this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] KulunkelBoom@lemm.ee 1 points 22 minutes ago

Fascist shitgoblins don't far fall from each other off the same branch.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 2 points 48 minutes ago

She became the villain from her own book: Voldermort.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 6 points 2 hours ago

It's kind of too late now, though. Even if we somehow convinced every person on earth to never buy another Harry Potter anything ever again. She's already got her bag. That won't go away and she'd continue being a horrible person with the power of wealth.

Elon's wealth, on the other hand, exists almost entirely as a fiction of his businesses' value. He is much more susceptible to being taken down with them.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I never understood all this whinging about J. K. Rowling. I was a big fan of Ender's Game when I was younger, but when Orson Scott Card revealed himself to be an asshole I dropped those books like a bad habit and everyone I knew did the same. There wasn't even really any debate over it. Why are we still wringing our hands about Harry Potter?

[–] brognak@lemm.ee 9 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Enders Game (and the whole series) is a bit different, as unlike Harry Potter they are actually trying to teach a lesson in empathy and understanding instead of just being a fun magical romp.

To this day I have literally no idea how the Orson who wrote those books became the man he did. He lives his life by the antithesis of the ideals he preached.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

He had a stroke in 2011, and I think having two kids die fucked him up. (Some of his early works had sympathetic portrayals of gay men.)

I’ve always found it amusing that the guy who wrote Wyrms (fourteen year old girl is destined to be impregnated by a monster, and the book is her weird horny journey to it) and Hart’s Hope (where our hero has to rape a teenage girl in front of an audience in order to claim sovereignty over the kingdom, and she turns into the story’s main villain) got so hung up about sexual purity.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

they are actually trying to teach a lesson in empathy

S.P.E.W. and mugblood rhetoric seem like progressive topics with real world analogues.

Her transphobic politics seem to be separate from the HP universe.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The point of S.P.E.W. is that Hermoine is an obnoxious activist for caring about slavery so much. Winky gets freed and becomes a depressed alcoholic, the other house elves get pissed that Hermoine tries to give them homemade socks. Hagrid calls Dobby weird for not wanting to be a slave.

Pottermore used to have an article “To SPEW or not to SPEW” which was critical of Hermoine. The text clearly condones the race based slavery. Heck - even the name “SPEW” is a joke.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I never considered that Rowling was making fun of Hermoine's Elf position.

But I did think it strange that a nicely set-up elf rebellion never arrived.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago) (1 children)

They’ve tried their best to wipe this article off the internet:

The trouble with S.P.E.W. is that Hermione wants it all and wants it now. Political movements take time as well as effort, so the notion of changing the world overnight is quite naive. Even when people are well-meaning, there’s always the risk of doing more harm than good.

Hermione’s methods might be ill-advised, but this doesn’t render her entire cause unworthy. Just because most elves don’t want freedom doesn’t mean they don’t deserve better treatment. Hermione’s dream of an elf in government might be far-fetched, but there’s merit in wanting to protect the vulnerable and allow them more choices. However, she ought to be careful – ‘tricking’ elves into freedom is arguably as unethical as enslavement.

Before we go, let’s consider Kreacher. Think of how he changed when treated with kindness by his new master, Harry Potter. Previously he’d been bitter and unpleasant, not to mention a liability to his previous owner. Had Sirius treated him a little better, things might have worked out differently. Dumbledore was right – being kind to Kreacher was in everyone’s best interests.

If you look at other translations, “SPEW” is often changed to that language’s word for “vomit,” “fart,” or “snot.”

The idea that Dobby is mentally unwell for wanting to be free has some upsetting historical precedent.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 1 points 17 minutes ago

The only person responsible for the written content seems to be Rowling. And her key witness is Hagrid who is not portrayed for his intelligence in the books.

This is not good for Rowling, but I think kids would still read the HP series and take Hermoine's point of view.

[–] lorty@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 hours ago

Because it became a multimedia franchise and fans still want to keep consuming it despite how much she sucks, so there's a lot of mental gymnastics.

