Tuesday, April 25, 2023

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.

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