J.K. Rowling Book Burning Videos Are Spreading Like Wildfire Across TikTok

https://www.newsweek.com/jk-rowling-books-burned-tiktok-transgender-issues-1532330

by undefined1 • 6 years ago

4 8 6 years ago

LandR• 6 years ago

Attention whores looking for attention.

I don't know why we give attention to people that think burning books on social media is a good idea. Ignore these lunatics.+

Cheyana• 6 years ago

Historically, burning of media has always been associated with people with conservative, limited views. Nazis have burned books, religious followers have burned rock and roll records, flags, effigies, but this is the first I've heard of people with liberal views symbolically destroying something they disagree with. I thought the whole point of freedom of speech was that we would agree to disagree on things and leave it at that.

yorwba• 6 years ago

this is the first I've heard of people with liberal views symbolically destroying something they disagree with

What makes them liberal? They're trying to conserve a state of the world where transpeople are respected and shunning Rowling for transgressing their norms. A very conservative thing to do.

_zzaw2• 6 years ago

The crucial difference here is that they're burning their own books, not confiscating anyone else's. To that end, I don't see this as any limitation of Rowling's right to express herself (although the general level of outrage at her right now might cause publishers to think twice before signing a contract with her).

And liberals symbolically destroy stuff they don't like all the time. It isn't conservatives who are burning American flags at anti-war/cop protests.

I'm generally of the mind that as long as it's your property, you should be able to do what you want with it, but I've never seen the point to this kind of radical symbolism. A movement for social justice might start with a radical fringe, but its overall sustainability and success rely on convincing people who don't already agree with the cause.

And most attempts at social change, especially those regarding civil rights, already have to fight an uphill battle against accusations of dangerous radicality. Going Fahrenheit 451 on books you don't like is not going to help with that perception.

eesmith• 6 years ago

I ... don't think that's true?

I mean, I just did a search for "burn Mein Kampf" and found videos of people doing just that - do you categorize them as all having conservative, limited views?

A check of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents says "On September 20, 2010 the Pentagon bought[271] and burned[272] 9,500 copies of Operation Dark Heart, nearly all the first run copies for supposedly containing classified information." - I don't think you can easily categorize that as conservative or liberal.

The same list says "During the Libyan Civil War, copies of Muammar Gaddafi's Green Book were burned by anti-Gaddafi demonstrators" - again, does that mark them as having conservative, limited views?

On the topic of "freedom of speech" - it's well established in the US that free speech includes the right to buy a US flag and burn it as form of protest (bearing in mind burn bans and other general restrictions on burning). Surely it's also free speech to buy your own copy of a book and set it on fire, yes?

If you want to buy and burn 10,000 copies of a book which is currently in print, where there's no cultural or historical destruction, and where you aren't taking the books from other people, then ... what exactly is the infringement of free speech? You might even get a wholesale discount from the publisher.

Personally, I see this as a man-bits-dog story. Book burning stories are not rare. I easily found https://time.com/5698850/jennine-crucet-book-burning-georgia... from last year:

On Wednesday night, students at Georgia Southern University (GSU) ripped and burned copies of a Latina author’s book about a woman of color navigating life at a predominately white university. The burning happened after Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Make Your Home Among Strangers and a professor at the University of Nebraska, spoke at the university about the book and her personal experiences. ... The university decided to relocate Crucet to a different hotel outside of town after a crowd began to form outside her original lodging.

Now ask why one story made it to HN and the other one didn't.

IntemerateApe• 6 years ago

I dont recall any group of people that burns books to be on the right side of history

_zzaw2• 6 years ago

Agreed. This is stupid, and distracting.

I don't agree with what Rowling believes and I have no problem with people deciding they don't want to give money to her. But the book burning—however symbolic it might be—is a really bad look; makes otherwise justifiable criticism of her look extreme and authoritarian.

J.K. Rowling Book Burning Videos Are Spreading Like Wildfire Across TikTok

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