What Do You Think About the J.K. Rowling Controversy?

I have said for a very long time that I don't like it when celebrities get up onto their podiums and blabber their mouths. I will even admit that most of the time that's because most celebrities are liberals and the things they say, I find, are just off the wall.

Liberal commentary, let's just be real here, is often quite abusive and extremely derogatory.

I will grant you that I am a conservative and I have some obvious bias—but not without reason. Of course liberalism makes no sense to me. Part of that is because most liberal ideologies simply cannot be explained in great detail. It's typically resigned to slogans and bumper sticker length quips.

But my opinion is not about my politics, or anyone else's for that matter. Including the politics of the Harry Potter series author, J.K. Rowling, who has taken quite a bit of heat for her stance against transgenderism, which is of course a hotly debated topic these days.

The left wants to punish her just as much as often times the right wants to punish liberals. Fair enough. Like liberal celebrities, J.K. Rowling is entitled to her opinion, and I guess if they (anyone, right or left) wants to voice them, so be it. It's a free country.

But there is still a stark contrast between liberal speech and the reaction to it and conservative speech and the reaction to it. There is a stark contrast between the "punishment." In other words, when it comes to liberals, if you speak from a conservative viewpoint, they not only want to vehemently disagree with you, but they also literally want to destroy you. And I mean everything about you. They want you erased from existence and completely abandoned. They want you poor and destitute and sent to the streets. 

No, seriously. That's what they want. 

The issue I have with the J.K. Rowling controversy is that. We live in a world right now where liberals are free to say whatever they want and often without consequence. Conservatives will still punish the liberals to some extent. But conservatives also aren't as violent about their dislike over some of the things liberal celebrities espouse as liberals are.

Of course, it depends on what the "issue" happens to be of course. Sometimes things go too far, and everyone notices it on both sides. Take the Kathy Griffin Trump severed head thing. That did not go over well for liberals as well as conservatives. And rightly so.

Kathy Griffin's career imploded, and I am sure it is safe to say it has never fully recovered and likely never will. Roseanne Barr suffered a similar fate when she shrieked the National Anthem, grabbed her crotch and spat in 1990. Something that today might be more acceptable to the left considering all the kneeling thing that happened, but she's still on the naughty list with liberals because she turned sides and became a Trump supporter. 

Barr's getting newfound love from conservatives, for whatever that's worth. And let's face it, having friends on the conservative side is a much more lucrative enterprise. It just is. I think it will work out well for her actually.

Just look at Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A.

Conservatives speak on the extremes while liberals clash with the norms, and that's part of the difference. Whether or not you happen to be conservative or liberal, the fact is that conservatism is more mainstream while liberalism is more fringe.

And by the way, I should point out that J.K. Rowling is not a conservative. She is simply not toeing the "party line" when it comes to issues of transgenderism, and the liberals will not have any of that. You either conform to the entire platform or you are ousted—in their minds—and must be destroyed.

In essence, according to the left, you are not permitted to have an opinion of any kind unless your opinion matches their side's opinion. Pretty plain and simple. If you're not onboard; cancel, silence, abolish and destroy!

It sounds like an extreme thing to say. But look around and it all makes sense. It's what they do.

The thing is, I'd like to Rowling to keep quiet just like anyone I suppose. Even if her stance on this particular issue makes sense to me. I am not against liberal speech in the sense that I am for freedom of speech even if I don't like the words.

For me it comes down to a similar stance I have with businesses espousing their politics or certain social concerns publicly. Take the Bud Light controversy. It ruins the brand. It ruins the business. It alienates the customers on both sides when this happens. 

Celebrities are a brand and a business just like any other business, and customers are more interested in the product than really the person. And so, when the celebrity injects into their brand something other than what they are ultimately selling, it taints the entire thing. It hurts the business. 

At the same time, the tenacity by which the left goes after conservatives is much more pronounced. Conservatives may not like what Robert DeNiro has to say on political issues, but if they like his acting they'll still go and see his movies. 

On the left it's very different. Ultimately, I say let people say what they want, on both sides, and let's get back to a place where we can simply disagree with the stance but not have to have the desire to completely cancel the person over it.

We can simply disagree and move on and not destroy everyone and everything simply because we disagree.

Do you like the way I write or things I write about? Follow all of my writings from all of the places I write at https://www.facebook.com/jimbauerwrites

Why Have You Not Written Here For So Long?

I write a lot if I have never mentioned it before. And I write about a wide variety of topics. I very much enjoy every bit of the process of writing. As my bio suggests, "keeping the pen moving" is crucial to the process of continuing to write anything.

The reality is that Blogspot has been both a rewarding and disappointing experience for me across all the blogs I have on the system currently. 

This is not the only blog I have neglected for some time, although I do spend more time on The Springboard, which I consider to by my "hub" if you want to call it that. Needless to say, I have spent more time on other sites that offer a bit more interaction on my posts. Something I enjoy. And it always feels like I am reaching a wider audience than these blogs have been able to generate.

I should point out that I am trying to change that now, going forward, and am adding content to all of my blogs.

But over the years I have written in many different places. Bubblews, Daily Two Cents, Niume, WebAnswers, HubPages, read.cash and myLot. There has simply been more opportunity to reach more people and even to generate more revenue from my content.

And that's NOT to say that my purpose for writing is to make money. But let's face it, more money is what opens up more opportunities to write more since time is a valuable thing, and one of course has to eat.

Building an audience in this space is honestly a tough thing, even in those other spaces. It takes time. It takes a lot of content. And you have to be constantly incentivized to write anywhere based on the "reaction" you are able to get, and those other places have simply offered more.

That being said, I opened up a "fan page" of sorts on Facebook where I can direct people to go to follow more of the other things I write about and the places where I write. It's slow like anything is. I created the page many years ago mainly to highlight what I was doing on HubPages. 

Now I see it as more of an opportunity to have it be a "place to collect and share all of my work." 

At the same time, having that "one stop shop" to showcase it all gives me much more encouragement to get back to work on some of my other neglected blogs, such as this one, expand my audience, and make it easier for them to find what I am writing about.

Building from the outside in, so to speak.

The long and short is that over time I simply have not appreciated fully the value that Blogspot brings me, to have complete and full editorial control of my content, to post what I want and let the audience decide what interests them and what doesn't.

I have changed my mind and will now be adding content to all of my pages here on Blogspot, and hope you like what I am doing and will join me along my journey back.

As for this blog in general, while I generally pose questions as a topic to write an answer about, I encourage you to stop in and if you have a question you want me to try to answer I would love to give it a go.

Do you like the way I write or the things I write about? Check out my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jimbauerwrites and get a peek at more of my writing elsewhere in the blogosphere.