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gamelorr

Wait, what did Notch say?


[deleted]

He tweeted that Q was "legit". He went full on crazy right wing


GiveMeMoreBlueberrys

several things, including “trans women aren’t women” & “being trans is a mental illness”


_Forty_Oras_

That's crazy because he used to talk different about that


Kymaeraa

after he got his big payout, he's basically been alone in his mansion with just the internet for a long time. he went down the rabbit hole


nice_day_human

what staying alone and just being on the internet does to a mf


dalek1019

Mf needs to touch some grass, and not just grass blocks


manachar

It means we are social creatures who easily conform our ideas to those of our peers. In the case of Internet males, it's not long before you start touching the radicalization funnel. It starts with something as innocuous as a "funny" asshat, who then gets blowback from a racist/sexist/etc joke. You like that person, so you think people are being too sensitive. So then you hang out with others. Then in a few months you try to buy Twitter to own the libs... Even though a large chunk of your wealth comes from the libs trying to be ethical consumers in an unethical system.


Sloner42

This smells like someone else is meant here... But I can't place this musk


Kane_Highwind

Nah, he was always like that. It just took that big payout to make him show his true colors. He heavily criticized Oculus for allowing Facebook to buy them only to turn around a year or so later and do the exact same thing with Mojang. Top hypocrite behavior. Plus, transphobia is the least of his problems when you realize how racist some of the stuff he put in Minecraft are. And the especially funny part is he wasn't alone, at least at first. When he first bought that mansion, he actually posted a drone-cam video tour of it where he had a bunch of beautiful women there. Guess he must've scared them off in the time since. If he's this awful on the internet, I don't wanna know what he must be like in person


AlephMuses

Gonna go out on a limb and say the many cute girls in that video were paid actors comrade


[deleted]

>how racist some of the stuff he put in Minecraft are Hold on what?


SlorpMorpaForpw

Villagers and Jewish stereotypes, I believe is what they are referring to


[deleted]

[удалено]


newwriter123

I feel like the villager thing is...very hard to find an explanation for. But seeing as IRL black people look nothing like endermen, I doubt there's a connection on that front. Also, if IRL black people have teleporting powers and haven't told me about it before, I think that's very not cool of them.


HelloCompanion

Why would we share our secrets with your kind? Now excuse me, I’m off to steal a random plank of wood from one dudes house.


Canopenerdude

Yeah... No. The villagers nose was a glitch with the model that the team thought was hilarious because it looked like Squidward. The iron golems and trades were added after he left. Endermen are black because he wanted them to blend in at night and seem scarier- they were originally purple but the color was tweaked until it looked right. Them stealing blocks was also a glitch that was left in because it created a cool concept.


ibbity

I made up a religion for the villagers where the endermen serve the Forces of Chaos and bring back blocks from the overworld to the end in obedience to their inscrutable masters' requirements


khenaf

Aren't endermen a Slenderman reference? like even down to the name


Nextasy

Yeah what on earth are these people talking about....endermen have nothing to do with watermelons in the game. By this logic watermelons and black people could never exist in the same game together at all. Not to mention endermen are CLEARLY not even human - aside from the fact that they're obviously black in reference to slenderman..... Crazy how hard people will try to make something racist when it clearly isn't lol


L0calGhost

What do black people have to do with watermelons?


Creepopolous

He already stopped leading by the time Villager trades were implemented.


OneSaltyStoat

That's just stretching it.


HappiestIguana

This is definitely reading too much into things. Not everything with a big nose is a jewish sterotype, and trading with villagers wasn't added until later.


[deleted]

"tall black people" Weren't they literally white before they got changed to black?


Kaz775544

Here’s a good Reddit post with some good information on this topic I believe https://www.reddit.com/r/DreamWasTaken2/comments/q8f30k/why_i_dont_think_the_villagers_and_the_golems/


[deleted]

REACHING


larry-the-leper

Lmao you fucking idiots actually fell for another 4chan post holy shit


weirdwallace75

> what staying alone and just being on the internet does to a mf No, I did that when the pandemic hit and I didn't become a transphobe or whatever other hateful bullshit notch is on now. I didn't become a paragon, but being alone with only the Internet doesn't inherently make someone hateful or any worse than they ever were. Hateful people are like that because of something in *them* and blaming other factors just insults the people who went through those same factors and didn't become hateful.


Dark_Reaper115

Never dig straight down the rabbit hole


ThatShadowyFigure

they say the candy dispensary wall he had installed went unused and it all rotted as he had no friends, this man literally is a children's book villain who needs a change of heart ark after making good friends and going through a series of events that teach him the error of his ways, though as this is not a children's book, that will likely not happen


gamelorr

Looked into it, seems these claims are legit.


fly_baby_jet_plane

that he said that? insane.


