J.K. Rowling hits back at Putin after he likened Russia to her in rant against cancel culture

[orangecrush]

J.K. Rowling has hit back at Vladimir Putin after the Russian President compared the West’s treatment of his country to a public backlash faced by the Harry Potter author.

In a message shared on her Twitter account on Friday, the writer said critiques of cancel culture are “not best made” by those “slaughtering civilians.”


Rowling also posted a link to a 2021 BBC News article about jailed anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny and denounced the invasion of Ukraine.

“Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics,” she told her 13.9 million followers on Twitter, along with the hashtag #IStandWithUkraine









https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/25/world/jk-rowling-putin-intl-scli-gbr/index.html

[FakeNoose]

1. Please note last 2 grafs of OP article, quoting Rowling:

Rowling previously revealed that her children's charity, Lumos, had been working with the Ukrainian government since 2013, and she launched a fundraising appeal the day after the Russian invasion to help "the thousands of children trapped by the fighting in Ukraine's orphanages."

"A reminder: I will personally match all donations to our emergency appeal, up to £1million ($1.3 million). If you're able to, you can donate here. Again, thank you so very much to all who've already donated," she tweeted Friday.

This is not a shabby offer from one of the wealthiest women in the world after Queen Elizabeth.

[orangecrush]

2. ...

I've already donated to a refugee assistance organization.

Wish I had known about this.

[orangecrush]

3. Aw, what the hell

Thank you so much for your gift to our Ukraine Emergency Appeal. Your support enables us to protect some of the most vulnerable children through this crisis. Lumos will keep fighting until every child grows up in a safe and loving family, and not an orphanage.



Details of your donation:

Donation amount: $10.00

Date of donation: 3/25/2022

[FakeNoose]

4. Odd that they quote the amount in US$

I would have expected it to be quoted in Brit-money.

Well okay friend, now I'll make a donation too.

[orangecrush]

10. Thanks

They have an option to select your currency.

[gulliver]

5. Donated

[orangecrush]

11. ....

[Hekate]

13. Thank you for this mention

[Hekate]

16. Here is the link. Looks like an amazing operation...

https://www.wearelumos.org/

Explore our ground-breaking new report: Cycles of Exploitation – a full exploration of the devastating links between institutional care and child trafficking.

LUMOS EXISTS TO LIGHT A PATH TO A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR CHILDREN.
Despite evidence of the harms of institutionalisation, an estimated 5.4 million children around the world continue to live in orphanages and institutions, deprived of their basic human rights.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Putin is trying cancel 45 million Ukrainians

He’s one to talk.

[Igel]

7. He likes the USSR.

Not that the USSR ever canceled Russian culture.

Pasternak and his Nobel Prize, for example. The literature of the Thaw. Solzhenitsyn.

They tried to ban Dostoevsky.

The USSR was the past-master at "cancel culture". Get somebody denounced because of the wrong politics. Pile on. Samo-kritika--the accused must openly confess and shame self in public. Then maybe, if they're okay, they're "rehabilitated" and given a chance, through "service" to show they're not evil. Or not--they could still be fired, banned, censored, purged, and sent to a GULag or hole in the ground.

They do have yabednichanie down to a high art, tho'.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Great points

They’ve cancelled everyone except Stalin. Think about it.

[mvd]

9. I LOVE the Harry Potter books but am disappointed in J.K.

People have tried to educate her on trans people, but she remains ignorant - so I have to think she is bigoted. Putin of all people using her though is so ridiculous.

[Withywindle]

12. Sad but true

I was a big Harry Potter fan too, but she's not getting a cent from me anymore.

[Dial H For Hero]

14. Almost all of my favorite sf and fantasy authors are from the mid to late 20th Century,

so it's not surprising that many of them are "problematic" by today's standards. I do enjoy reading them, though!

[Hekate]

17. It's amazing how much I learned about humanity from reading about aliens starting in grade school...

And yes, those were the mid-century authors, because that’s when I was alive. The best are considered the best for a reason. I got to college and when I took Anthropology 101 discovered I had already had a thorough grounding in it. Ecology, same thing, especially after reading Dune.

I read the Potter books as an adult as they came out, and when my grandson was born started reading them to him starting at age 5. Many questions and conversations on the nature of cruelty and evil. Many conversations on death — his baby sister died of SIDS. Conversations on kindness and acceptance and courage. And finally — conversations on fascism.

Astonishing, isn’t it?

[Dial H For Hero]

20. Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, Clarke, Asimov, Lovecraft, Vinge, DeCamp...great stuff!

[Hekate]

24. Yes, and not one of them perfect. Women were thin on the ground, except as cardboard cutouts...

….in the first couple of generations. Yet I still wrote myself into the stories and was not left behind when the ships took off. Telzi Amberdon’s creator died after only a few stories, and Ursula Le Guin was still raising her family when I was young. And still, the best authors took me along in my imagination, and female authors flowered in their time and I was ready for them.

[Withywindle]

22. that's the problem, really

JKR is doing this in the here and now. She's harming people in real time. No excuse!

I mean HP Lovecraft was racist as HELL, even by the standards of the time. There's a whole subgenre of books and shows unpacking that and subverting it. But he's not alive now donating to the KKK and spreading bile on Twitter.

[Dial H For Hero]

23. Can't argue Lovecraft. He wrote brilliant stuff, but his views on race were vile.

Speaking of Lovecraft, I'm going to Chaosium Con 2022 in a couple of weeks, most of which will be devoted to the roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu. A weekend of sanity-destroying fun!

[speak easy]

15. What a hill she chose to die on,

punching down on the most vulnerable.

[obamanut2012]

19. She isn't ignorant, she knows exactly what she is saying and doing

She is a bully and a extreme bigot, and acts like a sociopath on twitter and elsewhere.

And many people on here laud her and agree with her.

[mvd]

21. I was agreeing that she's bigoted

And I don’t understand why some here agree with her.

[obamanut2012]

18. Bigots of a feather flock together

Putin didn't say anything Rowling hasn't, she is loathsome.

[Beacool]

25. Good for her!!

Particularly since she's putting her money where her mouth is and donating a large sum to Ukrainian relief. I may be disappointed and not agree with her views on trans people, but she does have a right to her opinions.