The "Harry Potter" author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X in which she referred to transgender women as men.

The “Harry Potter” author slammed a newly enacted hate-crime law in Scotland in a series of posts on X  in which she referred to transgender women as men.

J.K. Rowling shared a social media thread on Monday, the day a new Scottish hate-crime law took effect, that misgendered several transgender women and appeared to imply trans women have a penchant for sexual predation. On Tuesday, Scottish police announced they would not be investigating the “Harry Potter” author’s remarks as a crime, as some of Rowling’s critics had called for.

“We have received complaints in relation to the social media post,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said in a statement. “The comments are not assessed to be criminal and no further action will be taken.”

Scotland’s new Hate Crime and Public Order Act criminalizes “stirring up hatred” against people based on their race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    158·
    9 months ago

    I personally feel like it’s every skinhead assole’s right to say racist awful shit. I also feel like if you’re going to exercise that right with reckless abandon, you’re gonna get fucked up by some people who don’t take kindly.

    Is that what happened in 1930s Germany or the 1950s U.S. South?

    Racism is an implicit call to violence. Suggesting that it can also be solved by violence is not borne out by history.

    • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      85·
      9 months ago

      Racism isn’t an implicit call to violence. Violence is one of the ways it can manifest if it’s deranged enough, but most racism is just sorta quiet and often unconscious.

      It’s not a good idea for the government tell you what you’re allowed to say - that change has to come naturally from the bottom up, not artificially from the top down

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        74·
        9 months ago

        that change has to come naturally from the bottom up, not artificially from the top down

        Cool, when is that change going to happen? Because from what I’ve seen, there’s still a vast amount of racism in this world.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            52·
            9 months ago

            You didn’t answer my question.

            You said change has to come naturally from the bottom up in order to stop bigoted attacks. Bigotry has been around for a very long time.

            So… when is that natural change going to happen? Are we talking centuries?

            • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              42·
              9 months ago

              You’re asking me to predict the future, maybe it doesn’t happen. Maybe 1 lifetime? Maybe 2?

              Who knows, but all we can do in the meantime is continue to actually talk with people caught in the storm.

              If the government tries to force speech, what do you think that will do? Do you think everyone will say “oh ok”, and just quietly live out their lives at home in resentment or in prison for this never to return?

              It’s a bandaid to a problem where we’re just supposed to trust that governments will always use this power correctly

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                32·
                9 months ago

                So rather than prosecuting people for fomenting violence with racist hate speech right now, everyone should just wait a couple of generations for it to sort itself out unlike it has for thousands of years.

                That seems both likely and reasonable and such a concept could definitely could only come from someone who has been the victim of severe racist attacks.

                • Shake747@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  42·
                  9 months ago

                  You’re forgetting that we have technology that connects most of the world now, even across languages. This definitely changes things.

                  But it sounds like you’d prefer to live under a government like the CCP. That way you don’t have to worry anymore because they’ll take care of everything for you

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                    33·
                    9 months ago

                    It certainly does change things.

                    It’s enabled bigots all over the world to get in touch with each other and become even more vicious and violent because they can coordinate.

                    But I’m sure if we pray hard enough to Jesus, no black person or queer person or Jewish person or any other minority will ever be threatened again.

                    Because it’s either that or Soviet Russia. There’s nothing in between.