I didn’t mean it as you specifically. Just in general. My family has a history of sexual abuse because of my grandfather so it was a pretty pertinent example from my own life experience.

I’m sorry if that seemed insensitive.

I can agree with that up to a point.

But that’s about the psychology of human nature, how it forms memories and attached feelings to them as much as anything else.

That’s pretty much why people feel like they are personally being attacked when you ask them to avoid something that is now seen as problematic. Lots of authors (even childrens book authors) dumb down themes and use tropes that are well known on media to make broad strokes for their audience who don’t at that time understand nuance.

That’s a lot of the “controversy” that comes up around books like the red wall series. Some people think the books are sexist, classist, and possibly racist and I can see their points. At the same time there’s an argument to be made for dumbing down certain themes, removing nuance from them so that they are more palatable to a younger audience.

Either way that’s not really what you mean. I am not trying to take away from what you said. There are plenty of fans who have been critical of Harry Potter as a media franchise for various reasons including sexism, classism, racism and the allegories associated with each as they come up in the story. Accusing HP fans of not being able to do that is a bit disingenuous because they have been taking these books and movies apart to the bedrock for quite some time now.

What I think you mean is that you want them to be critical of why they enjoy the series so that they can do some introspection in order to part with it, but I’m not sure you understand exactly what you’re asking for. There are people who owe their sanity (something they almost lost to the lowest points in their lives) to HP and books like it. The escapism is important for a lot of children who are in dark places.

If the person in that comic had used HP to get them through childhood rape or other abuse, wouldn’t that make a lot of sense as to why they react that way to other people who don’t know them or their trauma trying to take that away from them?

No this is not me saying that because they have trauma they are allowed to inflict trauma on others.

I look at it this way. The way we inform people and talk to people matters. Treating people like our adversaries makes them defensive and less likely to do what we are asking.

Last guy who tried that got arrested. Plan accordingly.

They went about this the wrong way. Get with a AAA studio or better yet an indie studio, build an Air Traffic Control game, and then recruit gamers. Sometimes you gotta Top Gun it.

I’m not even saying she’s not a terrible person (she’s a self righteous harpy who I do believe is doing actual harm). The books weren’t great but they were okay. But like. At the same time people read for a plethora of reasons and I don’t think it’s fair to be like “it’s not good so you shouldn’t enjoy it”. People are allowed to enjoy things. They don’t have to be good.

There are plenty of reasons to avoid her books without crapping on people’s personal tastes.

I can’t imagine what a healthy adult could possibly get out of that.

Joy. What one person gets joy out of another person may not get joy out of and that’s fine. But when you attempt to be the Theif of joy just because you don’t like where a person is getting it from (even when that hurts literally no one), to the point where you think it’s okay to shame them for it (which is basically bullying), I have to wonder a lot about not just your motives but your attempt to rationalize your own behavior.

Just because you don’t do something doesn’t mean it’s not okay for other people. Your arbitrary deductions about their choices don’t entitle you to judge them or to try to penalize them just because you would have done differently.

It costs you nothing to let people enjoy the things they want to enjoy when they aren’t hurting you.

I think there’s something to be said for having to throw away things tied to precious memories because those things are tainted by a bitch who couldn’t just shut the fuck up and be happy with her success.

But this is exactly the type of thing I mean when I say that some people’s advocacy against JKR bleeds over into the lives of innocent people just trying to live.

I would never be able to throw away a gift my father had given me. Nobody should be pressuring anyone else to do the same just because they find something problematic (not for its actual contents, but because it’s author is a hate monger).

People forget that there are real and cherished memories attached to this franchise and whether they intend to or not, they do attack them when they make media like this, or post about how terrible a person must be for having engaged with said media.

Just because something is trivial for you to excise from your life doesn’t mean it’s as easy for the next person.

When people spread further hatred because they feel self righteous about something that has wronged them, they aren’t making things better.

I don’t even engage with the franchise anymore. Most of what I know about it from the last decade has been from media posts like this bashing it or telling people how evil Rowling is. I wouldn’t know there was a tv show, wouldn’t have known about the game l, wouldn’t have known about the universal park etc if it weren’t for posts like this.

Did you throw away all your Disney media? Would you still visit a Disney or universal park? Engage with the studio that made the game or the company producing the show?

There’s so much to how media gets made and how many companies are still actively supporting this bigot and instead of attacking those corporations we attack each other for no really good reason except that it makes some people feel superior.

Nobody ever shouts out the organizations that she donates to. Nobody ever mentions where they get their funding. Nobody ever talks about boycotting the companies making the media (not the media itself) until they stop supporting franchises like HP.

Does that make sense? It’s never made sense to me.

As someone who did grow up with the series but doesn’t interact with it anymore, I’m gonna tell you that not everyone needs things to be good.

It doesn’t have to be good for you to enjoy it. Fanfiction alone wouldn’t exist if it had to be good.

I don’t understand this the same way I don’t understand burning books you already own. It’s performative but it doesn’t show any actual thought.

Can we get a window for when the new rules may go I to effect? It doesn’t have to be a hard deadline but I for one would like to know so I can review the sidebar.

So ban evasion. That’s why you have at least four accounts that I know about?

My dude. My brother in Christ. It seems like it might be you who is taking things personally. You are showing mods and admins here in the fediverse that your actions are deliberate and irrational.

It costs you nothing to just move on and stop the antisocial behavior that got you in trouble in the first place.

So then what is the purpose of you hopping accounts?

Also, don’t act like you don’t have an account that’s not a “beep” account. People aren’t that stupid.

You who keep making new accounts presumably to circumvent people who have blocked you?

Anyone who has eaten something without washing their hands after handling a cartridge should have gotten at least a little taste of why you shouldn’t do that.

That’s just her face. She has resting side eye face.

I prefer shut up 10++ but any of them that work are good.

That sounds like something MS is too rich to understand.

Yeah. I figured you weren’t aware (same for a lot of people who downvoted the original comment).

Op is not consistent about cropping signatures or removing credits. A lot of their older posts didn’t have credits removed.

I’d like to think there’s a possibility that their post was a joke for April Fools but posts before April 1st and after it kind of refute that. They also continue to double down or feign ignorance like I’ve seen on other posts to avoid being called out or to try to shout down people who call them out for their own behavior. Both their post and comment history are telling.

If attribution can be given by linking to the original artist or otherwise annotating that the post did not have attribution and none could be found, that might be acceptable.

But this post is in reference to a prolific poster who is deliberately removing attribution they think is “ads” which includes the artists signatures, watermarks, and social media attributions. That user has been deliberately removing said attributions recently because they “want ad free art”.

Is it advertising when I sign my tax return? Enquiring minds want to know. Cause I sure as hell would love it if the IRS didn’t know who I was or how much money I was making.

Are you puppeting your bot account right now so that you can evade a ban?

Genuinely asking because this is just like. The worst take ever, but the time frame between the number of posts you post per day and the fact that there was a post recently about bots not being allowed all make me suspect everything you’ve said.