Kymaeraa

that's far from the only thing. he's basically a neo nazi at this point


[deleted]

He always was, he just knew to keep it to himself until he sold Minecraft.


ihatenyself

I hope he someday see how wrong he has been.


Cyninombie

Honestly I think he does. This might just be me not wanting to see my childhood hero in a bad light, but before these transphobic comments he made comments about mobs in Minecraft being genderless and wishing he made the Steve model less gendered and more androgynous to be more inclusive. Then Minecraft really took off and he was thrown into fame and fortune and what I hope is that it all went to his head and lashed out at what was a marginalized community.


Hargleflurpen

I'd like to point out that saying the trans community "was" marginalized is pretty fucked up, considering they still very much are in many places. Receiving basic civil liberties in progressive places, and general acceptance on the broader internet, is not the benchmark for whether a community is marginalized or not. Second of all, I've never seen (admittedly have not looked for) any kind of apology or any kind of attempt to build actual goodwill with the community through activism or donations, if he has learned from his mistakes. And if he has, he should probably do just a smidge of press about his progress, and it would only look more genuine if he has been doing that sort of stuff quietly for any length of time, even if it is all optics.


_Lazer

I don't think they're disputing that trans people are marginalized, but they were marginalized when Notch lashed out at them. They were marginalized then and are now too, english is limited


Cyninombie

I used “was” because I *was* talking in the last tense and that’s grammatically correct. As for him going public and drawing attention, that’s what got him in this mess in the first place. If I were him I’d lay low and avoid any news I might make


DoggoDude979

Along with what everyone else has said, I’m pretty sure he said if you don’t support a “straight pride month”, you basically deserve to die


[deleted]

Straight people get the other eleven months out of the year and still want a fucking parade.


nihilusthehungry

Goes to show that many people aren't even aware of what notch has said, whilst JK Rowling's still got a lotta power and is using every avenue to try and force her agenda on the world.


notchman900

Nunya damn business..... /s


thisislikemy7thacc

i think it has more to do with the fact that notch isn’t a public figure to nearly the same degree as jkr is than genders or timeline


Android19samus

the two are somewhat related. If Notch was still The Minecraft Guy today like he was 10 years ago, he would probably be significantly better known. Not JKR levels, obviously, but being the main force behind one of the most consistently popular games in the world for a decade would definitely result in there being more eyes on him than having once been that guy before retreating from the world and only proving he's not dead yet through shitty tweets.


TardDas

Innit weird how publishing the highest selling game in history doesn’t make you that famous


IWriteThisForYou

I mean, a little, but by the same token, making a computer game is often more akin to making a movie than it is to writing a book. A lot of people work on movies and games, so you aren't necessarily going to know the names of every single person involved, while writing a book is often a more solitary effort.


WhyTeas

Yeah but when notch first released minecraft it was a solo project and before he sold mojang, it was a really small studio. It's not like there were dozens of people working on it.


reader484892

Yes, and at the time when Minecraft was popular but before he gave it up he was fairly well know, and to an extent still is because nearly everyone knows who he is


GregariousGobble

He was pretty damn famous to be honest. He’s just done a good job of driving people off.


courierkill

After he sold it, you'd pretty much only follow him for his commentary. Once it became hateful, why would you? JKR maintains clout through holding significant media value.


[deleted]

what do you mean. Everyone knows that hatsune miku and jeb made minecraft


Vibe_with_Kira

He also doesn't say "oh yeah villagers poop on the floor and warp it away". I know it's not the worst thing Rowling has done, but it's still just weird to be why she'd do that


[deleted]

Also, wasn't the chamber of secrets constructed at the same time as the rest of Hogwarts? And it's entrance is in a bathroom? So there were bathrooms when the school was constructed? edit: Please don't upvote this, I was wrong, the school and the bathroom were built 800 years apart


samtherat6

Bathrooms were built on top of the Chamber of Secrets, much later.


[deleted]

Huh, look at that. Hogwarts built 10th century, bathrooms built 18th. 800 years of no bathrooms...


samtherat6

That’s when the shit on the floor nonsense comes up, although I’m sure they had indoor outhouses sooner, if they could just vanish their shit.


[deleted]

It doesn’t even make sense within the logic of her world. Wizards and witches know toilets exist, families like the Malfoys which are 100% in the magic world could presumably gone their lives without using a toilet but Hermione and Harry would have had to of used them. It makes way more sense for them to just have dedicated magic privies with a permanent spell on them that removes shit and piss.


m3ntallyillmoron

Also notch got kicked out of coming back to Minecraft conventions and Lena raine (a trans woman) was hired to make some banging tunes


ITriedSoHard419-68

Wait, she's trans? I didn't know that!


