roman Polanski and Woody Allen are pedophiles. I will never watch either of their movies. And I think both have made very good movies. I feel that I was wrong to watch the ones I did.

So yeah, Rowling is an utterly contemptible piece of shit, but if you like Harry Potter, it's okay.

[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There were always questionable elements from the books, like the depictions of goblins and elves. But knowing what we know now, these elements cannot be brushed off any more.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The Elves were directly based off of "Brownies"

It's also highly unusual that elves were depicted this way, considering most fantasy stories hold them in high regard as being magical beings seeing themselves above humanity for reasons that are normally geniunely sound (Better moral compass, natural magical talents... Whereas in Harry Potter it's the exact opposite, humanity seems to be the highest creature and Elves feel like to squabble before them..

There's no way the "Brownie" similarity is unintentional

So what's a Brownie? Well it was a way of explaining slaves to young children back in those days, to brush off the casual cruelty by lying to kids. Essentially the myth of the "Brownie" was to re contextualize the suffering of the black slave as a magical event, a beautiful mysterious thing to be observed not with horror, but with wonder. A big part of the myth claimed that you can't give a Brownie anything nice like proper clothing, or else this "breaks the contract between Man and Fae" and they run back into the woods never to be seen again.

"No it's okay children, they're magical forest people called Brownies! And they LIKE doing that work for us! Oh and we can't give them anything nice, or they'll disappear forever! And you wouldn't want that to happen! No no, really, they're faeries, and they like being whipped like that!"

Feeling disgusted? Good, that sickness in your stomach is proof that you're a better person than JK Rowling.

tl;dr Harry Potter elves are a resurrection of Pro-Slavery Propaganda used to indoctrinate children into thinking it's okay to treat people like shit. They had to GASLIGHT LITERAL CHILDREN into thinking that black people were magical elves, in order to stop them from feeling bad about slavery.. and JK decided to bring that back for her kid's book.

As much fun as Hogwarts Legacy is, I hope she rots in hell and then is reborn as a transgender woman to learn basic empathy.

[–] Llewellyn@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

most fantasy stories hold them in high regard as being magical beings seeing themselves above humanity for reasons that are normally geniunely sound (Better moral compass, natural magical talents...

Oh sweet summer child... You better not know about elves in folklore...

[–] Syndic@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

And even if we only look at Tolkin's Elves, who basically are the base of the whole modern conception of them, they certainly aren't better as a general rule. Some of them are really shitty fucks.

[–] kellyaster@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Rowling quote from the article:

Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls.

It's difficult to accept that someone I used to respect could say such hateful things about people like me. I'm not gonna lie, it hurts to read. What the fuck, Joanne? Is that all I am to you... just a man "performing" my idea of femaleness? Well, fuck you, then. Should I wish for you to feel the same pain you've inflicted on others? To be honest, judging by your "performance" in the media the past several years, I don't think you're resilient enough to survive it.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I am not sure she entirelly referes to you. It refers to people abusing transexuality to achieve other dreams or more dreams than just being themselves. At least this is how I understand her argumentations.

[–] Syndic@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Fuck that shit. She doesn't make any such distinction in her hate tirades. It's very easy to find many tweets and similar quotes of her speaking about transsexual people as a whole. So yeah, she very much has spoken about OP as well. And she's a freaking author, she doesn't get any excuses for not knowing how to write more specifically. She knows very well what she says and who it will affect when she generalises all transsexual people. And it for damn sure isn't some imaginary group or predators willing to go through all the hassle of being trans to prey on women but the trans community as a whole.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (22 children)

Her opinion on trans folks is shit, but people should not go to jail for shit opinions. Broken clock and stuff.

[–] MadBigote@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You can weaponize an opinion, that is what is getting punished.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Where you draw the line? And who is drawing it? Will you be equally happy when conservatives will use the same tools against opinions they see as dangerous?

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Slippery slope fallacy "You're okay with the government saying certain ingredients can't go in food? Where does that stop? Will you be equally happy when a government you disagree with uses the same tools to dictate everything that goes in your food?"

"You're okay with the government saying certain areas are off limits to the general public? Where do you draw the line? Will you be equally happy when a different government uses the same tools to forbid you from leaving your home?"

Is this specific step reasonable? Then it's okay. When they try to take an unreasonable step then it is appropriate to do something about it.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

My argument is more, that while I trust at least some governments with deciding on what food is safe, I don't trust governments at all with decisions about what speech is permitted.

[–] MadBigote@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Who draws it? The government?!

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

What could go wrong? Assange and Manning would like a word with you.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"But what if conservatives ape what you're doing and make shit up?" is an all-purpose argument against doing anything.

"But what if conservatives call you a terrorist?" is both a real problem that happened to people, and an obviously shite reason to say "therefore let's not fight terrorism."

Stop treating "but who decides?" like a table-slapping counterargument. Every law has a line. Unless you're an outright anarchist, someone has to draw a line, somewhere, and choosing not to draw a sensible one never seems to stop assholes from drawing an unreasonable one. I mean for fuck's sake, have you seen American states censoring school libraries for fear of acknowledging queer people? That's not some backlash or ironic reversal. They're just bastards. The fact they'll latch onto whatever we're doing, as an excuse, doesn't make us responsible for their bastardry.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

Yeah, so let's not play their game and not give governments any tools to be able to censor anyone. In best case in some constitutional form.

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I think the line is being drawn at "don't sympathize with ~~terrorist groups~~ an opressive theocratic government" (publicly stating "at least the taliban know what a woman is") and "don't directly fund hate groups".

(Edited, see comment below)

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Terrorist for ones are maybe freedom fighters for others - kind of sketchy line over there.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

When you woke up today did you decide you were gonna make excuses for the Taliban right there and then or did it kinda just happen? Holy shit.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Taliban are obviously the only terrorist group on the planet and rebels were never before labeled as terrorists.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Which other terrorist group did that TERF sympathize with?

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

How should I know? I personally don't follow those crazy people.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lots of people just don't know what freedom is speech actually means. Speech isn't a crime, but crimes can be committed by speaking.

If you kill someone with a hammer, you aren't charged with possession of hammer - you're charged with murder. If you hire a hitman to do the killing instead, you aren't charged with "using speech."

When that theoretical person is arrested for "shouting fire in a crowded theatre" they aren't actually being arrested for their speech or their words, but for a separate crime that uses speech as a mechanism.

Speech is a marvelous thing that should be protected, but freedom of speech is not freedom from the consequences of using speech to commit other crimes.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

Agreed. It just becomes problematic when speech itself is redefined as crime, that is what I'm arguing against. And the the line with the consequences is not that clear either. Someone could read a book and go an kill someone. I personally think it's a hard thing to really understand consequences of words.

[–] TheEntity@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

People shouldn't go to jail for shit opinions, I agree. That changes when their opinions become more than opinions.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

That's cryptic.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Have as many opinions as you want, but if you spread shit like "we should exterminate the lesser races" and "trans people are rapists" you earn a vacation at the greybar hotel for abusing your right of free speech to infringe on other people's rights.

[–] gapbetweenus@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (5 children)

The question is where the line is drawn and how to make sure the state is not abusing those powers to suppress opinions that it sees dangerous. A good example are cases when protecting the children is used as argument for more surveillance. This seems foelr me to go along the same lines.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

he question is where the line is drawn

[Calling for the extermination of people based on race/ethnicity/religion/gender/disability]

[Discrimination based on race/ethnicity/religion/gender/disability]

|||||||||| THE LINE ||||||||||

.

.

[Literally 1984]

Most sane countries don't have a lot trouble with this.

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