Stating the Obvious: We Don’t Have To Agree On Everything
[guest post by Dana]
Helena Bonham Carter talks cancel culture:
**“Do you ban a genius for their sexual practices? There would be millions of people who if you looked closely enough at their personal life you would disqualify them. You can’t ban people. I hate cancel culture. It has become quite hysterical and there’s a kind of witch hunt and a lack of understanding.”
…
The actress was also impassioned about the blowback that Harry Potter author Rowling has received over comments that have been criticized as transphobic. Bonham Carter played Bellatrix Lestrange in the four most recent Harry Potter films.
“It’s horrendous, a load of bollocks. I think she has been hounded,” Bonham Carter said about Rowling. “It’s been taken to the extreme, the judgmentalism of people. She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse. Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people come from and their pain. You don’t all have to agree on everything — that would be insane and boring. She’s not meaning it aggressively, she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”
I hate that we’re culturally at a point where it’s a Big Deal when a public figure makes a very reasonable observation: We don’t have to agree on everything.
[Ed. note: Commenter Nic points out that there is a balancing act to what HBC said. Specifically: “Do you ban a genius for their sexual practices? There would be millions of people who if you looked closely enough at their personal life you would disqualify them.” Nic opined: “Do we cancel a genius for drugging and raping a very young teen? Well, that pretty much is beyond what I’m willing to accept in return for an entertaining 2 hr movie or 8.” I said that I didn’t think that HBC was including geniuses who commit crimes against minors in her statement. However, Nic pointed out, correctly, that HBC has worked with Roman Polanski (2012). I was completely unaware of this fact, and am now in full agreement with Nic’s point on that portion of HBC’s comment.]
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (1225fc) — 11/29/2022 @ 11:34 amThere’s this push to move the conversation from; “We disagree about policy” to “Your views on policy indicate that you’re a blood enemy to me, everyone like me, and my way of life”
It’s been building for years. Exaggerating Romney’s views far beyond what they truly are, the “Obama is a secret Muslim that wasn’t born here” are all part of the pattern.
So saying that JKR’s views are somewhat Transphobic but share by many people, isn’t going to push the window / get clicks in at the way that this is.
Time123 (5d1082) — 11/29/2022 @ 12:20 pmUp until recently gay people were cancel cultured in law. The stone wall riots were in part because it was against the law to sell a drink to gays in a bar let alone have a gay or lesbian bar. The riot started when marilyn fowler decked a cop feeling up her lesbian girl friend. Sodomy laws and same sex marriage laws are still on the books in many states. In 2022 they are still voting on slavery laws! Sexual harassment up until recently was not cancel cultured. See bill cosby and bill clinton. So now that conservatives are being cancel cultured its unfair! We have to have tolerance now that cancel culture is coming after conservatives. Tell that to alan turing. What goes around comes around like it or not!
asset (d2fa6e) — 11/29/2022 @ 12:35 pmDana – Here’s a hopeful example for your argument.
And they have been joined by a third, “Rep.-elect Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) will join James, whom he counts as a close friend, as the first two Black graduates of West Point to enter Congress.”
Who knows, maybe the three will form a West Point Caucus. Which might inspire the Navy and the Air Force to do something similar.
Jim Miller (f29931) — 11/29/2022 @ 4:10 pmSome of my best friends go to Washington State.
Paul Montagu (b351b8) — 11/29/2022 @ 4:28 pmasset:
The second one, maybe, if that kind of sex was facilitated, but I doubt it, and how could the first be the case?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 11/29/2022 @ 4:34 pm@6 Read any of the books on stonewall riots. NY city had this law as did many other places. Look it up. The aclu was trying to get the law not to be enforced and repealed in NY city and mayor lindsay had agreed. Gay groups were to afraid to join aclu. When is not the issue here but that it was enforced for many years. Gay bars were illegal so they were run by the mafia.
asset (95e687) — 11/29/2022 @ 5:12 pmI think she’s both right an wrong. It’s really a balancing act. Do we cancel a genius for drugging and raping a very young teen? Well, that pretty much is beyond what I’m willing to accept in return for an entertaining 2 hr movie or 8. As far as JKR is concerned, I suspect that if everyone (including her) had had cooler heads at the beginning, both sides wouldn’t be so dug in against eachother now and I don’t think anyone should be throwing away their Harry Potter books, but the way she seems to be courting the controversy at this point also doesn’t really make me want to spend theater money on her iffier more recent projects.
OTOH, people are just sometimes going to have opinions I don’t like and I’m going to have opinions other people don’t like and we can’t all go around screaming at each other about them all the time. Maybe for me it’s more about actions. I might side-eye someone who has a really terrible opinion, but there are some actions that mean I won’t continue supporting the person.
Nic (896fdf) — 11/29/2022 @ 5:25 pmYeah, I don’t think she was including geniuses who commit crimes against minors in her statement. But other than that, I mostly agree with you. Although, I think the blowback against JKR wasn’t just about her viewpoint, the fact that she is an extremely wealthy white woman was factored in as well. There are so many levels of resentment in the public square now to glom onto.
Dana (1225fc) — 11/29/2022 @ 6:10 pmSpeaking of disagreeing Cochise county az. Disagrees with vote counting in az. Their argument (county’s lawyer sez it doesn’t matter and wont defend them) is that the accrediting providers did not renew their own accreditation which ran out in 2017 which both 2002 federal law and state law requires. Also they say voting machines must be certified every two years to remain legal voting machines. Accrediting provider sent e-mail to county saying they extended voting machine certification to 3 years which is not legal. we will see how it goes.
asset (95e687) — 11/29/2022 @ 8:48 pm@Dana@9 She’s worked with Roman Polanski, so I don’t know that she wasn’t. :/
Nic (896fdf) — 11/29/2022 @ 9:00 pmNic,
See Editor Note in post.
Dana (1225fc) — 11/29/2022 @ 10:25 pm@Dana 😀
Nic (896fdf) — 11/29/2022 @ 10:35 pmThis is what happens when actors think they can work without a script and a director.
nk (763d5c) — 11/30/2022 @ 5:59 amHowever, Nic pointed out, correctly, that HBC has worked with Roman Polanski (2012). I was completely unaware of this fact
LOL yes, let’s introduce Polanski into the cancel culture conversation. The fact that he isn’t, except when used against primary targets like JKR, should tell us something.
The fact that you knew (and nearly everyone knows) that JKR is being shunned and ostracized for the truth that she said, and wasn’t aware she worked with Polanski, would seem to drive Bonham Carter’s point home.
JF (f8765c) — 11/30/2022 @ 6:10 am