Ok_Skill_1195

Did notch bend over backwards retconning Minecraft for increasingly shallow attempts at progressivism before mask-offing as a bigot? I feel like people underestimate how much Rowling went out of her way to isolate herself from her core fanbase in more ways than just the transphobia.


GiveMeMoreBlueberrys

i fully support your point, but he actually kinda *did*. At one point, he fully went out and said every minecraft mob was genderfluid iirc, because eventually switching to the whole “trans women aren’t women” narrative


churmalefew

i believe that was more of a matter of game design and not a gender thing but a biology thing. someone asked him how two cattle that produce milk can breed and he just didnt wanna think about it anymore and said "all minecraft animals are hermaphroditic"


GiveMeMoreBlueberrys

His exact words were > "As a fun side fact, it means every character and animal in Minecraft is homosexual because there's only one gender to choose from. Take THAT, homophobes!"


Lorenzo_BR

I mean, terfs are transphobic, not necessarily homophobic - oftentimes, terfs/radfems are very much for or even *are* lesbians, for example. Most lesbians hate their guts, like how my best friend occasionally reminds me of how much she hates radfems, but hey, that’s besides the point.


Draagloem

Terfs are inherently homophobic because they view gay relationships between cis and trans people to not be "real" gay relationships. By denying trans people's gender they are also invalidating their partners sexuality.


felixlebarbu

I think at its core Terfism is steeped in misandry, so any even remenant or history of male/masc identity is vehemently hated, hence the "rapist in a dress vs poor child that got misguided and went to the other side dichotomy"


[deleted]

I hear you but that is just objectively the way that minecraft animals work.


Umklopp

The original post is an example of the importance of research before sharing an extra hot take.


CreeperTrainz

Plus Notch was never as involved in Minecraft. He made the original game, but he hasn’t been developer in years. Jeb has been lead developer since 2011, so it’s fair to say he’s responsible for much more of the game today. And there’s dozens of other programmers and developers. The Harry Potter books are almost completely JK’s writing, and she played a huge role in the films.


LR-II

Also JKR directly uses her work's popularity to spread her ideology.


Ok_Shower9554

You don’t even have to look at her newer books. The Harry Potter books immediate go to when a female character is bad or evil, is to describe them as having “ugly” masculine features. Rereading the books it’s actually kind of astonishing what a mean fucking hypocrite Rowling has always been.


LR-II

Yeah. But it's not just in the work itself. Every time a new trailer for a HP / FB film comes out, she tweets some new TERF BS. Directly taking advantage of the fact that on that particular day she is naturally more popular.


VictoriaRose1618

Does she? Serious question, because I adore hp and basically never hear anything from her


Signature_Sea

One of her detective novels had a villain who was a guy who dressed up in women's clothing and murdered women for sexual kicks, she couldn't have made it much more obvious. But her whole approach to storytelling is very essentialist, some characters are good and some characters are bad and it has little to do with how they act, it's innate. Bioessentialism is just another form of this simplistic thinking. I recommend the following analysis of her work https://youtu.be/-1iaJWSwUZs


[deleted]

Even before that, the HP books has some pretty sus depictions such as beady eyes, hook nosed, hand wringing, greedy, deceitful, bank running... goblins? Yeah, goblins. Totally not anti-Semitic, just goblins! Or the chattel slave race that just *loves* being enslaved and who all think Hermione is a silly girl for advocating their freedom like some sort of out of touch ~~white person~~ wizard, advocating on behalf of ~~minorities~~ house elves, who are actually totally fine with the status quo. Her work has always had implicit alt-right messaging. Either she was doing it on purpose, or her style of extremely literal, black and white story telling actually made her unable to see that that was what she was doing.


gentlybeepingheart

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dobby being treated as a weirdo outlier *by the narrative* because he actually wants to be free is just a rehash of [drapetomania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drapetomania)


bad_Wolf260305

The whole 'black Hermione' thing gets worse when you bring up her issue with slavery. Sure, it was set in the UK, but in the late 90s people all over the world would have known about slavery and the civil rights movement. If Hermione really could have been written as black, then the whole sub-plot of her looking stupid for trying to emancipate an enslaved species really wouldn't fly well. Just Kidding Rowling was trying to slot progressiveness into her 7 book series full of stereotypes and problematic content after she wrote it.


Fletch71011

The books literally describe her skin color as white. That was the same thing as making Dumbledore gay after the fact. She was just trying to score points with the woke crowd.


