All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[The Cool Thatguy]

It's not really a stretch. The main antagonist is a man who dresses up like a woman to prey on vulnerable women. This is literally the fear that is expressed about trans-women sharing public spaces, such as bathrooms, with women. Rowling has spoken about this before. This has to be seen in the context of the atmosphere in which she is writing the book and the author's own statements.

Agreed. Context and writer matter in this regard

[Powerboy]

Agreed. Context and writer matter in this regard

True. If you didn't know Rowling's history, this would just be a couple of scenes that would be hard to construe as a shot at trans people since the guy is not trans or gay or a cross-dresser but just threw on a wig to get closer to a woman in a dark alley without her panicking and running. But when you know some of Rowling's history, it becomes at least potentially a subtle attack on trans people.

Now, it's got me thinking about some of the books of the past like the Dune books or the Horseclans books that were absolutely rife with homophobia- and sexism in the case of Dune. They were criticized for that even when they were published. I'm imagining the justifiable backlash today.

[Tami]

I wonder what the odds are of this actually happening?

January 20, 2021 - 11:00 AM - Donald Trump gets on Air Force One and flies somewhere for a rally

January 20, 2021 - early afternoon - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office

January 20, 2021 - a short time later - crew of Air Force One receive an order to return back to base.

- unable to get in touch with him, Air Force One takes off, leaving Trump behind.

----

Do you think Trump would be so stupid and egotistical as to allow himself to be stranded after the inauguration?

[Tendrin]

True. If you didn't know Rowling's history, this would just be a couple of scenes that would be hard to construe as a shot at trans people since the guy is not trans or gay or a cross-dresser but just threw on a wig to get closer to a woman in a dark alley without her panicking and running. But when you know some of Rowling's history, it becomes at least potentially a subtle attack on trans people.

Now, it's got me thinking about some of the books of the past like the Dune books or the Horseclans books that were absolutely rife with homophobia- and sexism in the case of Dune. They were criticized for that even when they were published. I'm imagining the justifiable backlash today.

I mean, given the long history of this kind of attack on transwomen, I'm not even sure you could argue that it would be hard to construe. 'Man uses fake feminity to attack women' is a pretty essential transphobic attack, the same as bathroom/locker room panics were used to discriminate and attack gay and lesbians before. Most of these attacks are simply repurposed wedges.

[Tendrin]

I wonder what the odds are of this actually happening?

January 20, 2021 - 11:00 AM - Donald Trump gets on Air Force One and flies somewhere for a rally

January 20, 2021 - early afternoon - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office

January 20, 2021 - a short time later - crew of Air Force One receive an order to return back to base.

- unable to get in touch with him, Air Force One takes off, leaving Trump behind.

----

Do you think Trump would be so stupid and egotistical as to allow himself to be stranded after the inauguration?

I think it's more likely he just stays in Mar-A-Lago past the Holidays and never returns to the White House.

[Kusanagi]

I wonder what the odds are of this actually happening?

January 20, 2021 - 11:00 AM - Donald Trump gets on Air Force One and flies somewhere for a rally

January 20, 2021 - early afternoon - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office

January 20, 2021 - a short time later - crew of Air Force One receive an order to return back to base.

- unable to get in touch with him, Air Force One takes off, leaving Trump behind.

----

Do you think Trump would be so stupid and egotistical as to allow himself to be stranded after the inauguration?

I posted back before the election that I felt this was more realistic than him conceding. I stand by that.

That said it would depend on the seriousness of the charges he faces, and whether Trump is competent enough to understand/accept that he might be in legal trouble.

Right now he has a cult of millions that he can profit on with only a tiny bit of effort, can't see him giving that up unless he knows he's screwed.

[Hellion]

It's not really a stretch. The main antagonist is a man who dresses up like a woman to prey on vulnerable women. This is literally the fear that is expressed about trans-women in terf circles sharing public spaces, such as bathrooms, with women. Rowling has spoken about this before. This has to be seen in the context of the atmosphere in which she is writing the book and the author's own statements.

That she can find a thin justification in 'rl serial killers' doesn't really do anything to take away from the fact that we have a woman broadly engaged in transphobia writing a story whose elements act in support of the arguments brought up by TERFs.

Fair enough. I guess it really comes down to the degree of harm one perceives from the writing. For the record, I don't agree with most of Rowling's comments concerning transfolk, but at the same time, I think there's quite a bit of distance between how genuinely malicious Rowling is as opposed to, say, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church. Rowling might be displaying wrongthink, but she's doing so in a very civil manner (I'm referring mostly to her long essay on her website explaining why she has the views she does; people may disagree with what she wrote, but the language she used wasn't incendiary or radiating with hatred). I find myself speaking in defense of her often because, while she may be wrong about this one thing (trans rights), she's been supportive of pretty much every other progressive issue, so I don't feel the need to demonize her. Also, I prefer to prioritize my rage at people I'd consider to be more dangerous, though I acknowledge that people's mileage over what/who they consider to be dangerous will vary.

