James Kirkup about Hogwarts Legacy

[Igneococcus]

Very short comment on the success of the game in the Times today.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/91677e0a-6a99-4333-9a61-b574a956cd8c?shareToken=eb7a78058d53904a97156933e39f06a2

There is abundant evidence using multiple opinion research methods that the majority of voters (female and male) do not rank this among their most important policy issues.

I occasionally get invited to surveys, mostly about Scottish politics. which ask me to rank topics according to importance to me and I'm never quite sure how to answer them. My top priorities wouldn't include this issue either but it is the issue I judge every politician and every party on. So I rank it quite low in my survey answers because I don't think it's the issue the Scottish government should spend so much time and effort on but it is one of the reasons why I will not ever vote SNP or SGreens. I'm sure the research you do is better designed than these surveys (used to be Panelbase which are now Norstat).

I agree with all of this.

I think that public opinion (as far as we can understand it) is genuinely "muddled" and doesn't fall into the neat dividing lines that people who have strong opinions expect.

It's why even though I can see the logic in the "don't respect pronouns" argument it worries me that it's taking the movement a fairly long way from where the median public position actually "is" - which by and large sees misgendering as unkind.

Keir Starmer probably is muddled and inconsistent on the issue but he's not really taking polling damage from it because in that he's largely reflecting public opinion.

My top priorities wouldn't include this issue either but it is the issue I judge every politician and every party on.

Yes, it's a bit of a litmus test.

Almost all parents know someone who is trans in their kids' class or school or peer group. But they may just see that as a fad like being a Goth.

Certainly anyone who reads the Daily Mail won't be unaware of the situation either, they're on an absolute mission.

I'm sure it's on most peoples radar, by now. But maybe they don't know the depth of it.

Which is why I think once the questions start getting asked, things might change. Certainly in terms of peoples' awareness of quite how far the ideology has gone.

When more people see Keir Starmer claim that one in a thousand women have a penis, for instance.

The point being that suddenly politicians everywhere will be electioneering and the best questions are always going to be those that they absolutely can't answer.

But that's all straying from the point about Hogwarts Legacy!

Hogwart's Legacy is an interesting one, because I've heard that the developers (once their strop at trying to get the game cancelled didn't work) went a bit excessive on trans inclusion in the game. So there could've been calls for a boycott of the game based on excessive "wokery", but as the boycott was based on the opposite side of the argument sales were incredibly high, and for many the game was seen as "anti-woke" even if the content was the opposite.

I think what we're finding is that in reality trans activists don't have much say with the public, that's why they influence the small minority of those in power to enforce these policies on the majority.

Essentially the activists and games media (that bowed to the demands of activists) lost out because the boycott didn't work, and there wasn't a genocide of trans people due to the massive sales of the game.

I think what we're finding is that in reality trans activists don't have much say with the public, that's why they influence the small minority of those in power to enforce these policies on the majority.

They have known all along that the public would disagree, which is why they had their NoDebate agenda, Denton report laying out that changes should be sneaked in so they wouldn’t be spotted, sneaking in policy changes without public engagement….