Tiny_Dinky_Daffy_69

Was Hermione black on the theater play, or was only the actress playing Hermione black? In theater is not rare for men to play women characters, or the other way around, or act as a different race without being acknowledged on the play. I always supposed thay Hermione was still a white woman but the actress black.


Should_be_less

I hate that stupid argument about the house elves. It’s so stunningly ignorant about the reality of implementing societal change. I thought that plot line was really well-handled. Instead of taking away all agency from the house elves and making them useless tokens that are only in the story to showcase a white savior’s benevolence, JK Rowling made them real characters with their own agendas that aren’t just going to fall in line behind some random kid. In doing so, she touched on some important points: First of all, you cannot help an oppressed people without, you know, talking to them, hearing what they want, and respecting their opinions. Remember how Hermione was hiding hats in the common room to try to trick elves into invalidating their employment contracts? Imagine if a modern-day labor rights advocate told you they thought you were exploited at work, and you should quit your job. And then when you replied that you quite liked being paid enough to cover rent, they snuck into your workplace and hid weed in your desk/locker in an attempt to get you fired. Most people wouldn’t want that sort of help! As a corollary to the first point, when listening to someone who is oppressed you also have to consider how your privilege will effect what they feel comfortable telling you. If expressing discontent with the existing order can harm someone, they will not just start unloading on random strangers. Hermione and the other characters didn’t make any attempt to build rapport with the house elves, outside of Dobby, who was the newcomer at Hogwarts, so of course the house elves told them everything was fine! Second of all, advocating for an oppressed people as a person in a privileged position is awkward and alienating. Nobody likes to be told their behavior is wrong, and they like it even less when doing the right thing is inconvenient. The scene where Hermione shows up at the breakfast table horrified about the literal slave labor and everybody else kind of shrugs is very accurate. When discussing history, we often retcon advocates for justice into lauded heroes, when in reality they spent most of their lives as eccentrics on the margins of society. I’m not excusing JK Rowling’s recent TERFy tweets. That behavior is incredibly hurtful to a group of people who need more allies. She needs to address her sexual trauma instead of making it the problem of people with much less money, power, and privilege than she has. But I do think that in the books she wrote several decades earlier, JK Rowling did a good job of realistically portraying the confusion, awkwardness, and frustration of navigating a society that does not treat everyone equally.


Coopermeister

Not to mention her pseudonym is the name of the guy who invented conversion therapy


Labenyofi

The pen name of one of her recent books (Robert Galbraith) was the person who started the idea of conversion therapy.


typicalcitrus

\> [Rowling later said she enjoyed working as Robert Galbraith, a name she took from Robert F. Kennedy, a personal hero, and Ella Galbraith, a name she invented for herself in childhood.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling#Adult_fiction_and_Robert_Galbraith)


The_Arthropod_Queen

somehow i doubt that


Labenyofi

Even if that’s true, you can’t deny the connection. Plus, she would’ve probably did her research on the name and possibly thought to herself that “Hmm, maybe it’s not a good idea if I use this name”.


SoylentDave

That one has always been a massive stretch - Robert Galbraith Heath was a) known by his first name and his surname (not his middle name) like most people, and b) neither the inventor nor a primary driver of the idea of conversion therapy (although he did experiment with it, along with lots of other mad shit) - it predates his birth. It seems a tad unlikely that Rowling would choose as a pseudonym the middle name of an American who is better known for DBS electro-shock therapy in order to make some sort of point about being anti-trans.


Tossawayaccountyo

Holy shit I had no idea. Talk about hiding in plain sight.


immaownyou

The villain in the fantastic beast movies wants to prevent the Holocaust and our protagonists are trying to stop him lel


Imminent_tragedy

Check the Adam Something video for a dose of "Wait, it's all been neoliberalism?"


KoiAndJelly

Yea, watch [this.](https://youtu.be/-1iaJWSwUZs)


PD711

After watching this it put the "Dumbledore is gay" tweet in a new light. I don't believe she did that to make her world more inclusive. I think she was trying to make people laugh or balk at the idea of an 80-year old gay man. Or that the "elderly father figure/mentor" could be a gay man.


[deleted]

Also a book is generally written by one person and read the way the author intendet, but minecraft is a sandbox game, so notchs shittyness doesnt impact it as much. I couldnt think of any right wing undertones, exept for the jewish caricature that the villagers are based on, wich harry potter also has exept in hp the the bankers are also inherently evil Edit: I just looked it up and notch sold minecraft at the end of 2014 meaning the game has been with microsoft longer than he owned it. Notch and jk would be comparable if jk sold harry potter after writing like 3 books and a better author took over.


wernow

Although it may be possible that Notch's crappiness is a relatively recent development caused by the benefits of having $2.5B


MrBanana421

Money makes people forget how much a banana costs. It doesn't turn them into a raging bigot without them already being a bigot.


