Tea at Trianon: The Real Reason Young Progressives Now Hate JK Rowling

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

The Real Reason Young Progressives Now Hate JK Rowling

I was never a fan of the Harry Potter books or films but the hatred vented against JK Rowling is bizarre. From The Daily Wire:

Mystery novelist Daniel Friedman took to X on Saturday to explain why so many young progressives — many of whom had grown up reading and loving the Harry Potter series — had grown so angry with author J.K. Rowling in recent years.
On the surface, many claim to be upset with her insistence on protecting sex-based rights and access, particularly for women, to single-sex spaces — and to trans-rights activists, that makes Rowling a “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist” (TERF). But Friedman’s theory is that the anger is rooted a bit deeper than that.
“The reason a lot of young progressives are so mad at JK Rowling is that they read the books as kids, and they thought they were Harry or Hermione. But they grew up into people like Percy or Dolores Umbridge or Cornelius Fudge or Rita Skeeter,” Friedman began, naming characters who either actively denied reality or dutifully tattled on friends, neighbors, and even family members who refused to do the same. “And they know it. And on some level, they’re ashamed.” (Read more.)