JKR is a challenge to the entire church of identitarianism

[TheKrakening3]

I don’t always agree with Brendan O’Neill but I must say I enjoyed this no holding back spray at the JKR detractors.

www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/16/now-they-want-to-burn-jk-rowlings-books/

Great article - thanks for sharing OP

God help me I've shared it in my Facebook!

excellent article

Excellent article. And well done, CandyLeBonBon, for sharing to FB. Prepare yourself for the outraged narcissistic backlash, but stand firm!
We need more people to put the case for biological reality and women’s rights, to recapture the narrative. So far the gender ideologists have been hogging the media, and too many people have unthinkingly gone along with them out of ignorance of the implications for women, and a vague desire to be kind.

Pity it's not in mainstream news, it deserves a spot

Whenever I hear about the anti-JKR brigade wanting to burn her books, it makes me think of this from Tim Minchin (c2010) on the sacredness of books (comparing the Holy Quran and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and how it seems to have come full circle.

"What sort of fucking idiot burns a book? Burning a book is like burning a bra. After the symbolic moment is over all you're left with is a pile of ashes and unsupported boobs"

Shared on my FB too in the spirit of solidarity x

Ah, Tim Minchin! Also relevant... If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out

Well that is a satisfying read. He cuts through it all to expose the utter madness.

her beliefs and opinions on sex and gender drives these self-styled moral guardians insane because it reminds them of the limitations to their censorious power

How many times have they made the attempt? She shouldn't speak because it's Pride, she shouldn't speak because of BLM, she shouldn't speak because of covid, she shouldn't speak because she's rich, she shouldn't speak because she's successful, she shouldn't speak because she's not trans.

They're simply not as powerful as her and it's infuriating.

I've been really struggling with the RIPJKRowling hashtag because I can't get my head around basically tweeting death threats and everyone things that's okay? I notice she's been v quiet on the issue with her book and I like to think it's because she's either rolling her eyes so hard she physically can't do anything else or because she's going to come out with some cutting pithy comment that will have those of us who see how crazy this is screeching with glee. Or both.

Fabulous article. He nails it.

Brilliant article and the description of Jedward is spot on and hilarious.

@CandyLeBonBon

God help me I've shared it in my Facebook!

Same. Last time I shared something about JKR I got unfriended, blocked and called a bigot (by a man, of course).

When Brendan's on form he's terrific: "Let’s leave to one side the industrial levels of gall it must require for two blokes who don’t know the difference between an exclamation mark and a question mark to have a pop at the most successful British author of all time."

@Whatwouldrowando
Funny that, amongst my FB friends all anti-JKR stuff that appears on my feed come from one middle aged white man, and all those who post positive support are other white middle aged men. One of those, a lifelong self confessed lefty, even had the temerity to accuse her of being ‘barking mad’, classic gaslighting.
It’s become very apparent to me over the last few years, as id-pol has become so prominent, that right-on people are just a big of a bunch of arseholes as your biggest, gammoniest, dyed in the wool right-wingers.
How did we get to this terrible point, who turned the idea of wanting to improve the lives of marginalised people into this bizarre quasi-fascism?

No backlash yet. But I'm ready for it. Had a lengthy discussion about this last night with my 18y/o son. I showed him the problems of removing sex based protections and tore away the veneer of 'if a man wants to say they're a woman, who am I to tell them how to be, let them be' by explaining that if you take away sex based rights, then women will disproportionately suffer and there will be no legal recourse. It was so interesting to see the dawning understanding of the dark underbelly of such blasé thinking. He's bi. I said, if sex is no longer a biological reality, how can anyone be non binary. If sex is a spectrum (like gender) how can you be trans? If sex isn't real, there can be nothing to transition to! It was great to see the penny drop!

This is a great article, thanks for sharing. It is often hard to comprehend this is actually happening. But one positive is a growing resistance and a diversity of voices against the 21st century fanatics and their endless witch hunts.

Rowling’s resoluteness is a beacon to everyone else, too, reminding people that even in this darkly censorious era you can cling to your principles. And that is intolerable to PC mobs who want nothing less than unflinching, society-wide conformity to their political and moral dogmas

I heard him on the Moral Maze saying that ' Feminism is no longer about defending women - it is about policing men'. But that's the downside of the libertarian right like him and his old comrade Claire Fox. Still , any port in a storm I guess.