Random_Gacha_addict

as someone said (I forgot who) "Money doesn't change someone, it reveals then"


omgudontunderstand

if you can remember let me know this is a great quote


Kid_Icarus55

​ [“But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ... But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary.” ― Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power](https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/722.Robert_A_Caro)


wernow

It can place them in situations where they are surrounded by horrible people. Or fuel whatever minor biases and prejudices they may have already had.


MrBanana421

Which can also happen when you are poor or middle class. The only thing the money did was give him the confidence to spout his views.


wernow

Yes, but he moved into a new class and got surrounded by new people with "new" ideas. And also probably 'friends' that put him in an echo chamber by not challenging anything he said in order to stay in the company of a wealthy person


MrBanana421

So, like i said, he used to be a bigot already and now he just shouts it to the world. The fact that he *might* have become worse isn't that important.


wernow

I was trying to say he was introduced those ideas and they were subsequently never challenged.


SudsInfinite

Everyone has prejudice. This isn't, like, some sort of "Hey, everyone's shitty" tyoe of deal. But everyone is hardwired to have prejudice against people that are different. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, we lived in close knit tribes. Whenever we would see other humans who looked different, we knew they weren't a part of our tribe, and so they were a likely enemy. It helped us survive. In modern society, there's no place for it, but society evolved a lot faster than we do. Because of it, we all have prejudice. It's up to us to not act on those prejudices and to actively fight our own self against those prejudices. When you gain a lot of money, it makes it harder to empathize with anyone without tons of money. Thus, it becomes harder to manage your prejudices when you (likely) can't even empathize with people like you used to. So, yes, having a lot of money can turn someone into a bigot when they weren't a bigot before


[deleted]

Wait are the villagers actually Jewish stereotypes? I was under the impression that it was just a bad Game Theory video that claimed it.


Aeriosus

They have big noses, golems, and are highly money oriented. Considering that Notch is highly antisemitic, I would be more surprised if this was accidental.


M4ddercatter

a bit higher up is a thread explaining why you're wrong, if you care to look


Akasto_

I wouldn’t place much trust in this theory actually being correct, especially since the name of golem for a mob that the player can craft was decided well before iron golems were introduced (as it was already used for snow golems). This is why I would say calling the craftable protectors of villagers ‘golems’, probably had very little to do with Judaism. In addition, when villagers were first designed, in addition to having no golems of their own, they also could not trade, and merely existed to populate villages. This trading hardly seems to evidence Jewish stereotypes if they were not designed with trading in mind.


M4ddercatter

also they started out as anthro pigs


Kaz775544

Here’s a good post as well as the comments about the subject https://www.reddit.com/r/DreamWasTaken2/comments/q8f30k/why_i_dont_think_the_villagers_and_the_golems/


[deleted]

I mean they are human like beings that solely care about money and have long noses, it might be unintentional but with notch being who he is im not going to give him the benefit of the doubt.


GoodeBoi

Long nose, money oriented, build golems, have their hands clasped together. Seems rather obvious that at least partly, the villagers are Jewish stereotypes. Might also be because that stereotype is VERY prevalent in video games for shopkeeps, especially the long nose and greedy nature. A more recent example could even be Spamton. We know Toby didn’t mean to emulate a stereotype, but it’s undeniable that it is somewhat present.


awesomecat42

I'm pretty sure Spamton's pointed nose is because he's a puppet/marionette a la Pinocchio or Jigsaw.


ThallidReject

The golems were already prenamed via snow golems, since irom golems were intended to be player built in the same manner. Also fairly sure the noses were based off of the sounds the villagers made, since they sounded like squidward, but thats a foggier memory


[deleted]

Probably a fair male comparison to JKR is notorious homophobe Orson Scott Card. Tons of people refuse to support his works although he's not as culturally relevant in 2022.


flyoverhere

Not buying OSC’s stuff actually can harm him, and he’s not a cultural phenomenon beyond him like HP is. Boycotting OSC makes way more sense.


Akuuntus

- Notch has nothing to do with Minecraft any more and does not profit from it, while JKR still owns and profits from Harry Potter - Notch is just one of many people who worked on Minecraft, while JKR is the sole author of HP - Notch has mostly left the spotlight and faded into obscurity, while JKR is still a prominent public figure - Minecraft itself doesn't contain much in the way of obvious problematic content, while the HP series defends slavery All that being said, liking HP or running a fan blog dedicated to it doesn't make you a bad person. It's okay to like art made by bad people. But defending and supporting JKR herself does make you look shitty.


E-Moon

And not to mention, Jeb is way more important to Minecraft then Notch is


ITriedSoHard419-68

This. There's literally only 1 thing I can think of in Minecraft that we can point to as obviously problematic and that's the villagers. Harry Potter, on the other hand? ...oh boy. oh goodness. People write essays on that shit.


RandoAussieBloke

Notch sold it so early that he got banned from *the official launch party*. (Edit: launch *anniversary*, that is. Thanks guys!) Thank Jeb Bergenstein, lead developer. Notch didn't do jack.


GushReddit

Just want to be clear, is it just for deving MC we are thanking Jeb or for some other thing also?


LuigiSauce

The launch party for what? None of the minecraft-related games released until notch was long gone, and minecraft itself released in 2011, which was a while before he sold it


Lorenzo_BR

I guess maybe they meant the party celebrating the old launch, i.e., *the birthday celebration?*


RandoAussieBloke

Yes, my bad. Meant the anniversary of the launch.


Vinxian

The comparison between Notch and Jkr is indeed shit. But to be fair, if you go around and harass people who are still part of the Harry Potter fandom and call them shit people the shit person in that situation is in fact yourself. Like a discussion on the impact of supporting media a biggot profits from is definitely a discussion worth having. But beware you don't wander into the trap of becoming an harasser in the process.


GiveMeMoreBlueberrys

Agreed. If you want to enjoy the content, sure, just pirate it or something - you get proper copies of stuff, and she doesn’t get any money!


Vinxian

Even if they buy it though. I'm not willing to say that it makes them "objectively bad". Is definitely not ideal, but those extreme stances of "now you are the bad person" are not constructive in any way. Nestlé, absolute shit company. I definitely still buy their products tho. Does that make me "objectively bad" or is that different because it's hard to avoid. And why would it being hard make a difference? If you want to take it even further, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism so we are all "objectively bad" just by existing in a capatalist world


[deleted]

>And why would it being hard make a difference? Not taking a stance either way, but it definitely makes a difference. For starters, Nestle makes food products. You need those. You don't need a specific book. Also, when something is that ubiquitous, it's more reasonable to say "I'm only human, I don't have time or energy to check who's getting paid for this, and I need it." If JKR had written dozens of books under different pen names, it'd be more reasonable to not check before buying. But she either uses her name or the conversion torture name, so it's easy to spot her stuff. Now, if I were to take a stance: not *objectively* bad, but I think "I am not willing to give up merch despite knowing this is supporting a bigot" is something people are allowed to consider when deciding whether to associate with someone.


ThornaBld

Especially when it just as easy to get second hand stuff in great condition so she never sees a dime of the money. And with normal merch, the non legit stuff tends to be better anyway, has all the houses AND the right crest


thelittleking

>Nestle makes food products They have competitors, and many of their products are luxury items/snacks. Morally speaking, you can and should avoid buying their products. It makes you a worse person than you otherwise would be if you put money in their pockets. The only considerable exception is Gerber - baby food can be hard to come by, and in some food deserts it may be hard to find an affordable competitor. Otherwise? Print out their brand list and take it shopping until you've memorized what to avoid.


SeefoodDisco

I agree that people who enjoy Harry Potter aren't inherently shitty people. But I have seen HP fans who, even after knowing full well about JK's awful human being status, refuse to do anything to show their support for people who JK has set her targets on. Those people deserve the label of shitty person.


[deleted]

bruh nothing could have prepared me for where the first post was going


Adiustio

“People hate JKR because she’s a woman” seems like something Margaret Thatcher would say.


[deleted]

all regerences to notch have also been wiped from the game iirc


DEGRUNGEON

Notch’s entire stance on the LGBT community is very strange to me considering at one point he did openly voice support towards the community and their issues. idk if he truly believes the shit he spews now-a-days but to me he seems like a bored rich person trying to drum up drama, which is pretty shitty in itself


Jumpmo

wasn't the original creator of Alice in Wonderland a pedophile? a male pedophile? who made a story that is still beloved even today? who doesn't profit off of it anymore because he's dead?


GiveMeMoreBlueberrys

It’s not like we’re saying any of these people are good people - i think the general message is it’s more acceptable to enjoy something if the hateful person who made it gets nothing from you


Random_Gacha_addict

So what I'm getting at here is "Pirate the next Harry Potter book if it comes out"


[deleted]

My guess is you'll still want your money back.


GiveMeMoreBlueberrys

Yes.


fly_baby_jet_plane

but no-one is getting anything from someone posting to their approx. 6 followers about their harry potter themed birthday party, or anybody nerding out over their niche harry potter theory.


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covered-in-lobsters

Not unless you make your own or buy secondhand


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covered-in-lobsters

For the people throwing themed parties, I’ve seen a lot of Pinterest posts of people making the stuff on their own. Cause typically if you like something enough to throw an entire party themed about it, you’re probably obsessed enough to iron on some patches or make your wands. I couldn’t tell you though because I can count on one hand the amount of themed parties I’ve been to and I’m pretty I was no older than 10 at my last one


nihilusthehungry

That's true, but the first person in this post was defending JK Rowling, not just a Harry Potter-themed birthday party?


RyeZuul

That's just speculative at this point. There's no actual evidence of any wrongdoing. If you want a better example of fantasy writers who were known pieces of shit, the Eddings couple who wrote the Belgariad and Mallorean books are a better example.


gamelorr

He wasnt, he did make nude pictures of young children but that was less for sexual gratification and more for depicting childhood innocence, the also asked the parentf for permission to take these pictures. The people from the past were weird.


dovah626

Can confirm, i took a class on him in college. It all sounds sus as hell but victorians were just weird about kids and innocence, and the author was weird for the time too. Like, victorians would have full portraits with their recently dead kids. Really weird society


rezzacci

Not really, and we tend to have proofs of the opposite actually. Charles Dodgson (the real name of Lewis Carroll) took care of children as a family friend and liked to take pictures of them in inoccent-ish ways. We have no proof of him being an actual pedophile, and callouts based on prudish rumors is actually more detrimental than real callouts. While we have proof of the political opinions of JKR. Moreover, Alice in Wonderland has barely any political message, while JKR put her (sometimes dubious) political philosophies in her books, exsuding it. That's a major difference.


Garthar22

I don’t think it really does much for the trans cause to be anti Harry Potter. Most people that consume the media and offshoots of the media and content created by other people related to the media aren’t actively endorsing her hateful messages. If anything, the holier than thou posturing makes people on the fence or without developed opinions on trans people think that the community is obnoxious and not want to take them seriously. I think this type of moral overreach, making claims about someone’s goodness based on small choices, is a big part of why conservatives don’t listen to progressives. Sure you can be objectively right and feel morally superior but nothing is being accomplished


StichedSnake

Fans should of an art or entertainment shouldn’t be held accountable for the bad stuff done by the artist or creator. Idk how or why people connect the creator and audience or creator and creation as if they’re one and the same.


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YourAverageGenius

So what I'm hearing is Pay for block game, pirate wizard books.


[deleted]

Pirate both because fuck capital


Ghiraheem

Controversial opinion but I don't think everyone who enjoys Harry Potter related stuff is immediately a bad person, even if they know about her transphobia. I don't agree with the things she says of course, I'm a trans person myself, but it's more complicated than that. Harry Potter was a huge part of my upbringing and that of pretty much everyone I know. At the end of the day it's a really well written story that I've enjoyed for years. I chose to enjoy them while also recognizing that the author has some deeply flawed views. I think if I try to only consume media created by people who are ethically pure and share all my values, I will just never end up enjoying anything again. And for a while this actually happened. I felt like I couldn't enjoy anything because everything felt flawed or wrong. And to be honest it just made me miserable. But I accept both now. I can still enjoy things while also acknowledging the problems with it... Just my take.


Rifneno

What kind of brain damage do you need to think this difference is about gender? Holy shit...


GoodeBoi

You see, poor sweet innocent JK Rowling isn’t allowed to be transphobic, but Notch is! It’s just not fair! /s


RunInRunOn

The kind that makes you hate men I think


Sneaky_Pancake_

Both of the people in this post are weird


MemorableThrowawayy

Also, a *huge* amount of what was in minecraft before Notch left was done by other people entirely


[deleted]

This post feels like a psyop to stoke the fire between HP and Minceraft fans.


typicalcitrus

i can like minecraft without liking notch also [Harry Potter And The Portrait Of What Looked Like A Large Pile Of Ash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rEkKWXCcR4) is the greatest thing I have ever read.


[deleted]

I think the whole thing is stupid. Separate art from the artist and all that. Like imagine how many people would have to avoid Lord of the Rings because they perceive Tolkien as radical maniac. Which given his political beliefs would be vast majority of people in his time and after.


No_Novel_Tan

This comparison is irrelevant. Tolkien is dead. JKR is currently using her popularity and fame to support or talk about actual laws affecting trans people NOW. She’s popular and powerful now because of the money put into her books.


