What did JK Rowling do wrong?

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"It's totally different when we do it"

You don't seem to understand what guilt-by-association is, and is not. For example, consider the following two statements:

1) Bob is a bad person because he has friends who are thieves.

2) Bob is a bad person because he knowingly buys stolen goods from his friends who are thieves.

The first of the above two statements is pure guilt-by-association. The second statement says that Bob is guilty of something he himself has actually done, not just "associating with" the thieves.

What percentage of the criticisms of Rowling would you estimate consists of "she retweeted/liked person X who engaged in wrongthink?

You don't seem to understand that retweeting entails much, much more than just "association" -- especially when the retweeter is a famous person with millions of followers.

I don't understand why this isn't glaringly obvious to you. Do you participate on Twitter or other similar social media at all?

Unless the person retweeting something is saying something against it, then it's not guilt by association. This is not what JK Rowling did.

When a retweet is generally the same as saying it oneself, UNLESS there are mitigating comments accompanying the retweet.

I realize that there are people on social media who are naive to this reality, but it seems obvious to me.

Have you ever used Twitter? People retweet for a lot of reasons, it's not for nothing that "retweets are not endorsements" is standard profile tab boilerplate over there.

I do, I just disagree with your interpretation of how they work and the norms associated with them. I don't consider you a very reliable observer honestly, you have an agenda and it colors both how you see the world and how you process information, such as your selective demands for rigor around certain topics that cut against your worldview. I suspect you're in a bubble based on many of your comments, something I don't have the luxury of, being a cultural outsider both on and offline.

how??
in the guilt by association, jumping silently from theft(crime) to wrongthink,
how's that the same, 'wrong' think isn't criminal
although apparently some make the hasty step in equalising this,
or get caught up in the drama of 'debate' and ignore the elephant

*goodthink — A synonym for "political orthodoxy" and "a politically orthodox thought" as defined by the Party

Okay, would you be willing to spell out your exact disagreements with the following, and your specific actual reasons for those disagreements, rather than just making vague snide remarks?

1) Retweeting something without comment is generally taken as an endorsement. Why wouldn't it be?

2) On the other hand, when you quote-tweet someone, instead of doing a simple retweet, people are entitled to judge what you say in your comment accompanying the quote.

3) When a famous person, with millions of followers, retweets or quote-tweets a person with nowhere near as many followers, the latter person suddenly gets A LOT more attention, for good or ill, than they otherwise would.

4) All of the above entail -- or, at the very least, may entail -- more than just "association."


Do you mean to claim that your own "demands for rigor" aren't "selective" too? For example, if someone tells you the sky is blue, and you just looked at the sky 10 minutes ago and saw that the sky was blue too, are you going to demand that the person prove to you that the sky is blue?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof -- and different people differ in what seems "extraordinary" to them, given their own experiences and worldview.


I certainly don't fit in with the social mainstream either, for lots of reasons.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 28 Oct 2022, 3:37 pm, edited 5 times in total.

My point was to make an analogy -- NOT to equate, in all particulars, JK Rowling's online behavior with theft.

My point was simply that my own and other people's complaints about JK Rowling are not just "guilt by association." To make this point, I pointed to the analogous issue of there being a difference between being an accessory to a crime and being merely associated with the criminal.

Of course, JK Rowling's behavior isn't criminal, but she has given lots of help to (NOT just "associated with") anti-trans activists. And thus she may have played a significant role in making life more difficult than it would otherwise be for trans people living in the U.K.

I have a Twitter account, but it is not my preferred medium because it is so often drawn from for public discourse. Whatever users choose to believe the norms are, all users would be wise to understand that the general public DOES taint people by what they choose to retweet, and I would suggest that it would be extremely naive of any public figure to not be aware. I have seen people taken down for simply "liking" something on social media, even if it was just to support a friend. I don't personally agree with the extreme judgement that gets leveraged upon people for posting and sharing habits on any public platform, but I've seen enough to be fully aware of its reality. NOT understanding and paying attention to these dynamics as a public figure would be foolish.

I've seen that disclaimer on some accounts, but not on most. In particular, JK Rowling does not have such a disclaimer.

For those who do make that disclaimer, the obvious reason for it is that most people will naturally assume that a retweet is an endorsement, unless otherwise stated.

Personally, I rarely do a plain retweet. I almost always prefer to quote tweet.

All these replies, and I still don't think we have any examples of JKR actually saying anything transphobic, it's all inuendo and guilt by association claims. Given the intensity of the vitriol, you'd really expect a smoking gun by now.

You still have not responded to my specific points on WHY it's NOT just guilt-by-association. You've merely re-stated a claim which I've disputed multiple times. You have consistently ignored my specific arguments.

Your demands for my time and labor are extremely ignorable, as I don't put a high priority on bad faith attempts to waste my time.

Where's your smoking gun of Rowling saying something transphobic?