Harry Potter author JK Rowling has compared the groupthink around the transgender debate to debates in the militant Communist Soviet Union.
The comparison was made in response to a Twitter, post which asserted that the claim “TWAW” (or “trans women are women”) “was intended to test loyalty over reason.”
The post also asserted that cancelling women over accusations of “transphobia” was a test of whether a woman will “stand up to power or at best turn a blind eye to save her own skin.”
“Does she value career advancement or doing the right thing?” the post read.
It feels like TWAW as a mantra and cancelling women over accusations of transphobia was intended to test loyalty over reason and will she stand up to power or at best turn a blind eye to save her own skin.
Does she value career advancement or doing the right thing?— Dr EM (@PankhurstEM) April 20, 2022
JK Rowling replied with a tweet thread quoting an excerpt from “The Power of the Powerless” – a 1978 essay by Czech playwright and President Václav Havel, describing the brutal intellectual conformity under Communism.
In the thread, Rowling quoted an anecdote about a grocer with a Communist slogan, “Workers of the World Unite!” in his shop window.
“Why does he do it?” the essay asks
“Is he genuinely enthusiastic about the idea of unity among the workers of the world?
“…That poster was delivered to our greengrocer from the enterprise headquarters along with the onions and carrots. He put them all into the window simply… because everyone does it, and because that is the way it has to be.
“If he were to refuse, there could be trouble. He could be reproached for not having the proper ‘decoration’ in his window; someone might even accuse him of disloyalty. He does it because these things must be done if one is to get along in life.”
Rowling continued:
“[Ideology] offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them…[Individuals] must live within a lie. They need not accept the lie. It is enough for them to have accepted their life with it and in it.”
While the original essay referred to pressure to conform to Marxism and “live a lie,” Rowling implied that this also applies to the transgender debate.
Rowling has long been a critic of what she sees as biological males encroaching on women’s lives in areas like sports and bathrooms due to the transgender phenomenon, which has resulted in harsh backlash against the author from Leftwing activists.
She allegedly received “many death threats” after having her home address doxxed on social media late last year for her stances.
One transgender author reportedly penned a book recently in which JK Rowling is the main villain, and in which she is ultimately killed.
J.K. Rowling killed off in book by trans author, prompting online debate https://t.co/m4RhMDfDkZ pic.twitter.com/e1SsHX1d5b
— Global News Trending (@GNewsTrending) April 21, 2022