Abhanmoor

I couldn't care less. This is a great article and an eloquent criticism of the foaming fanatics who want to incinerate books. And people.

@SpaceOP

I've been really struggling with the RIPJKRowling hashtag because I can't get my head around basically tweeting death threats and everyone things that's okay? I notice she's been v quiet on the issue with her book and I like to think it's because she's either rolling her eyes so hard she physically can't do anything else or because she's going to come out with some cutting pithy comment that will have those of us who see how crazy this is screeching with glee. Or both.

Here's the thing that blows my mind: women are told that we can't ever say a single word about the impact of this insanity on women's rights, because if we do, some trans person will hurt themselves, or be beaten up, or worse, and it will be our doing.

And then they do things like this?

Why is a campaign to beat up, and even kill, women who speak out (on the fact that sex is real, and has impact and women are stakeholders in having our very definition - and therefore all our rights as a sex - altered) just fine, while a woman who says that she's not sure it's ideal to house male rapists in women's prisons, or to exclude all women from competing fairly in their own sporting categories, is so evil it leads immediately to suicides and murders?

The double standard is mind blowing. Yet again, women don't matter.

They're not the libertarian right, Abhanmoor, they're the ex-Revolutionary Communist Party. (Ex or sleeper cells, I don't know.)

I actually think O'Neill has come around a bit on feminism. The RCP used to be very anti-feminist and say things like 'date rape is made up by women who got drunk and felt ashamed of shagging some rando'. I even heard O'Neill disowning Marxism, albeit not massively convincingly, on a podcast recently (I think this was in conversation with James Lindsay, could be mistaken about his interlocutor.) I actually think that the process of rigorous critical thinking is working to bring O'Neill closer to a reasonable point of view.

Anyway, that's a blisteringly good article - well done and good luck to everyone who shares it!

Yep! I've just shared that on my facebook page!

We shall see!

I don't like Spiked and in particular its history of denying the genocide at Srebenica.

This is, nonetheless, a cracking article. And if your political position is libertarian, it's an easy win. It's not like defending the right of fascists to demand, say, that Jews are rounded up in concentration camps. It's incredibly obvious to anyone who isn't an out-and-out moron that of course JK Rowling has the right to publish a book in which a male character dresses up as a woman to kill someone. O'Neill's piece is full of an absolutely piercing, focused, genuine anger, and quite rightly so.

The fact that so few people are standing up for Rowling demonstrates just how many of them really are out-and-out morons and/or cowards.

@queenofknives

They're not the libertarian right, Abhanmoor, they're the ex-Revolutionary Communist Party. (Ex or sleeper cells, I don't know.)

I actually think O'Neill has come around a bit on feminism. The RCP used to be very anti-feminist and say things like 'date rape is made up by women who got drunk and felt ashamed of shagging some rando'. I even heard O'Neill disowning Marxism, albeit not massively convincingly, on a podcast recently (I think this was in conversation with James Lindsay, could be mistaken about his interlocutor.) I actually think that the process of rigorous critical thinking is working to bring O'Neill closer to a reasonable point of view.

Anyway, that's a blisteringly good article - well done and good luck to everyone who shares it!

Yes I knew some of them in the 80s.Not Brendan , I think he's a bit younger? The RCP were so extreme , everyone else was a sellout as far as they were concerned. Their magazine, Living Marxism , was so glossy and expensively produced for a tiny group of fewer than 200 ppl that they were widely considered a CIA front. At any rate they abruptly ditched Marxism in 95 I think. Started preaching the virtues of the free market and individualism. They certainly have the 'get on ' gene . The point about these guys is this : they are always right. Even when they are advising Johnson or sitting in the Lords , somehow they are great socialists. So yeah , the support of Spiked is more than welcome. Just don't be surprised when they shit on you.

I know them pretty well too and I'm not convinced they have ditched Marxism at all. They didn't in 95, they just told people that. Brendan o'Neill is younger but you never used to get on in the party if you didn't toe the line. Up until recently he was still describing himself as a Marxist but as I say he has somewhat disowned that stance now. But yes, they are very good at getting on and have found ways to become really influential.

I agree with a lot of what Spiked put out and think we need contrarian and libertarian voices - but I think it's interesting to know a bit about their very shady background! And I don't 100% believe they've given up on Marxism. But maybe some of their members have started to think more independently. If you listen to their podcasts with their regular people though, they still have that same style and the same shared talking points and phrases. I'm not convinced!