(I was originally going to make this a long Twitter thread but people are talking about there being a tweet limit now? So I’m just posting it here and linking it in a tweet. That's why it's in small tweet sized segments.)
Let me start by saying that I am a mostly-white CIS gender male hetero in his mid 30s. Let that color how you feel about my words however much or as little as you wish. Thats up to you.
Let me start by saying fuck JK. I can’t imagine winning the lottery of life and getting to be the creative mind behind a fictional world that shapes and enriches the lives of a generation, only to take that power and wield it for hate and bigotry. She deserves to have her works and name forgotten and to have only the void to speak her words into.
And with that in mind Harry Potter as a franchise is dead to me. I don’t want to play that game. I don’t want to rewatch the movies. I don’t want to read her books.
Let me be clear this is not a big ask of me. Harry Potter was never more than a passing fancy of mine from time to time growing up. Don’t give me too much credit. I don’t know that I’d be as easily able to divorce myself from something like Final Fantasy or Sonic the Hedgehog or StarGate.
I don’t think you should play the new HP game. I don’t think you should buy it. I don’t think you should stream it. Even if you try to offset that by donating to Trans causes you’re still promoting the game and could encourage others to buy it by showing it off. Funding a fire department is nobel, but don’t do it in a way that fuels the fire in the process.
There are plenty of people who don’t care. They buy the game and support JK BECAUSE of her anti trans stance. Fuck those people. I hope their follower counts crater their names forgotten. I’m sure a lot of you agree with me so far.
But what we hope isn’t happening. JK is still making bank. The hateful streamers are bolstered. The game is selling remarkably well. This is frustrating. Aggravating. Infuriating. In the face of these we feel helpless. We get angry. And unfortunately we lash out.
I have control issues I have to keep in check. I know the feeling of something big or small not being as I wish it to be. I often battle that white hot rage. Losing my absolute shit over things is something I actively have to talk myself out of more often than I like to admit.
And let me tell you. Not once has letting that anger get the best of me ever made things better. Not once did it fix the problem. Not once did it change things to be better. At best it does nothing. At worst it almost cost me my closest friends.
That’s the reaction I’ve seen to the new HP game. Steamers hate raided. Death threats. Verbally harassed and demonized. Treated not like people but like soulless heartless monsters to be destroyed. This is wrong and fixes nothing. It’s just us letting our darker emotions lash out without restraint.
No hearts are changed. No minds are changed. Trans people are not made more safe by these actions. I don’t think we expect these actions to do any of that but when you scream in rage “you are with us or against us” people rarely choose with you and are often pushed to against you. These actions do harm to our own cause.
You can’t tell me that a streamer hoping to raise money for Trans charities by playing this game is the same as the ones who proudly write “TERF” on their chest. I’ve already made it clear that I don’t think that idea is a good one. But you can’t tell me someone whose heart is in the right place deserves hate because you don’t agree with their methods.
And maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it is better to raise money off this game for a good cause. Maybe that will do more good. I honestly don’t think so but how the hell can I be so sure? How can I run out and try to police the internet using my hate as a weapon over something that kind hearts can disagree on?
Now if you want to unfollow these steamers, stop supporting them, swear off their content, you are 100% justified in doing so. They are not owed your support if they make decisions that are counter to your values, even if their heart is in the right place. Let them see the consequences of their choice in viewer and follower count.
That is far more likely to get them to stop and rethink about what they are doing. But attacking them? At best they may stop making content because they can’t emotionally deal with backlash. At worst you’ve made them feel like your enemy. And people crave community. And the TERFS will welcome them with open arms.
But I get it. I’m sure we all hoped that any streamer who played this game would see their viewer count plummet and they’d get the message and change and the game would flop and JK would watch another part of her empire crumble as a result of her words and actions. That didn’t happen and we, understandably, got mad. But don’t let your anger make things worse.
TLDR: Fuck JK. Fuck HP. Fuck that game. But don’t attack people for playing it. Just unfollow.
jacobvanloon
titsay
dailybridgerton
stormborns