Y'know funnily enough the whole 'trans rights are human rights' thing made me think the assumption that human rights were the higher priority was still in place, and yet...
50536: Strannik - Friday, March 27 2026 - 2:03 AM
inclusive style indeed : an old school building in the middle of a futuristic ship !
50537: TaranAlvein - Friday, March 27 2026 - 2:10 AM
Wow, the shade is incredible! I guess that's to be expected, from such a bright building!
50538: Sloss - Friday, March 27 2026 - 2:26 AM
yer a wizard, Noah
50539: Chevy - Friday, March 27 2026 - 2:47 AM
The bar might be on the ground, lads.
50540: Tor - Friday, March 27 2026 - 3:17 AM
The burn!
50541: noname - Friday, March 27 2026 - 4:38 AM
The other day I saw a YouTube video about the problems about the Harry Potter books. For example the casual condoning of bigotry ("muggle" is a slur), the pro-colonialist messages (slavery is a-okay), the antisemitism (the goblin bank), the casual violations of non-magic people's autonomy (memory alteration and erasure), etc. And there was someone in the comments of that video arguing that "If Rowling hadn't said a single thing and just released all of the books, everyone here would be praising how they approach various problematic issues and how the main character defies them and seeks a better solution. But because she said things you social dominance-seeking mental asylum patients don't like, you only see the problematic issues and ignore how the books explore them."
And putting aside the fact that Rowling has done a lot more than merely "say" bad things, and putting aside the fact that Harry ends up being an Auror, an enforcer of the systemic issues in the books, I couldn't help but feel that the whole argument felt very "if Hitler hadn't done all of the bad things, then no-one would be criticising the horrid world-views and values espoused in Mein Kampf."
50544: TaranAlvein - Friday, March 27 2026 - 5:54 AM
Shade against Hogwarts, I mean. I just realized how ambiguous that statement was.
50545: BisectedBrioche - Friday, March 27 2026 - 5:57 AM
Presumably 100% less shitting in corridors.
50546: AnonymousPerson - Friday, March 27 2026 - 6:01 AM
Is it okay for trans people to exist? Yes? Congrats, you are more trans inclusive than Hogwarts!
50547: Mars - Thursday, March 26 2026 - 11:15 PM
What a pretty castle
50548: Mallory - Friday, March 27 2026 - 6:22 AM
<3
50549: Tom - Friday, March 27 2026 - 8:47 AM
Looks beautiful! Blue is my favorite color.
@Neorice - Super low bar.
50550: anamiac - Friday, March 27 2026 - 9:11 AM
@noname
I remember when the hunger games came out and everyone was all 'eww, child soldiers'. Well, it's not like the author was endorsing the actions of the capital. We need to give space for villains to be bad.
As for the harry potter books, the whole attitude towards 'muggles' is how we determine who's a bad guy and who isn't. It's necessary.
Furthermore, if you're writing historical fiction about something that happened 400 years ago and people in your setting are all running around thinking and acting by today's standards instead of acting like people actually acted 400 years ago then you're not writing an accurate book. It's not going to feel real. We can't assume that the author is for or against something just because they wanted their work to be realistic.
50552: Codfish - Friday, March 27 2026 - 11:34 AM
@noname
Most of these "examples" from Harry Potter conflate describing something with endorsing it.
The remaining example, "antisemitism," is not in the text. Interpreting the goblins as semitic is a choice of the reader not implied by the author.
50553: Trey - Friday, March 27 2026 - 12:21 PM
@anamiac
The issue is that the good guys partake in some of the bad actions as well, and it's framed as good.
Hunger games has the heroes rebelling against oppression. In harry potter, harry joins the oppressors at the end. And hermione is made fun of for trying to free the elves from slavery.
The movies cut out some problematic content from the books, so if you haven't read them then you may have a different viewpoint of the series
50554: noname - Friday, March 27 2026 - 12:46 PM
@anamiac
Uuuh-huh. And what, pray tell, are we supposed to take away when the last sentence in one of the very last chapters of the very last book has Harry himself hoping that his own personal house elf slave will have made him a snack for when he gets back to his room? Do we also need space for the heroes whose main characteristic is that they're supposedly heroic to reinforce the highly problematic systemic issues in the work?
And, if the attitude towards "muggles" is how we're supposed to determine who's a bad guy and who isn't in the HP books, then everyone were bad guys. It really didn't take a lot for Harry himself to come around to the arbitrary idea that wizards have to violate the sanctity of the minds of non-magic people in order to keep their secrecy.
And the point in your 3rd paragraph is moot as the events of Harry Potter didn't take place 400 years ago, they took place between the years 1991-1998 + an epilogue set a decade or so down the line. (Also, works of fiction are, intentionally or not, windows into the author's mind. Look up the "Unfortunate Implications" page on tvtropes for a more in-depth rundown of that can of worms; you can find the Harry Potter examples in the literature subpage there.)
