@BellisarioFaith:
The problem with what Rowling is saying and doing is that she's willfully misinformed. I read through this latest tweet thread too, and it's like Rin and others have said: yes, there are people who have sent her death or rape threats, and yes, that is absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable. But plenty more people who replied to her did not threaten her or call her names, just expressed disappointment, and a fair few of them did, in fact, try to provide correct information, sometimes even in the form of proper studies, science, papers, readings, other articles.
I understand. I have not read much of her tweets, and even if she disagrees, I really don't seem to have a problem with it. If you can't change someone, can't do anything about it. I would be one of those would send in lots of evidence on the topic, I'm very much for trans right, and very vocal about to people who disagree. At the same time, I don't want to force it upon them. > She continues to, by all indications, not read or take in any of them, nor make any efforts of her own to properly educate herself in any of the wide multitude of ways available. She continues to only post so-called "facts" that fit into her narrative that trans people somehow have an "agenda" that's harmful to children and ciswomen, and essentially sticks her fingers in her ears and goes "I can't hear you, la-la-la" to any and all of the overwhelming evidence that contradicts this narrative. Sometimes literally, since she frequently disables comments on her tweets (like she did for that "TERF Wars" essay she wrote), which stops it from being any kind of discussion and just turns it into her stating her opinion without allowing anybody to criticize it or tell her she's wrong. I see. Yeah, I get that. I think it's just cognitive dissonance/confirmation bias to be honest. Yeah, I guess she wants to post her viewpoint without the criticism, which I don't care, it's her page, she can do want she wants. I think people should just leave her alone. Maybe she is even doing this for attention, who knows. > And then, on top of that, she has the nerve to act like she's the biggest victim here because of the backlash she gets for it. Again, people threatening to hurt or kill her is wrong, and the people harmed by what she says should not do that, ever. But that's a classic move for a bigot: release her bigoted opinions and then act like a martyr, like she's being so brave for doing so in spite of the all the nasty, horrible opposition she gets for it, as if what she's going through is so much worse than the struggles of the very people she's bigoted against. It's disgusting. Well, it feels like to me she is being a victim with the threats and stuff. So, maybe the focus was on that. Though I think people should just give up trying to change her mind, she won't listen, so it's better to leave her be. That's what I would have done. I would honestly agree to disagree with her. > And thus, building on what I said above, she's not just "spreading her opinion". Not only is she misinformed, she's spreading that misinformation to many thousands of people who idolize her and believe in her. Even worse since she's a writer; writers typically have to do a lot of research for their books, so plenty of these many thousands of people who look up to her and see her saying these things will have even more reason to just believe what she says at face value, assuming she knows what she's talking about. And then just ignore the correct info that other people post because they assume Rowling knows more about the issue than some random person on the internet who's contradicting her, when in fact it's the other way around. Though see here's where I respectfully disagree. I think that's looking a bit far. I feel like many believe are more rational about trans issues and would disagree. I'm still a fan of her books for example, and I know she's believing in false claims. I don't feel like she has that type of influence over people to make them believe what she says. > So no, someone should not be able to "have the right to speak their mind" and share that "opinion" with others if doing so includes information that, at absolute best, has a tiny kernel of truth to it that's been wildly twisted to paint a completely different picture, and at worst (and the majority of the time), is outright untrue. Hell, libel and slander–in addition to being (rightfully) illegal--is just heavily frowned upon anyway because it involves actively spreading false information about someone before bothering to confirm that it's true. By actively avoiding many opportunities to become better informed, only seeing what she wants to see (as I mentioned above), and then passing that to other people, Rowling is doing something that's not really much different than slander, just to an entire, already-marginalized group of people instead of just one person. Oh, I tend to see slander/libel towards a specific person. I think with trans stuff, many people still do not understand or want to believe the evidence that proves it's true. Honestly, with me specifically, I'm not really offended by her comments even though I'm trans. I'm used to this type of thing and I learned just to move on. I can't do nothing to change her mind, but I don't wanna force change. I used to try to force change on people and that didn't work out very well. But I understand where you are coming from with looking at possible outcomes that might happen because of said factors.
