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I don't know what happened to her, but all this bs began after she finished the books. For years she was desperate to not fade into obscurity and first tried to cater to the pc crowd and then it slowly turned to hate and harassment against people who weren't pc enough. Then the trans bs started and while I have not kept up with her since she called pewdiepie a fascist, I can tell that she's sticking to her MO of doubling down on something even when people try and tell her to let it go. I don't think she started out as a bad person, but I think all the wealth and attention kinda fucked her up. It's almost like witnessing an addict going from recreational usage of drugs, to becoming a meth addict on a street corner who is willing to do anything to remain relevant in any way.
But wtf do I know. All I can say is that it's kinda nice to finally be able to say that the writing in the Harry Potter books was mid af. Ten years ago ppl told me to kill myself, lol. I still think it's a fun world and the worldbuilding is great as long as you don't start asking questions, but the actual writing and storytelling? Pretty amateur in my humble opinion. I have felt this way since I lost interest in the series around 2006 and I still feel this way. Still haven't managed to finish the books because I hate the fifth one with a passion. The editor was on vacation when she wrote that drivel.
There's no need to play apologist for a cunty billionaire. More likely, this is who she's always been, and now she just has enough money that she no longer needs to hide it.
I don't think you read my comment.
I certainly did. Your first paragraph was very much giving her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn't always a piece of shit. I disagree. I think she just no longer needs to hide it.
Giving someone the benefit of the doubt isn't the same as being an apologist.
I think that there are aspects of her personality that sadly lends itself to her ending up in situations like this, but I see the trans stuff more so as a symptom and not a belief she's held strongly and evily her whole life.
The things I have noticed about Rowling's character is that she seems to love being praised like a hero or an icon. I think she wants to be a role model because she kinda became one when she wrote her books. I think it gave her a high she hasn't been able to feel since.
I have also noticed that Rowling tends to double down on things she say. When she started retconing Harry Potter and making everyone retroactively black and gay, she became very aggressive toward anyone who disagreed or questioned this depiction of hers. Back then, people didn't care as much because she was PC so while she was obnoxious, she was still perceived to be somewhat well-meaning, if in a performative way.
I think she is a massive perfectionist who's terrified of being wrong or less perfect. I think she retconed her characters because she wanted the credit of being ahead of her time. It wasn't enough to have written the most popular book series for kids and teens, that changed the landscape of children's literature. No. She also needed the credit of being PC before it was cool. Even if that wasn't the case.
She also started calling people fascist on Twitter, pewdiepie being one of them and she never backed down from that statement despite being entirely misinformed and ignorant about the situation with him. I vaguely remember similar instances where she would barge in to discussions on Twitter and make statements that were foolish and uninformed and never apologizing for anything or taking the L.
When the trans stuff happened, it just makes sense to me that she would double down on that too because she cannot be wrong. Personally I don't think her initial comments on the subject were all that wild, but the things I have heard her say and do since sounds pretty extreme and to me is in line with her pattern of doubling down and going to the extremes to be right before ever admitting fault or backing down.
In that sense, I agree that the pattern of behavior probably was a reoccurring thing for many years, but I don't believe she hated trans people always. I also don't believe she cared about PC stuff until it became popular. All those things are mere symptoms of a deeper character flaw of someone who yearns for validation and to be right. But this is just me armchair diagnosing here and I don't know enough about her past nor about how she is as a person, but based on the things I have casually observed her do for almost two decades, I do believe that this current behavior of hers was cultivated and nurtured rather than being how she was day one. I think she gave in to her negative traits and the fact that she ended up clinging to trans issues, to me, is more down to chance than the core motivation for her. It could have been anything else, honestly, but it became trans stuff.
And no, I am not apologizing for her because I have always found her behavior fucking cringe and misguided. I just don't believe she has always been a trans hater. At the end of the day, I do kind of feel sorry for her in the same way I feel sorry for Musk and Trump and all his lickspittles.
What hole must you have inside to feel such an urge to self-destruct and actively hurt other people when you feel the smallest bit of pushback or rejection? That must be a very sad existence.
Very well said and I do agree with most of it. My point was more so that just being a transphobe is not the only thing making her a terrible person. There were very troublesome depictions even in her books before we knew she had gone off the deep end. I would argue that those indicate she has always held vile beliefs, she just didn't flaunt them so brazenly. The fact that she is unable to admit her errors and correct her ways is also an indication that she holds these beliefs deeply.
Yeah, I see what you mean! In that sense, I don't think we disagree all that much, actually :D
What things in the books have you noticed? I only read the first 4 and got stuck in the 5th - twice. My latest read was ten to twelve years ago, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. I just remember being incredibly unimpressed with the writing and story during my last read while still enjoying the world and atmosphere. Didn't pick up on any weird views and beliefs back then, I think.
Reminds me of JD Vance.
Some people first glom onto left-leaning causes and opinions. They advocate for open-mindedness and human rights for all. They might even get really into the righteous purity of it all, where they get to criticize others for not being progressive enough.
But then maybe they don't get satisfaction out of that for long. Maybe they find that another leftist is criticizing them for their wrong-headed views. Maybe they aren't getting enough cookies for being a feminist.
So they switch over the right-leaning side of things. Maybe that allows them to be more openly hateful.
Or maybe they just changed their minds.
Honestly, I don't know much about Rowling's beliefs other than being a TERF. Maybe she supports all other "feminist" and anti-racist and left-leaning progressive causes. Perhaps she didn't go all-in on the likes of Trump, the way Vance did.
But you'd never know, since all she talks about is being anti-trans.
Oh, Vance was like that? Haha explains a lot, lol. How sad for him. That man was never on my radar until he start insulting my country and passing on Zelenskyj on international TV. The vibe I got from him is that he's the type of guy who will suck up to everyone and stab everyone in the back the minute he sees the benefit to himself. Makes sense if he used to be super liberal.
As for Rowling, I honestly think most of her strange behavior has less to do about personal beliefs and more to do with wanting admiration and being incapable of admitting fault. I wrote a longer comment to someone else about how I see Rowling and while it's all speculation, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be how she functions.
With people who behave like that, it is rarely about the cause itself and more about something deeper. I believe Rowling is addicted to attention and is terrified of being wrong. Those two are a very bad combo. Especially when you have spent 20 years being praised as the queen of children's literature and has been beloved and idolized like a god where people take everything you say and turn them into inspirational quotes on their social medias and tell you how you ARE their childhoods etc. Suddenly being confronted with pushback when you have been riding a high for years must be kind of startling. Especially when all you have in your tool box is doubling down and making strong statements on social issues, lol.
If I had infinite time, I would genuinely love to dissect what the hell her psychology is, why she is the way that she is and how we got here because I only have the cliffnotes version and my vantage point and I just see a pattern of behavior that goes way, way deeper than political issues and activism.