[–] unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 10 points 6 hours ago

best I can do on Rowling is look forward to the inevitable Behind the Bastards coverage

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 21 points 9 hours ago

"Influencing" is putting it mildly. Funding organizations with political power is a lot more than that.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Also it’s not just a trans thing.

JK is incredibly ableist and regularly mocks disabled people. For example one of her latest books is basically painting all chronically ill people as malingerers.

[–] shaquilleoatmeal@lemm.ee 1 points 25 minutes ago

And one of her more recent blow-ups was against asexual people.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 14 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It's in her HP books. The editor just tampered it down, but you can still see it now that we have a pattern. It's why I hate the people who say, "hate the artist, but love the art" bullshit. The art is bad as well and I'm proud I bailed on that series half way though.

[–] unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I like the comparison of Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings that points out Harry Potter was a very special, perhaps ethnically special boy, who deserved his powers because he was naturally good, while Frodo Baggins was a dude who got saddled with an absurd level of responsibility, which he never could have handled without a long list of friends and randos who found it amusing to help him.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

If it was just Harry, it would just be an over used clique, but ethnic or birth traits kept coming up. Hagrid is naturally angry. Voldemort is evil because he was a rape baby. House Elves are natural ~~slaves~~servants. The Weasley will always be poor(even when Harry should be paying rent or at least buying them a new car).

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Voldemort is evil because he was a rape baby.

As a sorta half blood rape baby, this has always driven me mad. I am not evil because my conception was.

[–] unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

well that is more Harry Potter information than I previously had, but I'll just move on and pretend to be dumber than I am, which is already pretty bad. when I was kid I gathered an embarassing amount of knowledge on Stephen King novels. I didn't really expect him to be one of the good guys in 2025, but there he is.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

I gave up on HP half way through, but because the topic kept coming up so when I saw what looked like a good review everything on yt, I put it on in the back ground.

Oh, right. The Irish character kept blowing things up.

[–] unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 hours ago

well I just get more and more impressed with Rowling the more I learn

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 10 hours ago (3 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

"These people aren't fucking exactly the right amount."

[–] InputZero@lemmy.world 13 points 8 hours ago

You would think that of all the non-heteosexual sexualities that asexual people would be the least likely for someone to be prejudice against. I understand that asexuality is a spectrum and any generalization about any large group of people lacks accuracy but, generally I've found aces just want to be left alone. Something I think we can all appreciate every now and again. They're just not interested in romantic and/or sexual relationships. The first decade of my life was like that, I think the first decade of most people's lives are like that. What's so hard to understand about people who just don't feel that attraction?

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Someone should tell Mobius 1.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 29 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

This is why i call it separating the artisr from the finance, the art is just unavoidable collateral damage.

Perfect example. Hp Lovecraft is dead he gains no money, rallies no crowd, calls no lawmaker. JkR does still, she does gain money and spends it trying to make the world worse for people.

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Lovecraft is problematic for other reasons.

The problem is that what makes his work good is this pathological fear of the other, that he interlinks with xenophobia and notions of racial purity in his fiction.

You can't love the art and hate the author with Lovecraft, you have to accept they're both pretty fucked up.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago

Lovecraft is also a different case. It should be obvious now that he was a clinical xenophobe and was afraid of most things. He wasn't really looking to put other people down to compensate for his own shortcomings. If Lovecraft was still alive, I wouldn't argue with people boycotting him, but he's not the same as JK.

[–] Kickforce@lemmy.wtf 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah and Lovecraft came to see his racism was wrong before the end of his short life. Rowling so far has only clamped down harder on her detrimental bullshit.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Is that true? I'm an HP Lovecraft head and had never heard that

[–] Thomrade@lemm.ee 6 points 6 hours ago

In his later letters to, and I could be wrong about the recipient, Robert E Howard he lamented that he wasted so much time being afraid of other cultures, and recognised his xenophobia as ignorance.

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