The “Harry Potter” author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X in which she referred to transgender women as men.
J.K. Rowling shared a social media thread on Monday, the day a new Scottish hate-crime law took effect, that misgendered several transgender women and appeared to imply trans women have a penchant for sexual predation. On Tuesday, Scottish police announced they would not be investigating the “Harry Potter” author’s remarks as a crime, as some of Rowling’s critics had called for.
“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”
Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity.
The sad thing is, I believe she didn’t start in such an extreme position. If you read her work she clearly understands the benefits of diversity and inclusion.
Cancel culture pushes people with one bad take in to extremist communities that foster and feed the ugliest parts of a person. By barring them from any community that might actually try to challenge their opinions and foster compassion, we essentially create martyrs that are exalted in extremist communities. All the while, we act like we defeated them and stick our heads in the sand. Like they’re not still voting in every election. Like they’re not still out there spewing darker and darker bullshit to an audience that eats it up and to the next batch of people we “cancel”.
If you disagree with someone, however painful it may be, treat them with basic respect and talk to them. You won’t change their mind, but you might plant the seed that will. It’s the only way out of this mess.
It’s not “cancel culture”: it’s calling out their horrific beliefs. If gettings called out on having horrible thoughts leads you to becoming more extreme in those thoughts then you’re just a bad person.
Plus JK Rowling is still rolling in millions of dollars. She has every resource and avenue to learn better, and actively chooses not to. Fuck JK Rowling and her transphobic bullshit.
She also has every insulation to not need to. Which is my point. I think she has, or at least had, the capacity to learn compassion for trans people. But it’s really hard to suddenly learn compassion when everyone that genuinely has it immediately starts depriving you of it.
Your final sentence there is precisely the sentiment that she’s received from everyone that understands the compassion she needs to learn. This is not conducive to the cooperation our society needs. The compassion she does receive is actually from very hateful people.
It takes a very rare person in this situation where they’re being attacked and are starting off with a toxic mentality to suddenly stop, rise above, self-reflect, admit their failings, and grow. So people with one bad take are immediately cast into a sea of poison when they don’t know how to swim. It’s happening over and over again. And cancel culture is patting itself on the back the whole time, saying, “See? They were a bad egg!” When they’re just as much to blame for that person’s downfall as the hateful community that fostered it.
But she also has every single resource to escape her line of thinking while refusing to do so. She has never interacting with the trans community in any sort of good faith: so she does not deserve it in kind.
None of this is “cancel culture”: again it’s calling out her horrific thoughts and ideas. Plus those same horrific thoughts and ideas have tangible horrific effects. Fuck JK Rowling.