All that said, we are talking of Joanne Rowling here, a woman who was so heavily associated with Epstain that, when said association was made public, she decided to delete a decade's worth of port logs.
50555: Violet - Friday, March 27 2026 - 1:57 PM
It's trans exclusive because every child is an equally disposable weapon for the government, regardless of their gender identity!
50556: Chase - Friday, March 27 2026 - 2:21 PM
tragically low bar but you've definitely cleared it ! incredibly excited to learn what exactly the magic school is like too
Y'know funnily enough the whole 'trans rights are human rights' thing made me think the assumption that human rights were the higher priority was still in place, and yet...
inclusive style indeed : an old school building in the middle of a futuristic ship !
Wow, the shade is incredible! I guess that's to be expected, from such a bright building!
yer a wizard, Noah
The bar might be on the ground, lads.
The burn!
The other day I saw a YouTube video about the problems about the Harry Potter books. For example the casual condoning of bigotry ("muggle" is a slur), the pro-colonialist messages (slavery is a-okay), the antisemitism (the goblin bank), the casual violations of non-magic people's autonomy (memory alteration and erasure), etc. And there was someone in the comments of that video arguing that "If Rowling hadn't said a single thing and just released all of the books, everyone here would be praising how they approach various problematic issues and how the main character defies them and seeks a better solution. But because she said things you social dominance-seeking mental asylum patients don't like, you only see the problematic issues and ignore how the books explore them."
And putting aside the fact that Rowling has done a lot more than merely "say" bad things, and putting aside the fact that Harry ends up being an Auror, an enforcer of the systemic issues in the books, I couldn't help but feel that the whole argument felt very "if Hitler hadn't done all of the bad things, then no-one would be criticising the horrid world-views and values espoused in Mein Kampf."
Shade against Hogwarts, I mean. I just realized how ambiguous that statement was.
Presumably 100% less shitting in corridors.
Is it okay for trans people to exist? Yes? Congrats, you are more trans inclusive than Hogwarts!
What a pretty castle
<3
Looks beautiful! Blue is my favorite color.
@Neorice - Super low bar.
@noname
I remember when the hunger games came out and everyone was all 'eww, child soldiers'. Well, it's not like the author was endorsing the actions of the capital. We need to give space for villains to be bad.
As for the harry potter books, the whole attitude towards 'muggles' is how we determine who's a bad guy and who isn't. It's necessary.
Furthermore, if you're writing historical fiction about something that happened 400 years ago and people in your setting are all running around thinking and acting by today's standards instead of acting like people actually acted 400 years ago then you're not writing an accurate book. It's not going to feel real. We can't assume that the author is for or against something just because they wanted their work to be realistic.
@noname
Most of these "examples" from Harry Potter conflate describing something with endorsing it.
The remaining example, "antisemitism," is not in the text. Interpreting the goblins as semitic is a choice of the reader not implied by the author.
@anamiac
The issue is that the good guys partake in some of the bad actions as well, and it's framed as good.
Hunger games has the heroes rebelling against oppression. In harry potter, harry joins the oppressors at the end. And hermione is made fun of for trying to free the elves from slavery.
The movies cut out some problematic content from the books, so if you haven't read them then you may have a different viewpoint of the series
@anamiac
Uuuh-huh. And what, pray tell, are we supposed to take away when the last sentence in one of the very last chapters of the very last book has Harry himself hoping that his own personal house elf slave will have made him a snack for when he gets back to his room? Do we also need space for the heroes whose main characteristic is that they're supposedly heroic to reinforce the highly problematic systemic issues in the work?
And, if the attitude towards "muggles" is how we're supposed to determine who's a bad guy and who isn't in the HP books, then everyone were bad guys. It really didn't take a lot for Harry himself to come around to the arbitrary idea that wizards have to violate the sanctity of the minds of non-magic people in order to keep their secrecy.
And the point in your 3rd paragraph is moot as the events of Harry Potter didn't take place 400 years ago, they took place between the years 1991-1998 + an epilogue set a decade or so down the line. (Also, works of fiction are, intentionally or not, windows into the author's mind. Look up the "Unfortunate Implications" page on tvtropes for a more in-depth rundown of that can of worms; you can find the Harry Potter examples in the literature subpage there.)
All that said, we are talking of Joanne Rowling here, a woman who was so heavily associated with Epstain that, when said association was made public, she decided to delete a decade's worth of port logs.
It's trans exclusive because every child is an equally disposable weapon for the government, regardless of their gender identity!
tragically low bar but you've definitely cleared it ! incredibly excited to learn what exactly the magic school is like too