In regards to her fictional serial killer: I completely understand how such an image negatively reflects on transfolk. But as a rational human being, I also acknowledge that an overwhelming majority of transfolk are not violent, disturbed serial killers a la Buffalo Bill, so this creation of Rowling's, while arguably malicious or poorly-timed, does not bother me. It's not coloring my perceptions of the trans community. Will it color other people's perceptions of transfolk in a negative light? Maybe, but what can we do? Ignorance and stupidity abound everywhere.

YA authors, at least, are rising to the challenge by flooding bookshelves with positive portrayals of trans or other manners of queer characters. It's not my cup of tea, but I do have some titles on the back burner to broaden my horizons.

[DrNewGod]

I wonder what the odds are of this actually happening?

January 20, 2021 - 11:00 AM - Donald Trump gets on Air Force One and flies somewhere for a rally

January 20, 2021 - early afternoon - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office

January 20, 2021 - a short time later - crew of Air Force One receive an order to return back to base.

- unable to get in touch with him, Air Force One takes off, leaving Trump behind.

----

Do you think Trump would be so stupid and egotistical as to allow himself to be stranded after the inauguration?

Not impossible, but not likely. There are actually two 747s logo-ed and modified for presidential use. AF1 is the call sign used by traffic control and other communicators whenever the president is actually on board one of them (otherwise, they're just called by their tail number, like every other plane in the sky). Point of all this being, the 747 bearing Trump on his last ride at tax-payer expense won't need to suddenly go rushing back to Washington to be handy for Biden. Even if it did, the flight planners are going have a pretty clear itinerary on file with Trumps enabl...ahem...staff. And even if the most unlikely of circumstances did occur (Trump overstays the schedule, too far away from Mar-a-Lago and the 747's got to go home), I'm sure there's likely to be some wealthy sycophant ready to loan him a jet.

Odds are tho, Trump's rally will be somewhere near Mar-a-Lago anyway

[wjowski]

Yeah, no, Rowling didn't naively step into a hornet's nest and then immediately back off. She grabbed her sword, waded into the fight, and chose that hill to die on. I have no sympathy for her.

[Tami]

27 GOP reps ask for special counsel to investigate election irregularities

Twenty-seven GOP representatives are urging President Trump to direct Attorney General William Barr to appoint a special counsel to investigate election irregularities.

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), said in a letter to the president that Americans “deserve a definite resolution” into uncertainty around the election, according to the letter obtained by Politico. They added that “legitimate questions of voter fraud remain unanswered.”

Gooden originally sent the letter to Trump with his signature alone on Thursday, shortly after Barr told The Associated Press that the Department of Justice has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.”

[wjowski]

27 GOP reps ask for special counsel to investigate election irregularities

I believe we went through this before. It ended up being shut down when the only fraud the GOP could find was their own.

[Malvolio]

I wonder what the odds are of this actually happening?

January 20, 2021 - 11:00 AM - Donald Trump gets on Air Force One and flies somewhere for a rally

January 20, 2021 - early afternoon - Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office

January 20, 2021 - a short time later - crew of Air Force One receive an order to return back to base.

- unable to get in touch with him, Air Force One takes off, leaving Trump behind.

----

Do you think Trump would be so stupid and egotistical as to allow himself to be stranded after the inauguration?

Is that a rhetorical question? I mean, I would think the answer is quite obvious.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I believe we went through this before. It ended up being shut down when the only fraud the GOP could find was their own.

Silly as this sounds, but, at what point does Trump himself tire of this circus and wash his hands of the whole thing like he walked away from his responsibility about the virus?

[Joker]

This prime example of the Left cannibalizing their own supporters is why I'm centrist. Your "anybody who doesn't agree with me 100% of the time is the enemy" approach overshoots the rational bounds of criticism and is part of the problem when it comes to our deeply polarized society.

Lol @ "my personal politics are entirely reactionary!"

good ****.

But look, if I, or "the left" are the quote unquote reason you're not for something now, you were never really for it to begin with. Just admit that **** instead of trying to blame other people's actions for your lack of conviction to your beliefs.

[Emperor-of-Dragons]

Krystal parrots toxic narratives that divide the Democratic party and embolden conspiracy theories about Sanders losing because the primaries are rigged. If she hated the GOP that much she wouldn't be doing dirty work which helps them.

Krystal don't need to parrot toxic narratives to divide the democratic party. They do that themselves.