We thought Owen Jones couldn’t get more odious.. He has proved us wrong!

[Absentmindedsmile]

https://archive.md/aOdSj

Archive link for readability

‘[Owen] seems to be upset because she had a chuckle about his erratic behaviour on Piers Morgan Uncensored last week. In response to an X user who wondered if Jones might have partaken of the white stuff before fidgeting and gurning his way through Morgan’s show, Rowling tweeted: “Well, he is known as Talcum X.”

Jones is hopping mad. He’s even written a 1,300-word screed on what a rotter Rowling is, which I’m sure we can all agree is a perfectly normal response to a woman making a joke.’

😂😂 and also 🤮🤢

such a strange approach to things - surely genocide is something we should ALL speak about and try to stop??

What are you doing to try to stop it?

How exactly is posting soundbites on social media going to stop anything?

@illinivich

We have seen him acting like this for years unfortunatly.

Did you read the post upthread about how genocide is a contested term, and the one - maybe the same one - about the various wars and genocides around the world which are basically ignored by the press, the Left, the intelligentsia etc?

Its not fully agreed that its a genocide

There are many genocides around the world at the monent too, what are you doing to speak about those and try to stop those?

“these faux-feminists zip their lips when women are being oppressed by Islamists. They cosplay as feminists at home, holding forth on the gender pay gap and whatnot. Yet they fall silent in the face of the Iranian regime’s mass murder of women who want more rights or the Taliban’s medieval subjugation of its female population”

THIS is what has always enraged me about the people marching ‘for Palestine’ and waving Palestinian flags etc etc. They don’t give a toss about conflicts elsewhere, they don’t even think about all the women being treated horrifically under Islamic regimes around the world. WHAT IS IT about the Palestinian case that gets so many lefties so excited?

Really sickening to read the pile on here, including mockery of someone's neurodiversity. Interesting that people are more preoccupied with OJ while completely ignoring the horrors he is invited to talk about in the first place and that is the context within which he referred to JK.

I've always had a lot of respect for JK and her silence is disappointing (if not surprising) precisely because she has positioned herself as an advocate for women. Despite this, she has stayed silent regarding the horrors being perpetrated against Palestinian women and mothers for the past two years and counting.

For those saying why should she speak out/what does it have to do with her, you need to check yourself and your basic humanity; every manner of people are speaking out against what many organisations including the UN, Amnesty and Human Rights International are now clearly signposting as genocide, mostly affecting women and children.

This is mumsnet- many of us are mothers- how anyone can see/read/hear of what is happening to women, children and babies in Gaza and not be affected is deeply troubling. I'm not Palestinian, Arab etc, but that doesn't stop me from being horrified by what is happening to them and sympathising. JK is an intelligent woman with a massive platform who has used it to advocate for others, particularly women. It is no surprise that people are questioning her silence when so many others have spoken up across countries, faiths and backgrounds. If you are too scared to speak up, at least don't mock those that do...

I am procrastinating. (yes, ADHD here too) so i asked copilot (which runs off ChatGPT afaik) if those authors had spoken out on Gaza.

And this is the reply:

Yes, several of the authors you’re interested in have made public statements or taken actions related to the situation in Gaza. Here’s a summary of what I found:
🗣️ Authors who have spoken out
J.K. Rowling Rowling condemned the kidnapping of children by Hamas, calling it “despicable and wholly unjustifiable.” She shared a photo of a 12-year-old autistic Harry Potter fan reportedly abducted during the October 7 attacks, saying the image “hit home” with her. She has also previously criticized the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians, opposing a full cultural boycott of Israel while acknowledging the “brutality and injustice” faced by Palestinians

Val McDermid McDermid has actively supported humanitarian aid efforts for Gaza. She promoted a fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians, urging followers to donate and stating: “Every day, the situation for people in Gaza worsens. Imagine if you were ill or injured and there was no treatment available”. She also signed an open letter defending the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s sponsorship amid protests over ties to firms linked to Israel, while calling for a ceasefire and the release of hostages

Irvine Welsh Welsh signed a cultural boycott of Israel alongside other Scottish artists, pledging not to perform or exhibit in Israel or accept funding from institutions linked to the Israeli government. He also wrote a strongly worded essay supporting the Irish rap group Kneecap’s pro-Palestinian stance, saying: “More power to everybody speaking up against these atrocities” and calling the UK government’s attempts to silence such voices “a total embarrassment”

Christopher Brookmyre Brookmyre also signed the Scottish Cultural Workers Boycott of Israel, aligning with artists who refuse to collaborate with institutions linked to the Israeli government.

Ali Smith Smith was among 380 writers who signed an open letter condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocidal” and calling for an immediate ceasefire. However, she faced criticism for previously downplaying student protests in support of Palestine, with some accusing her of “hypocrisy” for signing the letter after months of silence.

📝 Other authors
I didn’t find public comments from Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, A.L. Kennedy, Jackie Kay, James Robertson, Alan Warner, Louise Welsh, Anne Donovan, or Graeme Macrae Burnet in the sources I searched. That doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t spoken out — just that it hasn’t been widely reported or indexed.

So should we send the list of "other authors" to Jones and tell him to lay of JKR and focus on them?

The other problem is that criticism only increases engagement, which fuels clicks, revenue, and self righteousness. Audience capture.

Why should we all have to "speak out"?

I don't at all condone what Israel is doing in Gaza, same as I don't at all condone what Hamas did on October 7th. But there are other issues I feel personally more passionately about and about which I feel more able to actually effect a change.