Honestly for me personally, I'm fine with someone not believing trans people are who they say there, but we come to an agreement for them to respect my pronouns. I had this with a friend before, he called me a female and everything even though he did not believe in the idea of changing genders. I know it sounds weird how I handle things and not feeling annoyed about it. I don't know how to explain why I feel this way, etc. > Which, actually, makes this other quote pretty ironic:
So she regularly spreads highly misinformed thoughts and then plays the victim card when people call her out on them, but when someone says something that could be taken as implying she's a pedophile (but also could be taken other several other ways; I genuinely don't know what was in the the article that other person posted in the tweet she replied to, so I don't know how they actually meant it, but I myself wouldn't want her around any kids I know either because she's a friggen bigot, and that was my first thought for what this person meant, as well), she threatens to sue, again acting like a martyr. Way to be a hypocrite, Rowling.
Well, I can I see the similarity, but I don't think she's a bigot. I think her sending misinformed information is not the same as implying she could be a predator. Though I think the sue thing was too drastic and over the top. To me, it's just something she believes in, while the other is more attacking towards her. I read some of her stuff, and she even respects other trans people pronouns and sees who they are. She's just expressing her worries because of her own experiences in life. (This was part of one of the things she said, in the paper.) I didn't read the whole thing, but I get it even if I disagree.
When someone says something insulting about a person or group of people, the onus is not on the insulted party to just get over it, let it slide, or not be offended by it. These aren't "just words". Words can and do hurt. If I were to go around saying horribly racist shit about black people, me trying to defend it when they understandably were upset about it by saying "Well, I was just saying what I think about them, they were the ones who let it offend them, so I should be able to keep doing it!" would absolutely not be seen as an acceptable response, nor should it. Or if Alice was bullying Jane by saying things like "You're ugly!" "You're gross!" "Your voice sounds dumb!", it would not be okay for the teacher to say "Well, I'm going to let Alice keep doing it because she was just expressing her honest thoughts about Jane, Jane shouldn't have let it bother her so much." (Something like that actually was the general response to bullying back in the day, and today, that method is treated by most people with the scorn and derision it deserves.) Yeah, this statement, I honestly didn't explain myself well enough and I apologize about that. I mean with words like it's okay to use them in sense of banter, etc. but not to the point of bullying them and causing them harm. I didn't think about that bit when I wrote what I said. Though for me personally I was bullied by people's words, though I just learned to make a joke out of it, like for example I was called a c*unt and a Karen, I was like well I'm a female Squidward.
Yes, not everyone can do that to stand up to bullies, this is only years later from high school. (Well, my mother was my own bully.) I was also talking more about slurs too. I do understand not everyone is me, and I have a problem in trying to say everyone can do what I do. Though it just reflect on context too and walking away from stuff, specifically as an adult, but not as a child. I just wanted to clarify that, I'm not good at explaining myself, so things come out wrong and confusing. I'm sorry for this. I hope I made better sense this time. > It is true that some people choose to take everything in the worst way possible, but most insulted parties are at least willing to look at the intent of the speaker and, if it's clear that their insensitivity was not intentional, call them out on the effect their words have in a way that isn't overly harsh. But that's definitely not the case with Rowling, who is not innocent, and is unapologetic, in the things she says, and thus, the people who get angry, respond to her with vitriol, and tell her to stop saying these things are nowhere near as much of a problem as Rowling herself is.
ff I understand even as mentioned before I disagree as it's just a different and bad belief, but most people don't even understand trans issues, so they let their fears get to them, I think maybe this is the case with Rowling. Thank you for insight and viewpoints, I respect what you say. At least I understand the other side of the situation, and I'm always about both sides, and this was a good example.
I end this with a joke about J.K Rowling's name, it can be "Just Kidding Rowling." Yeah, weird joke, but I noticed that and thought it be funny to mention. :blink:
Also, weird fact. You were in my dream last night, yet I never really talked with you or think about you. Maybe this was a prediction Or just a coincidence. :ninja: