Just started listening. I'm excited for this series. I was one of the kids who was prevented from reading Harry Potter by my church and family because it was "promoting witchcraft". Later in life I was urged by many of my friends to read the books when they found out I hadn't. I ended up reading the entire series at the age of 31. The situation with J.K. Rowling now is so interesting because many of the same friends who were shocked I'd never read the books and urged me to read them are now very vocal about their opposition to Rowling's views. I'd encourage them to actually go and read what she's written on the subject, which you can disagree with. I don't think her views warrant the intensity of opposition she's had. Unfortunately, I don't think my friends are interested in reading what she's written so we just don't talk about it.
Your friends are typical left wing ignoramuses. They walk in glassy eyed lock step to the lies their equally ignorant woke tyrants tell them. However. I don't think the woke swine believe the lies they put out. I think the tyrants take a sick pleasure destroying people, like Paula Dean was destroyed. They get a rush from the power they have over the sheep.
And two, the woke tyrants are Marxists trying to destroy our culture, our way of live and our democracy. Some will say, Lonesome you're a conspiracy nut case. Maybe I am but I think the evidence speaks for itself. If anybody is a nut case, it is those who believe the woke tyrants. These people can't think for themselves and if they do, they have no analytical skills and they love, no passionately want, to be led around by the nose.
They're not Marxists, as such, but many far-left activists do think of themselves as a kind of revolutionary vanguard. They draw more from postmodernist and poststructuralist philosophy of the 1980s and 1990s - Foucault, Derrida - than from the Marxist or neo-Marxist thought of earlier decades.
Such activists certainly do draw from the same ideological playbook as other revolutionaries, though, perhaps most notably the little red playbook of the Maoists; but what they are opposing in this case is not capitalism but the "dominant narrative" regarding sex and gender. In a recent conversation, I drew one such activist into stating plainly that they think the dominant narrative is only held in place by power, with the clear implication that the only way to fight power is with more power.
Anyone who dissents in any particular from the revolutionary dogma must be converted; if they can't be converted, they must be broken; if they can't be broken, they must be sent to the gulag . . . or to the pyre.
What you say about dissent and anyone who dissents having to be converted and if not broken and so on rings true. However, I see these people's attitudes as coming from the same place of intolerance, ignorance and moral certainty as did the attitudes of the pastor who forbade me from reading Harry Potter when I was 11. Regardless of the underpinnings of their respective ideologies, the psychological undercurrent is the same: those who do not believe what we believe are wrong and we need to take action to counter what they are doing and change what they believe. And I would go even further to say that it is actually worse if you are considered an insider and you happen to disagree. JK Rowling was adored by fans for many years; she was an insider, and now she's said things that people in that group disagree with so the backlash has been vicious. When I left the church some of my close friends decided I was no longer worthy of their friendship even though they have friends who do not belong to the same religious group -- it seems like it's worse to leave than to never be a part of it at all. Unfortunately, the current gender movement assumes that if you don't say anything you agree and if you do ask questions or raise concerns you are a transphobe and a bigot, end of story. They expect some people to disagree, but not Rowling or people like her. They also didn't expect feminists to raise objections. I don't think they expected women to disagree at all. In the end, to me it's the same psychological processes with a different justification. That said, I absolutely recognise the damage that gender ideology (for lack of a better term) is causing across Western societies.
I think it is a manifestation of the sins of pride (righteousness to s fault and no consideration that it may be God's will to do otherwise) and greed (hoarding God's love by saying worship my way or hit the highway). Dana Carvey's Church Lady skit was IMO spot on. That is not to say by any means that all of the faithful are like that. But if you have ever been to church you have seen at least one and in some congregations more. And it is not limited to the ladies either.
Yeah, I'm thinking of buying the new Hogwarts video game. It doesn't interest me, particularly, but it's tempting just on account of its being "forbidden"!
When the Dixie Chicks dissed George W I bought their next CD despite not being a fan to support them after the nasty backlash. I didn’t agree with their message but I damn sure supported their right to say it.
You only believe in free speech if you support everyone’s right to free speech.
I disagree. The Dems have at least three avowed socialists in the house and senate, Bernie Sanders, AOC and the Palestinian gal. They all belong to the DSA which is a misnomer. There has never been a democratic socialist state. they are all run by bloody dictators and the Dem/Soc is racing towards communism as fast as they can. Historians call Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin socialists.
Oh, yeah, there are definitely avowed socialists on the far left, and an uncritical embrace of Marxist ideas by young progressives (including my own kids); and there is some overlap between them. But gender ideology as such is a whole different kind of animal.
The deeper problem is the excessive zeal of dogmatic young "revolutionaries" rather than Marxism as such.
Also, there are offshoots of Marxism that use his form of critique in the service of genuine democratic deliberation, leaving behind revolutionary insurgency. I suspect many self-identified socialists, like Sanders, lean that way; the Vermont brand of socialism is its own thing, rooted more in addressing the concrete concerns of actual working people.
Yeah, maybe not Marxist per se but it is notable that the three volume edition of the complete Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci was edited by Joseph Buttigieg
As the old saying goes - if you are not a liberal as a young adult, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative as an older adult, you have no brain. Liberals trade on emotion, conservatives rely on facts.
I definitely need a new set of friends LP. I feel like I’m participating in “The Last of Us”. All I hear is that Donald Trump has endangered the world as well as He is a danger to the world, remember at this stage he is not in the room. Bibi is a piece of Sh.. Israel is an apartheid state. Ukraine’s Zelensky is an Angel,his wife is beautiful. And if I happen to mention that our money is going down the tubes on Ukraine I immediately become the pariah in the room. I also don’t think you a conspiracy nut case, I think you spot on between Biden and the woke mob our country is going one way and that’s downhill.
Actually, I believe she was sued for racial and sexual discrimination and during her deposition said "of course she had said N*gger at times." Which is probably not the best move in the workplace?
The plaintiff, a white woman, was ruled not to have standing for the racial discrimintation suit, but the sexual discrimination suit went forward.
So, was actually, more than a "one off" from 20 years ago. But considering her background, etc pretty par for the course, it seems.
The fact that the progressive left is now doing to Rowling in the 2020's EXACTLY what the Christian conservatives did to her the late 1990's (tar and feather her without bothering to actually read her writings) is so amazingly rich.
When I listened to the podcast it became clear that the vast majority of the people upset with her books promoting witchcraft and satanism never bothered to read them and instead got their information from their tribe. The exact same thing is happening today of course with progressives. Most have no clue what she has actually said about transgender people and simply go with what others have told them.
There is a dark lesson here about human nature I suppose. Truth and fairness doesn't matter to most people nearly as much as keeping face with their tribes.
You nailed it minimalist!! Very well said. If I recall correctly, several months ago there was an excellent article in the Free Press that addressed the fact that many people would rather be in a tribe - even if they don’t agree with everything - than be alone.
All of this fascinates me. Most people don’t want to spend any time digging deeper themselves for the real facts. Just believe what a tribe member says and hop on board.
Everyone needs to just leave JK Rowling alone. Her books are the best - creative and fun. My kids have read so much more because of them. They want to be witches and wizards as much as any other fictional character in any book and/or movie they’ve experienced. They understand it’s FICTION. If they are at all confused about this, my wife and I simply explain it (that’s our job as parents) to them. Usually their response is, “OK Mom/Dad, I get it,” and then they go about being a kid.
Do the people who condemn JKR really believe in witches and demons. If they do, they are the nutty ones who can't separate fantasy from reality not JFR.
Do her critics really believe in magic? If they do, seek help.
Fundamentalists wouldn't read what JKR had written because of "demonic influence". The woke won't read her actual words because they might cause "harm" and "violence". The parallels between the two groups are pretty striking actually. The willingness to let tribe leaders tell them what to think, the fear of investigating things on their own.
As I was listening to this I thought were the fuck was I at when this was happening? Then I remembered, homeless drug addicts who live under bridges don't own TVs.
Thank you so much for creating this podcast. Harry Potter and JK Rowling have played a particular role in my life. I'm so grateful for her work. My heart goes out to those suffering from gender dysphoria, and those marginalized for who they are... But the hatred of JK Rowling is deeply misplaced. It's as foolish now by the trans movement as it was by the Christians in the late 90s.
Harry Potter was a guiding light, a hope in a mostly miserable upbringing I had throughout my schooling. I was born with a cleft lip, which left a scar I was often bullied for. I didn't have a girlfriend throughout elementary, junior high, or highschool. I went head first into university but that was a mistake and I soon dropped out. It took me years to get to the point where I was a functioning member of society. In 2015 (five years after dropping out) I went back to university with a new sense of purpose.
In February of 2017 I was working on a paper for my "Current Issues in Psychopathology Class" (by sheer coincidence, it actually was about whether gender dysphoria should be in the the DSM, but this story isn't about that). I was working on this paper with a classmate of mine in the library, where I was then joined by a woman I had met last summer, who wanted to study with my classmate and I. After a productive study day, the four of us: my classmate, her boyfriend, this female friend who was taking and interest in me, and I went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.
I cannot put into words the feeling I felt. At age 26, as the Hogwarts Theme Music came on in a theatre where I was on a double date, and I was able to squeeze the hand of the woman beside me, who squeezed my had back. After a lifetime of living in the cupboard under the stairs, I was finally at hogwarts where I was accepted by my peers, and it was everything that the spark of hope in my heart had hoped it would be. That woman beside me soon became my girlfriend and we shared three wonderful years of adventures together. Harry Potter had been there for me the entire time, and was a topic of frequent discussion between my girlfriend and I as our relationship developed. I'll always be grateful for JK Rowling for that.
Thank you Free Press for giving this platform for JK Rowling to share her perspective.
Hell yes!! As a dyslexic kid I would make my mom read Harry Potter to me. I was so proud of myself when I was able to read the Goblet of fire on my own when it came out. At the time the thought of reading a book that big by myself seemed impossible. I love Harry Potter for a lot of reasons. Things were also rough growing up with what was going on in my family.
I remember going by a movie theater showing the first HP movie and seeing people with picket signs. They were passing out pamphlets about “what Harry Potter teaches children,” and all the quotes were from Voldemort. 🙄
Lol. I was told by a pastor that it was evil so my mum took the book away and I only returned to the series a few years ago. It seems so ridiculous now - I think the series raises some interesting questions about moral panics and when you are certain that you are on the right side of an issue. I have wondered that myself about my own position regarding the current gender debate.
You are demonstrating true intelligence. There is no way for us to know much of anything with absolute certainty. And even the things that are absolute in the hear and now may not be so in the future. So it is always wise to reconsider one's position.
The gender circus rivals Rowlings' villains. Take for example, Dr, Marci Bowers, who attended my alma mater, UW-Madison in the late 1970s, where we overlapped but didn't know each other. His name was Mark back then. His famous self-description, in a glitter glory piece for the alumni newsletter, is this quote, "I'm a woman with a gender history." Dr. Bowers is still married to the mother of their 3 children, but only in name. He's had well-publicized romances with women since he "came out" to Ann soon after she gave birth that third time. She probably has more money than if she'd sued for divorce, but this situation appears quite un-liberated, from the stand point of me and my trans widow cohort. I was offered Ann's option, to keep a thin shell of marriage by certificate only, and opted out.
A Rowling-esque "trans widow in the woods, axe handy for tidying" short is what you find here:
"trans widow" - that's a new one on me. I was at UW-Madison long before you -- late 1960s, the days when the Red Army marched in glory (and tear gas). I was with them until I wasn't, several years later. Stayed in Madison a long time. Long enough to watch it only get crazier and crazier until 2012. I have a friend still back there. He and Dave Blaska are, I suspect, the only sane ones left.
Yes, trans widow was invented by the originator of the blog transwidowsvoices.org, where my story is under "Bertina." We are the ex-wives of men who left their male persona and jumped down the glitter rabbit hole of full-time female impersonation.
I used to regret that I didn't move back to Madison, where I grew up on the near west side. Now I'm relieved I don't have to watch the woo, like I watched the SDS back in the day, as a child.
J K Rowling defending children against life-altering surgery and puberty blockers is a far cry from the Harry Potter controversy of the past. Kids aren’t able to ethically make those decisions yet, & parents & doctors have no right to make them for them. Look at the stats of those kids who later irreversibly regret it.
To urge others not to read Harry Potter as a few religious groups did is protected speech. To make death threats against an author like some activist trans groups have done is a crime. Distinguishing between legal objections and illegal threats should not be lost in this debate.
Authors and their estates also have the right to pander and destroy the original works of an author as the estate of Roald Dahl is. If one was to endorse a 'don't buy this book' movement, endorsing the new, nice, and sanitary version of Dahl's work would be an important endeavor.
I heard an interesting take on the Dahl matter. Essentially that the controversy is to drive sales by replacing the old version with the new. Legal materials have functioned this way for years.
Updating legal materials seems natural as life changes, but literature is different. The Witches are now going to include a disclaimer about why the witches are wearing wigs. The witches are bald and their wigs itch like crazy. In the updates, there will be an insert about wearing wigs, why people wear wigs, and baldness. Every child who snickered when their teacher/librarian/parent was reading that section of The Witches while scratching their head now stands corrected by this "party pooper" version. The oompa-loompas are now gender corrected to "they." Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now within her BMI weight.
The joy of Dahl was that there is a rudeness and mischievousness to the stories. Reading the chapter of Boy where the sister's handsome lover is given a pipe filled with goat droppings or the Three Pigs in Revolting Rhymes to 8 and 10 year old is magical as they lean forward in anticipation for what happens next. Legal matters may also be dramatic even life and death, but it's not Dahl.
Sorry for the misunderstanding. Seems like the new edit is a charmless wet blanket. Hoping that Dicken's Miss Havisham doesn't get a career or life fulfillment to boost sales.
Megan, what a great idea and great podcast series you have produced! My three children and I read all the books, together at first when they were young. We saw the movies together. Then my youngest and her best friend reread all the books and re-watched all the movies together, one summer during high school. She said they both cried again when Dumbledore died.
Among the best memories of their childhoods, you can ask them.
Fantastic. The darkness of the human soul is not something to ignore but to understand. Look at ChatGPT and Bing Chat, these Large Language Models mimic us. They say horrible brutal things. We say horrible brutal things. There is no book that should be burned, particularly those we fear and disdain. Above the temple to Apollo is the wisdom: Know thyself. This is the wisdom of Freud and Campbell and Jung and Rowling too. ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΑΥΤΟΝ Know thyself you are not a god. Yes the voice of conscience is a small one, so very frail, and it is the newest voice within us. We are animals first, the dominant predator of all the animals.
The first episode was so very good, based on an interview that the subject handled in a meaningful way. It seemed like an AUTHENITIC conversation Alas, the second episode, from what I have heard so far, is filled with the exact opposite, using the same southern preacher quite twice and no actual interviews, minus a couple of quick soundbites. I haven't heard the rest of the episode yet, but trying to fit this story into a larger conversation about all the noise since the 90s, takes away from the beautiful exchange between interviewer and engaging subject.
I had a long drive today and actually listened to both. This is very unusual for me.
I think the comparison I am anticipating between the Christian witch hunters and the transgender witch hunters is spot on. Hysteria is hysteria. Dehumanization is dehumanization. If dialogue stops, humanity loses, and it really doesn't matter how right you feel; and this is ESPECIALLY true if you can't even ENGAGE in debate or say anything intelligent. The Christian Right was at least able to articulate its views, albeit often upon bad information. The Trans people are simply asserting that men can become women and that is that and if you disagree watch your effing back. The Nazis themselves did nothing different from that, and I say that in a calculated and historically studied way.
I am overwhelmed with your courage, curiosity, determination and honesty. Bringing these podcasts are a boon to our society and culture. My favorite message from the first two episodes: think things over before you are convinced you are right, as in absolutely correct.
Also, as a (admittedly volunteer) librarian at my son's (Christian) school, we're big fans of the HP series. However, we had to get it approved by the board, "just in case." I think 90% of our families are HP fans.
I was a young man living in a small town in Northern California when the book, "The Exorcist" was published. I was going to college, living in a group household, and had permission to practice on an old upright piano in the meeting hall of a Lutheran Church near where I lived which I did at odd hours. One morning I was there playing the piano when the minister's wife came in. I didn't know her very well at that point. She wanted me to do her a favor, which I was more than happy to oblige. There was a woman parishioner who had started to read The Exorcist but partway through became so fearful of it that she threw the book out on her front porch. Now she was stuck in her apartment unable to leave unless someone came and removed the book. The woman's husband was stationed at the nearby Naval base and unavailable. I am not making this up. The minister's wife wanted to know if I would go remove the book from her porch. She herself had her own three children across the street at the parsonage and her husband had their car. So I walked home then drove to the address she had given me and picked up this paperback book sitting their on the porch. Took it home and read it out of curiosity. Not bad but not at all a style I was interested in. Kind of predictable.
May I offer a slightly different POV? Did she specifically say that she was afraid of the book because of her religion? The Exorcist the movie really did terrify a lot of people religious or not when it came out, and did so for a long time. Could it be possible that the story/book itself was just too freaky for her to touch?
I ask this because I'm a huge horror fan. And full disclosure yes I'm also a Christian, converted as a adult. But I'm not bringing this up because of my religion. I've been a huge horror fan since I was a kid. I must've read every Stephen King book when I was in high school. I still listen to horror podcasts today. (Podcasts opened a new world of horror fiction to me which has been a total thrill ride and i can recommend some great one for anyone interested). But getting back to the point. When a horror story is really really good, I can get spooked. When I read Salem's Lot back in high school, I was afraid to look outside my window when I went to bed, and pulled down the curtain every night (something I never did before). Now it didn't mean I really believed there were vampires, and I wasn't even a Christian yet back them but a staunch atheist. But the story spooked me. Though unlike this pastor's wife you talked about, for me maybe the spookiness is part of the fun. A few weeks ago I was listening to a horror podcast episode while driving through a side road cutting through the dark woods one night, and it spooked me so much I literally wanted to stop the car and turn it off. But I had Google Map running and couldn't just press stop. And there was no spot on the narrow road where I could stop, and part of me didn't really want to stop anyway but just to get the hell out of there. None of this have anything to do with my religion. I wasn't afraid because the story is going against my faith or whatever. I know the story is fiction and it's just silly to give even give it weight in terms of religious faith. I was just spooked because they story gave me the creeps.
So could it be that the pastor's wife might have been spooked by the horror story The Exorcist? As opposed to I can't touch that thing, it's anti-Christ!!!
I ask this because it just occurred to me someone might interpret me that way.
No one explained to me exactly why the woman was trapped inside her apartment by this book sitting outside her front door. I never spoke to or even saw her. I was just doing a favor for the Pastor's wife who this woman had called. After I read the book I had a conversation about it with the Pastor's wife - she was curious about my impressions of it, but didn't express any particular fear of it herself. I think she was just too busy that day to go move the book. She told me that woman had a "vivid imagination" as I recall.
I was about 15 when the movie came out. Scared the poop out of me and I realized horror flicks are not my thing. Alien scared me too but I love good sci-fi.
I have never liked the horror genre - nor do I like anything with excessive gore. It fills my head with imagery I have a hard time getting rid of. But I did like the movie "Carrie" and I suppose that's technically horror, so I guess I have a few exceptions. The Shining I liked. And Alien which is more like a Moby Dick story than horror - just like Jaws was a Moby Dick update. I watched Aliens but didn't care for it. I can't think of any others. Rocky Horror Picture Show surely does not count.
I had the same reaction to the Exorcism of Emily Rose when I took my daughter and her friends to see it. I also don't fool with vampires and voodoo when I go to NOLA.
I first started purchasing these books for my children, back when my daughter was 12 and my son was 10. I read them aloud to the entire family (including my husband). I can remember laughing so hard, while reading the beginning of the first book, that I had tears in my eyes. Even though I was an adult when I first discovered the story of Harry Potter, to me this story was always about Love being the most powerful force in the Universe (a theme first introduced to me when my fourth-grade teacher read aloud to our class Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time). More than ever now, I believe we humans need new stories (what Joseph Campbell once referred to as "new myths") that will inspire our hearts and minds to listen to the quiet voice of conscience within ourselves (a voice which J.K. Rowling refers to in Chapter Two of this podcast series). Thank you, Megan, for this series! I am really, really enjoying it, and I feel like I'm even more of a fan now of J.K. Rowling than ever before. : )
Just started listening. I'm excited for this series. I was one of the kids who was prevented from reading Harry Potter by my church and family because it was "promoting witchcraft". Later in life I was urged by many of my friends to read the books when they found out I hadn't. I ended up reading the entire series at the age of 31. The situation with J.K. Rowling now is so interesting because many of the same friends who were shocked I'd never read the books and urged me to read them are now very vocal about their opposition to Rowling's views. I'd encourage them to actually go and read what she's written on the subject, which you can disagree with. I don't think her views warrant the intensity of opposition she's had. Unfortunately, I don't think my friends are interested in reading what she's written so we just don't talk about it.
Your friends are typical left wing ignoramuses. They walk in glassy eyed lock step to the lies their equally ignorant woke tyrants tell them. However. I don't think the woke swine believe the lies they put out. I think the tyrants take a sick pleasure destroying people, like Paula Dean was destroyed. They get a rush from the power they have over the sheep.
And two, the woke tyrants are Marxists trying to destroy our culture, our way of live and our democracy. Some will say, Lonesome you're a conspiracy nut case. Maybe I am but I think the evidence speaks for itself. If anybody is a nut case, it is those who believe the woke tyrants. These people can't think for themselves and if they do, they have no analytical skills and they love, no passionately want, to be led around by the nose.
You need a new set of friends.
They're not Marxists, as such, but many far-left activists do think of themselves as a kind of revolutionary vanguard. They draw more from postmodernist and poststructuralist philosophy of the 1980s and 1990s - Foucault, Derrida - than from the Marxist or neo-Marxist thought of earlier decades.
Such activists certainly do draw from the same ideological playbook as other revolutionaries, though, perhaps most notably the little red playbook of the Maoists; but what they are opposing in this case is not capitalism but the "dominant narrative" regarding sex and gender. In a recent conversation, I drew one such activist into stating plainly that they think the dominant narrative is only held in place by power, with the clear implication that the only way to fight power is with more power.
Anyone who dissents in any particular from the revolutionary dogma must be converted; if they can't be converted, they must be broken; if they can't be broken, they must be sent to the gulag . . . or to the pyre.
What you say about dissent and anyone who dissents having to be converted and if not broken and so on rings true. However, I see these people's attitudes as coming from the same place of intolerance, ignorance and moral certainty as did the attitudes of the pastor who forbade me from reading Harry Potter when I was 11. Regardless of the underpinnings of their respective ideologies, the psychological undercurrent is the same: those who do not believe what we believe are wrong and we need to take action to counter what they are doing and change what they believe. And I would go even further to say that it is actually worse if you are considered an insider and you happen to disagree. JK Rowling was adored by fans for many years; she was an insider, and now she's said things that people in that group disagree with so the backlash has been vicious. When I left the church some of my close friends decided I was no longer worthy of their friendship even though they have friends who do not belong to the same religious group -- it seems like it's worse to leave than to never be a part of it at all. Unfortunately, the current gender movement assumes that if you don't say anything you agree and if you do ask questions or raise concerns you are a transphobe and a bigot, end of story. They expect some people to disagree, but not Rowling or people like her. They also didn't expect feminists to raise objections. I don't think they expected women to disagree at all. In the end, to me it's the same psychological processes with a different justification. That said, I absolutely recognise the damage that gender ideology (for lack of a better term) is causing across Western societies.
Apostasy is always a far greater crime to the religious than being a heathen. I don't understand why, but it's always this way.
I think it is a manifestation of the sins of pride (righteousness to s fault and no consideration that it may be God's will to do otherwise) and greed (hoarding God's love by saying worship my way or hit the highway). Dana Carvey's Church Lady skit was IMO spot on. That is not to say by any means that all of the faithful are like that. But if you have ever been to church you have seen at least one and in some congregations more. And it is not limited to the ladies either.
As soon as someone tells me not to read a particular book or article you can be sure I'm now reading said book or article.
Yeah, I'm thinking of buying the new Hogwarts video game. It doesn't interest me, particularly, but it's tempting just on account of its being "forbidden"!
When the Dixie Chicks dissed George W I bought their next CD despite not being a fan to support them after the nasty backlash. I didn’t agree with their message but I damn sure supported their right to say it.
You only believe in free speech if you support everyone’s right to free speech.
I disagree. The Dems have at least three avowed socialists in the house and senate, Bernie Sanders, AOC and the Palestinian gal. They all belong to the DSA which is a misnomer. There has never been a democratic socialist state. they are all run by bloody dictators and the Dem/Soc is racing towards communism as fast as they can. Historians call Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin socialists.
Add Summer Lee from the Pittsburgh area. She’s a “Democratic Socialist”.
Oh, yeah, there are definitely avowed socialists on the far left, and an uncritical embrace of Marxist ideas by young progressives (including my own kids); and there is some overlap between them. But gender ideology as such is a whole different kind of animal.
The deeper problem is the excessive zeal of dogmatic young "revolutionaries" rather than Marxism as such.
Also, there are offshoots of Marxism that use his form of critique in the service of genuine democratic deliberation, leaving behind revolutionary insurgency. I suspect many self-identified socialists, like Sanders, lean that way; the Vermont brand of socialism is its own thing, rooted more in addressing the concrete concerns of actual working people.
When some Germans protested Hitler and his NAZI party, should they have stopped. They should have because many ended up in death camps.
All of us should fight tyranny tooth and nail regardless of its stripe.
Yeah, maybe not Marxist per se but it is notable that the three volume edition of the complete Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci was edited by Joseph Buttigieg
As the old saying goes - if you are not a liberal as a young adult, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative as an older adult, you have no brain. Liberals trade on emotion, conservatives rely on facts.
Winston Churchill. I agree that is why I call them the unicorn, rainbow party.
Right and they are much more fun and feel good. Conservatives care more about actual results than what sounds nice. IMHO.
I definitely need a new set of friends LP. I feel like I’m participating in “The Last of Us”. All I hear is that Donald Trump has endangered the world as well as He is a danger to the world, remember at this stage he is not in the room. Bibi is a piece of Sh.. Israel is an apartheid state. Ukraine’s Zelensky is an Angel,his wife is beautiful. And if I happen to mention that our money is going down the tubes on Ukraine I immediately become the pariah in the room. I also don’t think you a conspiracy nut case, I think you spot on between Biden and the woke mob our country is going one way and that’s downhill.
Are you saying Zelenskyy's wife is not beautiful? Have you eyes to see?
Probably the best summary I’ve read yet. Spot on!
I eschew obfuscation.
Reminds me of one of Twain's advisories for good writing: "Eschew surplusage".
Yeah, that to.
Ditto!
Paul Deen? What did she do?
I think they dug up a racist word she used 20 years ago. Something like that.
Actually, I believe she was sued for racial and sexual discrimination and during her deposition said "of course she had said N*gger at times." Which is probably not the best move in the workplace?
The plaintiff, a white woman, was ruled not to have standing for the racial discrimintation suit, but the sexual discrimination suit went forward.
So, was actually, more than a "one off" from 20 years ago. But considering her background, etc pretty par for the course, it seems.
The fact that the progressive left is now doing to Rowling in the 2020's EXACTLY what the Christian conservatives did to her the late 1990's (tar and feather her without bothering to actually read her writings) is so amazingly rich.
When I listened to the podcast it became clear that the vast majority of the people upset with her books promoting witchcraft and satanism never bothered to read them and instead got their information from their tribe. The exact same thing is happening today of course with progressives. Most have no clue what she has actually said about transgender people and simply go with what others have told them.
There is a dark lesson here about human nature I suppose. Truth and fairness doesn't matter to most people nearly as much as keeping face with their tribes.
You nailed it minimalist!! Very well said. If I recall correctly, several months ago there was an excellent article in the Free Press that addressed the fact that many people would rather be in a tribe - even if they don’t agree with everything - than be alone.
All of this fascinates me. Most people don’t want to spend any time digging deeper themselves for the real facts. Just believe what a tribe member says and hop on board.
Everyone needs to just leave JK Rowling alone. Her books are the best - creative and fun. My kids have read so much more because of them. They want to be witches and wizards as much as any other fictional character in any book and/or movie they’ve experienced. They understand it’s FICTION. If they are at all confused about this, my wife and I simply explain it (that’s our job as parents) to them. Usually their response is, “OK Mom/Dad, I get it,” and then they go about being a kid.
Have a nice day my friends!
John
Do the people who condemn JKR really believe in witches and demons. If they do, they are the nutty ones who can't separate fantasy from reality not JFR.
Do her critics really believe in magic? If they do, seek help.
Exactly! Even the suggestion to just go and read what she wrote incites outrage. Really enjoyed the first two episodes.
Fundamentalists wouldn't read what JKR had written because of "demonic influence". The woke won't read her actual words because they might cause "harm" and "violence". The parallels between the two groups are pretty striking actually. The willingness to let tribe leaders tell them what to think, the fear of investigating things on their own.
There is very little separation between either one of them.
As I was listening to this I thought were the fuck was I at when this was happening? Then I remembered, homeless drug addicts who live under bridges don't own TVs.
How right you are.
Indeed, the entire level of hysteria over opinions these days is nothing short of empty performative nonsense.
"Read it and maybe disagree". Wouldn't it be nice if things really did go that way.
Just listened to this now.
Thank you so much for creating this podcast. Harry Potter and JK Rowling have played a particular role in my life. I'm so grateful for her work. My heart goes out to those suffering from gender dysphoria, and those marginalized for who they are... But the hatred of JK Rowling is deeply misplaced. It's as foolish now by the trans movement as it was by the Christians in the late 90s.
Harry Potter was a guiding light, a hope in a mostly miserable upbringing I had throughout my schooling. I was born with a cleft lip, which left a scar I was often bullied for. I didn't have a girlfriend throughout elementary, junior high, or highschool. I went head first into university but that was a mistake and I soon dropped out. It took me years to get to the point where I was a functioning member of society. In 2015 (five years after dropping out) I went back to university with a new sense of purpose.
In February of 2017 I was working on a paper for my "Current Issues in Psychopathology Class" (by sheer coincidence, it actually was about whether gender dysphoria should be in the the DSM, but this story isn't about that). I was working on this paper with a classmate of mine in the library, where I was then joined by a woman I had met last summer, who wanted to study with my classmate and I. After a productive study day, the four of us: my classmate, her boyfriend, this female friend who was taking and interest in me, and I went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.
I cannot put into words the feeling I felt. At age 26, as the Hogwarts Theme Music came on in a theatre where I was on a double date, and I was able to squeeze the hand of the woman beside me, who squeezed my had back. After a lifetime of living in the cupboard under the stairs, I was finally at hogwarts where I was accepted by my peers, and it was everything that the spark of hope in my heart had hoped it would be. That woman beside me soon became my girlfriend and we shared three wonderful years of adventures together. Harry Potter had been there for me the entire time, and was a topic of frequent discussion between my girlfriend and I as our relationship developed. I'll always be grateful for JK Rowling for that.
Thank you Free Press for giving this platform for JK Rowling to share her perspective.
Hell yes!! As a dyslexic kid I would make my mom read Harry Potter to me. I was so proud of myself when I was able to read the Goblet of fire on my own when it came out. At the time the thought of reading a book that big by myself seemed impossible. I love Harry Potter for a lot of reasons. Things were also rough growing up with what was going on in my family.
What a great memory, David. Cheers.
I remember going by a movie theater showing the first HP movie and seeing people with picket signs. They were passing out pamphlets about “what Harry Potter teaches children,” and all the quotes were from Voldemort. 🙄
Will listen after my kids leave for school!
Lol. I was told by a pastor that it was evil so my mum took the book away and I only returned to the series a few years ago. It seems so ridiculous now - I think the series raises some interesting questions about moral panics and when you are certain that you are on the right side of an issue. I have wondered that myself about my own position regarding the current gender debate.
You are demonstrating true intelligence. There is no way for us to know much of anything with absolute certainty. And even the things that are absolute in the hear and now may not be so in the future. So it is always wise to reconsider one's position.
The gender circus rivals Rowlings' villains. Take for example, Dr, Marci Bowers, who attended my alma mater, UW-Madison in the late 1970s, where we overlapped but didn't know each other. His name was Mark back then. His famous self-description, in a glitter glory piece for the alumni newsletter, is this quote, "I'm a woman with a gender history." Dr. Bowers is still married to the mother of their 3 children, but only in name. He's had well-publicized romances with women since he "came out" to Ann soon after she gave birth that third time. She probably has more money than if she'd sued for divorce, but this situation appears quite un-liberated, from the stand point of me and my trans widow cohort. I was offered Ann's option, to keep a thin shell of marriage by certificate only, and opted out.
A Rowling-esque "trans widow in the woods, axe handy for tidying" short is what you find here:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dH9oi1s-_KQ
"trans widow" - that's a new one on me. I was at UW-Madison long before you -- late 1960s, the days when the Red Army marched in glory (and tear gas). I was with them until I wasn't, several years later. Stayed in Madison a long time. Long enough to watch it only get crazier and crazier until 2012. I have a friend still back there. He and Dave Blaska are, I suspect, the only sane ones left.
Yes, trans widow was invented by the originator of the blog transwidowsvoices.org, where my story is under "Bertina." We are the ex-wives of men who left their male persona and jumped down the glitter rabbit hole of full-time female impersonation.
I used to regret that I didn't move back to Madison, where I grew up on the near west side. Now I'm relieved I don't have to watch the woo, like I watched the SDS back in the day, as a child.
J K Rowling defending children against life-altering surgery and puberty blockers is a far cry from the Harry Potter controversy of the past. Kids aren’t able to ethically make those decisions yet, & parents & doctors have no right to make them for them. Look at the stats of those kids who later irreversibly regret it.
To urge others not to read Harry Potter as a few religious groups did is protected speech. To make death threats against an author like some activist trans groups have done is a crime. Distinguishing between legal objections and illegal threats should not be lost in this debate.
Authors and their estates also have the right to pander and destroy the original works of an author as the estate of Roald Dahl is. If one was to endorse a 'don't buy this book' movement, endorsing the new, nice, and sanitary version of Dahl's work would be an important endeavor.
I heard an interesting take on the Dahl matter. Essentially that the controversy is to drive sales by replacing the old version with the new. Legal materials have functioned this way for years.
Updating legal materials seems natural as life changes, but literature is different. The Witches are now going to include a disclaimer about why the witches are wearing wigs. The witches are bald and their wigs itch like crazy. In the updates, there will be an insert about wearing wigs, why people wear wigs, and baldness. Every child who snickered when their teacher/librarian/parent was reading that section of The Witches while scratching their head now stands corrected by this "party pooper" version. The oompa-loompas are now gender corrected to "they." Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now within her BMI weight.
The joy of Dahl was that there is a rudeness and mischievousness to the stories. Reading the chapter of Boy where the sister's handsome lover is given a pipe filled with goat droppings or the Three Pigs in Revolting Rhymes to 8 and 10 year old is magical as they lean forward in anticipation for what happens next. Legal matters may also be dramatic even life and death, but it's not Dahl.
I was not addressing the content of legal publications but rather the money-making potential.
Sorry for the misunderstanding. Seems like the new edit is a charmless wet blanket. Hoping that Dicken's Miss Havisham doesn't get a career or life fulfillment to boost sales.
No apology necessary. I realized my comment was going off on a tangent so I explained. I agree about the new edits. It is so bizarre to me.
Megan, what a great idea and great podcast series you have produced! My three children and I read all the books, together at first when they were young. We saw the movies together. Then my youngest and her best friend reread all the books and re-watched all the movies together, one summer during high school. She said they both cried again when Dumbledore died.
Among the best memories of their childhoods, you can ask them.
Fantastic. The darkness of the human soul is not something to ignore but to understand. Look at ChatGPT and Bing Chat, these Large Language Models mimic us. They say horrible brutal things. We say horrible brutal things. There is no book that should be burned, particularly those we fear and disdain. Above the temple to Apollo is the wisdom: Know thyself. This is the wisdom of Freud and Campbell and Jung and Rowling too. ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΑΥΤΟΝ Know thyself you are not a god. Yes the voice of conscience is a small one, so very frail, and it is the newest voice within us. We are animals first, the dominant predator of all the animals.
Looking forward to this one.
Thanks, Bari et al! 😀
The first episode was so very good, based on an interview that the subject handled in a meaningful way. It seemed like an AUTHENITIC conversation Alas, the second episode, from what I have heard so far, is filled with the exact opposite, using the same southern preacher quite twice and no actual interviews, minus a couple of quick soundbites. I haven't heard the rest of the episode yet, but trying to fit this story into a larger conversation about all the noise since the 90s, takes away from the beautiful exchange between interviewer and engaging subject.
Agree! The second episode was so slow, filled with so many similar soundbites, and lacking in any real content. I couldn't even get through it.
I had a long drive today and actually listened to both. This is very unusual for me.
I think the comparison I am anticipating between the Christian witch hunters and the transgender witch hunters is spot on. Hysteria is hysteria. Dehumanization is dehumanization. If dialogue stops, humanity loses, and it really doesn't matter how right you feel; and this is ESPECIALLY true if you can't even ENGAGE in debate or say anything intelligent. The Christian Right was at least able to articulate its views, albeit often upon bad information. The Trans people are simply asserting that men can become women and that is that and if you disagree watch your effing back. The Nazis themselves did nothing different from that, and I say that in a calculated and historically studied way.
I am overwhelmed with your courage, curiosity, determination and honesty. Bringing these podcasts are a boon to our society and culture. My favorite message from the first two episodes: think things over before you are convinced you are right, as in absolutely correct.
Excellent start. Thank you, thank you. Again.
Also, as a (admittedly volunteer) librarian at my son's (Christian) school, we're big fans of the HP series. However, we had to get it approved by the board, "just in case." I think 90% of our families are HP fans.
I was a young man living in a small town in Northern California when the book, "The Exorcist" was published. I was going to college, living in a group household, and had permission to practice on an old upright piano in the meeting hall of a Lutheran Church near where I lived which I did at odd hours. One morning I was there playing the piano when the minister's wife came in. I didn't know her very well at that point. She wanted me to do her a favor, which I was more than happy to oblige. There was a woman parishioner who had started to read The Exorcist but partway through became so fearful of it that she threw the book out on her front porch. Now she was stuck in her apartment unable to leave unless someone came and removed the book. The woman's husband was stationed at the nearby Naval base and unavailable. I am not making this up. The minister's wife wanted to know if I would go remove the book from her porch. She herself had her own three children across the street at the parsonage and her husband had their car. So I walked home then drove to the address she had given me and picked up this paperback book sitting their on the porch. Took it home and read it out of curiosity. Not bad but not at all a style I was interested in. Kind of predictable.
May I offer a slightly different POV? Did she specifically say that she was afraid of the book because of her religion? The Exorcist the movie really did terrify a lot of people religious or not when it came out, and did so for a long time. Could it be possible that the story/book itself was just too freaky for her to touch?
I ask this because I'm a huge horror fan. And full disclosure yes I'm also a Christian, converted as a adult. But I'm not bringing this up because of my religion. I've been a huge horror fan since I was a kid. I must've read every Stephen King book when I was in high school. I still listen to horror podcasts today. (Podcasts opened a new world of horror fiction to me which has been a total thrill ride and i can recommend some great one for anyone interested). But getting back to the point. When a horror story is really really good, I can get spooked. When I read Salem's Lot back in high school, I was afraid to look outside my window when I went to bed, and pulled down the curtain every night (something I never did before). Now it didn't mean I really believed there were vampires, and I wasn't even a Christian yet back them but a staunch atheist. But the story spooked me. Though unlike this pastor's wife you talked about, for me maybe the spookiness is part of the fun. A few weeks ago I was listening to a horror podcast episode while driving through a side road cutting through the dark woods one night, and it spooked me so much I literally wanted to stop the car and turn it off. But I had Google Map running and couldn't just press stop. And there was no spot on the narrow road where I could stop, and part of me didn't really want to stop anyway but just to get the hell out of there. None of this have anything to do with my religion. I wasn't afraid because the story is going against my faith or whatever. I know the story is fiction and it's just silly to give even give it weight in terms of religious faith. I was just spooked because they story gave me the creeps.
So could it be that the pastor's wife might have been spooked by the horror story The Exorcist? As opposed to I can't touch that thing, it's anti-Christ!!!
I ask this because it just occurred to me someone might interpret me that way.
No one explained to me exactly why the woman was trapped inside her apartment by this book sitting outside her front door. I never spoke to or even saw her. I was just doing a favor for the Pastor's wife who this woman had called. After I read the book I had a conversation about it with the Pastor's wife - she was curious about my impressions of it, but didn't express any particular fear of it herself. I think she was just too busy that day to go move the book. She told me that woman had a "vivid imagination" as I recall.
I was about 15 when the movie came out. Scared the poop out of me and I realized horror flicks are not my thing. Alien scared me too but I love good sci-fi.
Yes I watched it when I was 12 with my mom (completely not religious). Scared the hell out of both of us.
I have never liked the horror genre - nor do I like anything with excessive gore. It fills my head with imagery I have a hard time getting rid of. But I did like the movie "Carrie" and I suppose that's technically horror, so I guess I have a few exceptions. The Shining I liked. And Alien which is more like a Moby Dick story than horror - just like Jaws was a Moby Dick update. I watched Aliens but didn't care for it. I can't think of any others. Rocky Horror Picture Show surely does not count.
I had the same reaction to the Exorcism of Emily Rose when I took my daughter and her friends to see it. I also don't fool with vampires and voodoo when I go to NOLA.
I first started purchasing these books for my children, back when my daughter was 12 and my son was 10. I read them aloud to the entire family (including my husband). I can remember laughing so hard, while reading the beginning of the first book, that I had tears in my eyes. Even though I was an adult when I first discovered the story of Harry Potter, to me this story was always about Love being the most powerful force in the Universe (a theme first introduced to me when my fourth-grade teacher read aloud to our class Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time). More than ever now, I believe we humans need new stories (what Joseph Campbell once referred to as "new myths") that will inspire our hearts and minds to listen to the quiet voice of conscience within ourselves (a voice which J.K. Rowling refers to in Chapter Two of this podcast series). Thank you, Megan, for this series! I am really, really enjoying it, and I feel like I'm even more of a fan now of J.K. Rowling than ever before. : )
Listened to the first episode. Learned things about her I didn’t know. Looking forward to the next ones.