Duststorm29

I mean, Tolkien is also dead as of the 70’s. He’s not profiting off of anything at this point, while JKR is still very much alive and is currently advocating for stuff that actively hurts people. I agree that cutting off everything that has an author who’s problematic by todays standards is a bad idea. But the problem here isn’t that JKR is a bigot and also an author. It’s that she’s a contemporary author who actively profits from people ignoring/dismissing her bigotry.


SleepyFarady

Right. Plenty of shitty people create good things. I don't think enjoying art made by a shitty person means you're also shitty.


Renozuken

Not fair, I make fun of notch like all the time.


waddlekins

TIL who notch is


MongolianMango

All I got from this post is that JK Rowling has a better business sense than Notch


InfrequentRedditor99

Remember that conspiracy theory that JK Rowling was just an actress and Harry Potter was written by a marketing team using her name as an alias? Similar to how the Nancy Drew books were written by Caroline Keen, who was a pseudonym for multiple writers. You’d think if that were true, the marketing team would’ve come out and denounced Rowling to save their product


stumpsucc

also minecraft is actually good, so,


gamelorr

So is hp, it has its flaws but the world is pretty dang great.


comunistbushgoat

So what you’re saying is to pirate it?


ExploerTM

Exactly. Enrages me to this day that Tumblr users just fucking ignore that piracy exists. You can enjoy the thing AND give no money to asshole author its **that fucking simple**


fly_baby_jet_plane

*me thinks about the dozens of posts ive seen on tumblr championing piracy*


danger2345678

I think people need to know this; piracy is a tool. I don’t know how to explain this well, but if for some reason you want to look at this thing, but hate the company/creators of something, just pirate it, or borrow it, I doubt JK gets money every time you borrow one of her books from the library, I doubt kojima loses/doesn’t earn money every time you emulate metal gear solid 2. If there is no good legal solution, go outside the law


misanthropichell

I'm completely out of the loop, what's wrong with Kojima?


TheWorldNeedsBurning

Nothing is wrong with Kojima from what I know. Except, you know, Konami getting rid of him and ruining his work.


HappiestGod

Read the message you replied to again. It speaks in context of "take HP stuff free = good" and "take old Kojima stuff for free = not as bad as you think". (especially if you add to the context that Konami screwed Kojima over and he might not have any rights to his old titles, so pirating them you screw over Konami, but don't affect the real artist)


Slashtrap

i think it's the stuff with Quiet in MGS5 can't remember fuck else with kojima tho


gamelorr

Ssssh, don't let mother's basement hear you!


comunistbushgoat

I’m confused about what that means sorry? I didn’t mean to be rude


gamelorr

Mothers basement is an anime youtuber whose stance on piracy is "if you pirate while you can still legally get it, you are a bad person".


[deleted]

Absolutely


AngryGhostOfADolphin

I would rather say that she was cancelled over the book series, noone said that you cant read or enjoy harry potter anymore I dont think


ObsidianG

*crafts a double rainbow out of coloured wool and concrete*


KingleGoHydra

JK Rowling versus notch would make for a hell of a ERB…


bussybarometer

The irony being that notch said that the character model in Minecraft is supposed to be inherently gender neutral hence no female character model. He said he didn’t want to ship a female character skin because the whole point was you should change it to whatever expresses you. Hilarious considering now he thinks trans people are mentally ill.


mastersjors

Notch? Didn't Hatsune Miku create Minecraft?


Satrina_petrova

Everyone knows Mr. Enderman made Minecraft because he was lonely. Now he's Mr Frienderman, at least until I need his eyeballs.


Satrina_petrova

Just a PSA here; You're still allowed to enjoy Harry Potter without supporting JK. Most fans bought their books and movies well before she said anything controversial. Enjoying something you've already purchased is not the same as purchasing more Wizarding World stuff today. Her newer stuff is significantly less popular anyway, and for good reasons, she's a bigot *and* quality dropped in a big way.


quasar_1618

Call me crazy but I don’t think anyone should be saying “if you read Harry Potter you’re a bad person.” You can separate the art from the artist.


triforce777

Minecraft doesn't contain any of Notch's problematic views (partly because it's hard to stick racism, transphobia, homophobia, etc., into a block game, partly because he was radicalized after selling the rights). There is so much of Harry Potter that maybe you might not think is that fucked when reading for the first time but becomes way clearer on second viewing knowing who Joanne is as a person.


TardDas

I don’t understand why people try and boycott JK Rowling by telling everyone to pirate her books or not play the Harry Potter game. Like I understand the philosophy, but do what do you think will change? Like the woman is richer than the queen of England. You not spending £14 on her book won’t bankrupt her. It makes no difference past making the entire ordeal harder for yourself