Why is Gaza supposed to be everyone's No.1 priority? Is no-one allowed a different priority?

Many getting the wrong end of the stick - it’s not that Owen Jones was expecting Rowling to speak about the IDF killing tens of thousands of women and children in its response to a terrorist threat. Rather the article was a direct retort to her very personal attack against his medial condition, ie his somewhat erratic body movements/mannerisms in his recent interview on Palestine.

And in OJ’s article, although she was the one who instigated the personal angle, he still keeps it professional, merely questioning her worldview/priorities. Or if the Middle East isn’t your bag, fine, but at least don’t take the piss out of people’s ADHD as opposed to critiquing their actual comments on the Middle East. He didn’t make fun of her looks, way of speaking, medical conditions etc. IE in direct contrast to her tweets over his interview which twice mocked his reaction to his medication while speaking on a serious issue. It was juvenile at best, nasty at worst.

The decent thing to do would be to make an apology. Though if this thread is anything to go that won’t happen. “If JK Rowling makes light of ADHD let’s do it too, heehee”.

@GirlMama21 What if someone finds another issue more important - say, the plight of Afghani women - are they allowed to demand other people prioritise that issue lest they be patronised via demands that they "check themselves and their basic humanity" and behave a certain way due to being a mother?

WHAT IS IT about the Palestinian case that gets so many lefties so excited?
Possibly, and in no particular order:
Work by the USSR to draw the Left over the anti-Israel side
A lot of good propaganda put out by various bodies including Hamas
Some stupid and unpleasant things done by the Israeli government
Hamas using its own civilians as human shields, so the only way of getting to Hamas is by going through civilians (which is the used by Hamas as further propaganda).
Old-style antisemitism (which is widespread and acceptable in the Islamic world - I uttered the word 'Jewish' once in a Muslim country and there was an audible intake of breath around the table).

How anyone can believe a word coming out of Hamas after the slaughter they orchestrated on 7th October is beyond me.

This is mumsnet- many of us are mothers- how anyone can see/read/hear of what is happening to women, children and babies in Gaza and not be affected is deeply troubling.

you are using the same tired ol' hyperbole that OJ and the rest use. Give it a bloody rest.

I care deeply. But i don't want to allign with the palestine marches because i don't accept that Hamas (and Hezbollah if they are still there) act in the best interest of the civilians in Gaza.
I care deeply about: Ukraine, rough sleepers, children in poverty, Uyghurs, victims of sex-trafficking, victims of FGM, pensioners, the climate, polar bears, palm oil deforestation, the increase of the use of drugs, Male Violence Against Women And Girls, Women's rights, the increase of knife crime, food security, bio-diversity, elderly unemployed who don't get replies to job applications, people who can't find a dentist, Sheffield Wednesday's financial irregularities putting the club in danger, speeding, drunk drivers, the state of the roads, water pollution, the lack of water, an excess of water, whales...

I literally don't have enough hours in the day. So get out of here with your posturing. OF COURSE WE CARE THAT CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING

WHAT IS IT about the Palestinian case that gets so many lefties so excited?

It seems to be part of the omnicause and its list of approved opinions. Trans rights, climate change, Gaza etc. etc. The Left does love a good hierarchy of victimhood.

it’s not that Owen Jones was expecting Rowling to speak about the IDF

Then why did he run a search of her posts for the term "Gaza" and attack her for not finding anything? If he wasn't criticising her for not speaking about it?

Is this another "Of course I didn't mean the words I used" thing? I suppose that's as useful for lying about what one said as it is for lying that women can have dicks.

tbh i don't tend to make public statements about it because there are enough other people doing it, and the signal to noise ration is frankly appalling.

Right now the thing i am most involved in has calmed down a bit so i'm having a bit of a break.

It clearly wasn't a good search as he didn't appear to have had the same results that Brefugee's 10:59 post above found. JKR clearly hadn't use The Approved Words that would mean she could easily be identified as being On The Right Side of History.

Owen Jones is a bit to the left of me on some issues, and I suspect JK Rowling is to the right. But I couldn’t really give a shit. The important thing is that we treat one another with a basic level of decency, which is something that Rowling failed to do when she twice publically mocked his mannerisms related to a reasonably serious medical condition of which he was diagnosed by a qualified psychiatrist two years prior. If his displeasure at her personal attack is apparent in the subsequent article he wrote, I don’t blame him.

He hates women. Really thorough misogynist. So to have women criticise him, mock him, be more successful than him absolutely stabs him in the ego.

I suspect JK Rowling is to the right

Ah, the intimation that JKR is right wing. Did anyone else have that on their JKR Bashing Bingo Card?

What makes you think it’s “lefties”? Ireland (to take one example) is run by a centre-right coalition government which considers Israel to be commiting genocide. Now of course there are other terrible things happening in the world, but it’s a bit weird to get angry about people protesting against a government committing genocide. And I’m sure the vast majority of those people do actually have other concerns in their lives. A two line tweet of condemnation takes twenty seconds, not twenty hours.

'speaking out'

As an expression of individuals' rage, it may be somewhat gratifying.

However, ignoring the underlying global conflicts that are fuelling international wars (control of the Red Sea, BRICs countries' rise and internal tensions within that grouping, Sub saharan Africa's conflicts which are both about resources and religion, China's pressure or not on Iran, etc, and all of this in the shadow of oil/gas/climate change) while whanging on about 'queers for palestine' are about as effective as sugar strands sprinkled into a smoking volcano will be in preventing its eruption.

why wouldn’t she or anyone speak up about something so horrendous which is impacting women and children?