Revolt at publisher Hachette re Rowling "transphobia"

Comments are not being moderated on that Daily Mail piece. That's the first time I have seen that happen.

Oh, bloody well done, Hachette! Hope the little upstarts put their money where their mouth is and resign in disgust 😂.

The utter neck of them making these sort of demands...
The pure arrogance is astounding.

Well done Hachette. People working in book publishing - ideas - theories not wanting to work on JKR's book because they disagree with her ideas? We're moving so close to a totalitarian state with proscribed thinking it's unbelievable. These are the university educated elite coming out with these dangerous beliefs.

It is so clear why trans lobby groups target universities and children in schools because this is the outcome. Young narcissistic adults devoid of the most fundamental understanding of democratic principles and critical thinking.

I work with Hachette professionally too.

Luckily I'm a freelancer so not anymore it seems.

Interesting insights, Brexpat, it strikes me that there is a pattern here, common to all sorts of social justice causes (I hasten to call these movements because the idea seems to be that it's the individual's responsibility to change society) in the neoliberal age, where people such as your colleague have internalised the idea that they are somehow responsible for wider social issues and that their individual action will make a difference. It's antithetical to collective action or the democratic process (sorry, not sure I'm making sense here ...) and it politicises all aspects of human life. I would see this in the same area as becoming vegan, for example. But there are strict boundaries around this kind of permissible individual moralised behaviour, it still has to work within our capitalist consumerist society, which might explain why your employee was able to decide to become a financial services consultant in the first place instead of, say, a social worker.

Hachette should have said ‘she pays your wages, if you don’t want to be a hypocrite there is the door’.

It's good to see them holding up - especially in publishing, which is so close to the very core of issues around free speech.

The general behaviour, though, seems to be a general trend, though, including the expectation for ones personal ideals to matter in the work place. I've had a young employee explain to me in very earnest tones why they would not feel comfortable with working for big corporate banking clients and asking to be assigned to something of a more charitable nature. They work as and had only very recently applied for the position of ... financial services consultant, specialising in investment banking.

I'm glad firms are not caving in. It'd be disasterous especially when it runs the risk of ending up imposing de facto censorship. Having said that, I'm not sure how long this will remain a given as this type of behaviour becomes the norm.

And, for what it's worth, I'm a leftie and I also work for corporate banking clients. It's not always comfortable - but also: I don't expect my work to reflect values. Some of the cognitive dissonance may be a goid thing in that it teaches you to cope with internal conflict rather well. I've some red lines, e.g. I wouldn't work for a weapons manufacturer. But then I also wouldn't expect to be employed as a defense systems innovation consultant tasked with developing deadlier guns.

Some of the activists have already been burning Harry Potter books.

Ironically many years ago, the same group would have ridiculed other faith-based groups for the exact same behaviour.

Thank god WB and Hachette have some common sense

I find this 1984 thought police nonsense absolutely terrifying

Coincidentally I was just catching up with the article about JKR in the Sunday Times.
I am glad that Hachette haven’t given in to this but it’s very worrying that these young people think they can influence publishers in this way. If freedom of speech is not for you then maybe publishing is the wrong career choice.

Publishing is a very competitive industry ... just sayin'

Feels like we are a minute away from
Burning books.

Wish the companies would turn tables and start cancelling bullies.

This is fantastic, and I'm pleased that Warner Bros didn't cave either.

I'm sure it was 99% about money for them ("So this team meeting is to discuss whether we should attack the woman who's one of our biggest earners and essentially funded all your jobs.")

But even so, fighting the cancel culture is hard.

If only the parents of those young people publicly tantruming now had done the same.

In my contracts there always has been the ‘if you don’t like it - if it’s part of your job (that you signed up for) hold your nose and do it’ clause.

I stopped saying ‘yes dear’ to avoid a tantrum/row, and allowing the odd chocolate bar with breakfast for a quiet life when DS was... about 4?

Surely if a person refuses to do their job they can be sacked? I'm afraid I've rather passed the point of trying to find compromise. It is not appropriate for organizations or governments to respond to tantrum with placation. It's long past time that people who throw their toys out of the pram every time they don't get their own way were told "no".

If I was their boss, i'd really want to know which part of her post that they disagreed with! She said literally nothing "against" transgender people.*

I'd want to them to take me through it too, especially if they have anything to do with reading manuscripts and making decisions about which books to put up for publishing. They've clearly demonstrated an inability to understand text and to think critically about it. They've also demonstrated that they can't tolerate something they don't agree with, indicating that if an amazing script came through, but they didn't agree with it, they'd discard it.

I mean, if you work in publishing and can't read what is there in black and white, only what's in your head, then it's probably time to look for another career.

Well done Hachette.

I don't think it's about ideals of freedom of speech, although that may be something the company supports. It'll be about the bottom line. And that's because it's a company. It's not a social enterprise set up to give woolly hugs to its junior staff and print the works of writers they agree with.

The students who started no platforming are now in the real world and I imagine it's tough finding out that your employer doesn't care what your ideals are, you're there to work. And it's fine if you disagree, there are other people who will happily fill your vacancy position if you leave. They think their opinions are worth the same to their boss as their employer's major writer. It's almost funny.

If I was their boss, i'd really want to know which part of her post that they disagreed with! She said literally nothing "against" transgender people. So immature. I'm glad the publishers at least are being adults about this. FFS children.

Hachette workers have previous I believe - Woody Allen.

Subtext: not publish a new JKR book? Are you mad?????

Good on Hachette, I’ll see how I can support by buying their authors.

All this childish, toy throwing behaviour is not doing gender ideology any good at all.

There is a petition on Change re the changes to GRA, lots of emotive, hyperbole and misinformation, you would truly believe how awful the government is for listening to women. Contrast that to the open season on bullying, the cancel culture, the threats, the woke staff (just in the last week alone) it paints an entirely different picture from the 'most oppressed people ever' line. The government is watching all this unfold. What we have been saying for years is being proven right every single day and this time the public is seeing it as well.

This is just another example.

Sunlight.