Possible abuse of minority rights and what to do
29 Sep 2023, 6:21 am
It's a spin-off from the Harry Potter thread because of course discussion of Harry Potter could not do without discussing - to say the least - controversial opinions voiced elsewhere by the series author.
However, I think the other thread should stick to literature so let's discuss the rest here.
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<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
29 Sep 2023, 6:24 am
To give some context:
LIke you think a predatory man is going to get a sex change just to rape women, like no the people who get sex changes are reallly uncomfortable in their body they aren't just doing it for funsies like they are distressed about having the wrong sex so it is kind of just downright mean to try to imply that they are predators just trying to attack women, idk honestly I would be worried about a cis male committing rape before I'd worry about a male to female trans person.
Honestly, if a gay woman behaved like he did, we would knock her out, too. It was all about behavior but "discriminating against transpeople" was the very real defence phrase he used.
But that's off-topic and let's not derail the thread.
My reaction to Harry Potter series was rather like shrug. Not really bad, not really good. Just a regular piece of fiction, full of regular tropes and sometimes annoyingly incoherent but nicely told when it comes to detailed depiction of the world.
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Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
29 Sep 2023, 6:27 am
Abuse of minority rights?
J.K. Rowling is not wielding a bull whip and personally abusing minorities.
What she does is express views some find bigoted towards a particular group (ie trans).
So ...not sure how to frame it. But the question should be something along the lines of...how do you deal with an artist who creates a work you like, but who expresses opinions you dont like?
29 Sep 2023, 6:29 am
In the situation I was in, some women from the community said they knew some transpeople and they didn't behave like that pervert.
Our community was perfectly capable of fighting him off, so the most harm he did was, I believe, to actual transpeople.
_________________
Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
29 Sep 2023, 6:35 am
Lol, that's another topic but that's okay.
I know more about JKR artistic works, which I find okay but not very special. I cauciously avoid T-ter s-storms so I can only discuss with second-hand opinions I hear.
When it comes to protecting cis-women from trans right abusers, I was it such a situation, so it does really happen. I think pretending it never happens is no good because such situations harm actual transpeople more than it harmed any of us in that particular case (we were entirely capable of defending ourselves). Hysteria about it is extremely harmful for everyone.
Things are pretty easy in small communities where everyone knows each other, you just judge people by their behaviors. In mass spaces - I'm not sure. The place I live in is considered very safe for women and I think it really is. So I might not be aware of actual dangers and problems of public spaces in other cultures.
_________________
Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.
<not moderating PPR stuff concerning East Europe>
30 Sep 2023, 9:55 am
Depends on a lot. I read all three volumes of the Three Body Problem, written by an author who I believe has been quoted to be a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. But none of that shows up in his work, plus as I don't live in China, I can easily ignore the CCP anyway.
Oh right I also read the entire Sword of Truth series but that was before I decided I was strongly opposed to Objectivism. But at the time I simply wanted to know how it would end.
30 Sep 2023, 10:03 am
Well regarding JKR, my understanding is she's a radical feminist. As a man, I suppose I shouldn't have an opinion on that, however I'll suggest there may well be such a thing as taking feminism to an extreme. So given that possibility, It's my impression that radical feminists feel, sometimes very strongly, that having been born female has left them with a huge burden to bear, so to them, somebody lucky enough to have not been born female would be crazy to wish otherwise, which means that such a feminist might have a hard time feeling that such a person would share their life experience and would find theirself at the same place philosophically and emotionally.
Now given that I haven't read anything she actually said on the topic, I would question whether she believes transwomen aren't entitled to the same rights as everyone else with respect to employment, access to medical support, etc. Perhaps she actually has such feelings. If so, then I would condemn her for that, but otherwise I'm willing to share the same planet with her and even read her work if I happen to like it, and let her feel as she wishes on this topic.
RetroGamer87
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30 Sep 2023, 10:29 pm
Depends on a lot. I read all three volumes of the Three Body Problem, written by an author who I believe has been quoted to be a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. But none of that shows up in his work, plus as I don't live in China, I can easily ignore the CCP anyway.
Ironically the Chinese Communist Party doesn't always like him. I heard that the opening of The Three Body Problem, which as you know deals with the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, had to be moved into the middle of the book for the Chinese language edition in hopes that the censorious CCP wouldn't notice it.
As for not liking his views, I can understand disagreeing with the way in which Liu Cixin sometimes (but not always) presents authoritarianism as the solution to all problems.
Then again in The Dark Forest he made rebellion against the authoritarian governments the solution to the world's economic problems.
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The days are long, but the years are short
14 Oct 2023, 8:13 pm
I did a lengthy thread about what exactly JKR did wrong; basically she won't endorse "trans women are women" and believes in (natal) women only spaces, plus has occasionally been snarky about these things online. It's truly one of the dumber controversies in pop culture, and even otherwise intelligent people buy completely into it without doing any investigation for themselves. I don't have a link handy, but there's a pretty good podcast series on it hosted by one of the daughters of Fred Phelps of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church who broke with the organization, The Witch Trials of JK Rowling that's worth a listen.
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