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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   25377 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 1, 2024

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If they charge her and fail to convict her, or do convict her and have a bunch of HP-loving constituents toss them out of office, their project suffers a major setback. So they won't charge her. They'll charge a bunch of loud people who engender no public sympathy, and some little people unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They'll use them to build precedent, and of course "But you didn't charge Rowling" isn't a defence in court. After a while of this, they'll have the weight of precedent behind them and be able go after the next big fish if not Rowling herself.

Doesn't even need to be HP fans. Nicola Sturgeon's downfall began with the Isla Bryson case, after her very enthusiastic support of gender recognition norms and then she had to intervene to have the transwoman moved to a men's prison after all.

Convict Rowling, and a lot of people will go "Hang on, she was arrested for saying a guy who raped women and a guy who stalked a 13 year old shouldn't be in women's prison?"

Rowling does, however, engender contempt for the law this way.

This is the kind of statement my father might have said, and clearly it's true. (of course he also grew up in Alabama in the 50s and 60s). Were the issue something different (were she taking a stance with which I had no sympathy) I might even find this slippery slope aspect worrying. I can't remember the MLK quote but the gist of it is that to be moral one has to break unjust laws. Or perhaps more aptly, to be a hero, currently, is to behave like a merely decent human being. (That's May Sarton via LeCarré).

I've always been admiring of Rowling and bewildered at how she has become the focus of such hatred for what seems to me to be an uncomplicated, straightforwardly moral stance. She's even said that in other contexts she would march for trans people's rights to not suffer bullying or violence.

They'll charge a bunch of loud people who engender no public sympathy

I predict pretty strongly that they won't, at least not under the current administration. The british government is pretty anti-trans in general, the police are underfunded and ineffectual, and these just aren't the type of laws that go on the books with the intention of being enforced.

Remember years back when Peterson said that x new law means everyone will get arrested if they misgender someone in class or w/e, and then no one was ever prosecuted ever for anything? At some point, you have to notice that the meteor keeps not coming, despite Dear Leader's repeated predictions that it's due any day now.

  • -24

A British man named Dave McConnell was arrested, charged and convicted for misgendering someone, although his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Please don't move the goalposts and say "well his conviction was overturned, you're tilting at windmills". The process may not have been the punishment in McConnell's case, but it was certainly punishing.

When there are unenforced laws that can be used but they don't feel like using them, what you'll find is that they suddenly start getting used a lot more for political reasons.

It's better just to have laws that are clear, instead of a double standard.

Remember years back when Peterson said that x new law means everyone will get arrested if they misgender someone in class or w/e, and then no one was ever prosecuted ever for anything? At some point, you have to notice that the meteor keeps not coming, despite Dear Leader's repeated predictions that it's due any day now.

As of this moment Peterson is on the hook for a $5000 fine and losing his medical license -- what a dum-dum, he was sooooo off base.

Not to mention the required reprogramming.

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