Rowling and her hate aren’t unknown though. She spends as much time on Twitter spewing her bs and baiting responses she can cry “Look, I’m the victim” as she does writing novels.
She leveraged her established celebrity and presence to become a very public spokesperson for TERFs. She knows what she’s doing when she plays “but I’m a beloved children’s author and only want to protect kids”. It’s the same thing Trump did when he decided to become political. He didn’t have to build his name and recognition, he used the fact he was already well known to champion a cause. The difference is Trump’s brand was asshole all along, Rowling was a bit of a surprise because, yeah, she was a beloved children’s author.
She’s made this fight a main topic of her Internet presence. People who are likely to read her tweets and see the reposts are internet literate and this has been going on long enough most of those people know the hill she’s dying on without context. It’d be like telling Bill Cosby to kill himself. He was once a beloved TV dad, but the vast majority of people would know why someone would tell him that.
It’s also a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. She’s already made herself a victim of her fantasies, she’s going to keep being a famous mouthpiece for the haters. It is anger, which is fine, it’s the frustration that none of us are going to deplatform or silence her. As for advancing the cause? The haters have chosen hate, they know they’ve chosen hate, they like to hate, they have the power to hate, and they are either going to see their hate through to the conclusion of their goals or die trying. They’re not going to suddenly change their minds because the people they seek to destroy are polite and compliant.
Finally, someone treating my stance as it actually is rather than just calling me a simp for bigots.
But I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but I also do think that it’s really easy to overestimate how much the average person knows about what we care about. That’s something generally true about everyone who cares about anything.
And you’re right she is baiting these responses so she can play victim, my problem is that it’s rarely considered a good idea to take bait. I’m not saying don’t denounce her, I’m not saying don’t be mean to her, what I am saying is to not hand her the screenshots she’s angling for.
You’re right that we’re damned no matter what we do, and I’m deeply sympathetic to the people who are angry and frustrated and just want to lash out. Gods know I feel similarly, and even moreso when I was hormonal as hell and new to navigating the world as an out trans woman. But I wish that when I was that age an older trans person had sat me down and explained the difference between productive and unproductive expressions of that anger.
You gave reasons you believe it wasn’t destructive, and that’s fair, I disagree because it’s a screenshot for her supporters to use as propaganda, but I get where everyone is coming from. However, I believe there’s nothing it can really do to help. She’s not going to take the advice. She’s not going to stop posting bait or funding the loss of our rights. As everyone seems to be in agreement, there’s no course of action to cause that. It won’t even hurt her feelings, because as already said, she wants this. But it’s also not going to invigorate our allies or lead to further support. It’s not going to make her fans who are uncomfortable with her bigotry stop consuming her media. At best it’s impotent catharsis that doesn’t spread a message.
I see the median voter as an amoral idiot who decides opinions largely based on vibes and emotions. I’m calling for our public expressions of anger to be ones that invite sympathy when taken independently of context. Not necessarily because of this specific situation, but because it’s a good habit, and because even those who support us judge us harshly. It’s not fair and I’m not calling for this because I think it’s some moral responsibility or anything, but because over the years I’ve seen our community utilize different tactics and we got a lot better results when we played to sympathy and likability. It was an underrated flank in the fight for gay rights as well. I’m not calling for mattachine style respectability, but PFLAG style sympathy.
Rowling and her hate aren’t unknown though. She spends as much time on Twitter spewing her bs and baiting responses she can cry “Look, I’m the victim” as she does writing novels.
She leveraged her established celebrity and presence to become a very public spokesperson for TERFs. She knows what she’s doing when she plays “but I’m a beloved children’s author and only want to protect kids”. It’s the same thing Trump did when he decided to become political. He didn’t have to build his name and recognition, he used the fact he was already well known to champion a cause. The difference is Trump’s brand was asshole all along, Rowling was a bit of a surprise because, yeah, she was a beloved children’s author.
She’s made this fight a main topic of her Internet presence. People who are likely to read her tweets and see the reposts are internet literate and this has been going on long enough most of those people know the hill she’s dying on without context. It’d be like telling Bill Cosby to kill himself. He was once a beloved TV dad, but the vast majority of people would know why someone would tell him that.
It’s also a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. She’s already made herself a victim of her fantasies, she’s going to keep being a famous mouthpiece for the haters. It is anger, which is fine, it’s the frustration that none of us are going to deplatform or silence her. As for advancing the cause? The haters have chosen hate, they know they’ve chosen hate, they like to hate, they have the power to hate, and they are either going to see their hate through to the conclusion of their goals or die trying. They’re not going to suddenly change their minds because the people they seek to destroy are polite and compliant.
Finally, someone treating my stance as it actually is rather than just calling me a simp for bigots.
But I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but I also do think that it’s really easy to overestimate how much the average person knows about what we care about. That’s something generally true about everyone who cares about anything.
And you’re right she is baiting these responses so she can play victim, my problem is that it’s rarely considered a good idea to take bait. I’m not saying don’t denounce her, I’m not saying don’t be mean to her, what I am saying is to not hand her the screenshots she’s angling for.
You’re right that we’re damned no matter what we do, and I’m deeply sympathetic to the people who are angry and frustrated and just want to lash out. Gods know I feel similarly, and even moreso when I was hormonal as hell and new to navigating the world as an out trans woman. But I wish that when I was that age an older trans person had sat me down and explained the difference between productive and unproductive expressions of that anger.
You gave reasons you believe it wasn’t destructive, and that’s fair, I disagree because it’s a screenshot for her supporters to use as propaganda, but I get where everyone is coming from. However, I believe there’s nothing it can really do to help. She’s not going to take the advice. She’s not going to stop posting bait or funding the loss of our rights. As everyone seems to be in agreement, there’s no course of action to cause that. It won’t even hurt her feelings, because as already said, she wants this. But it’s also not going to invigorate our allies or lead to further support. It’s not going to make her fans who are uncomfortable with her bigotry stop consuming her media. At best it’s impotent catharsis that doesn’t spread a message.
I see the median voter as an amoral idiot who decides opinions largely based on vibes and emotions. I’m calling for our public expressions of anger to be ones that invite sympathy when taken independently of context. Not necessarily because of this specific situation, but because it’s a good habit, and because even those who support us judge us harshly. It’s not fair and I’m not calling for this because I think it’s some moral responsibility or anything, but because over the years I’ve seen our community utilize different tactics and we got a lot better results when we played to sympathy and likability. It was an underrated flank in the fight for gay rights as well. I’m not calling for mattachine style respectability, but PFLAG style sympathy.
Sigh, idk