Five

I hope this isn't the main takeaway from this essay - the essayist confesses his own experience has repudiated this chart.

It assumes individual people can, in spite of heavy propaganda and social pressure, individually can accurately evaluate an opaque hierarchical system as changeable and/or 'totalizing.' He viewed Trump as proof that the neoliberal system is not totalizing, that system change is possible.

Surprise! He was wrong.

CajsaCopyPasta:

A list of nearly 800 Republican sexual predators can be found here

https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook

Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was indicted on federal charges of structuring bank withdrawals after prosecutors alleged Hastert had molested at least four boys as young as 14 and attempted to compensate his victims and subsequently conceal the transactions. Hastert eventually admitted that he sexually abused the boys whom he had coached decades earlier, and was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/us/dennis-hastert-released.html

Republican Tim Nolan, chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Kentucky, pled guilty to child sex trafficking and on February 11, 2018 he was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/05/03/former-judge-tim-nolan-could-sentenced-today-more-drama-could-get-way/577947002/

Republican state Senator Ralph Shortey was indicted on four counts of human trafficking and child pornography. In November 2017, he pleaded guilty to one count of child sex trafficking in exchange for the dropping of the other charges.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/20/former-oklahoma-state-senator-admits-to-child-sex-trafficking-while-in-office/

Republican Minnesota State Representative Jim Knoblach Drops Out Of Race After Daughter Says He Molested Her For More Than Ten Years 22 Sep 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/22/lawmaker-quits-race-after-daughter-says-he-molested-her-more-than-decade/

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/sops/flyer.jsf?personId=28587

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

http://www.lanternproject.org.uk/library/child-abuse-arrests-and-court-cases/child-abuse-arrests-trials-and-proceedings/ex-county-commissioner-admits-sexual-abuse-of-girl/

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20120426/NEWS90/204260334

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Misla_Aldarondo

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Giordano

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

http://archive.easyreadernews.com/archives/news2001/0621/rb%20Shortridge.php

Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, a notable racist, had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond

Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/nyregion/embroiled-first-selectman-takes-leave.html

Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/25/us/teen-ager-in-ohio-testifies-to-sex-with-a-congressman.html

Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/04/24/gop-activist-admits-to-child-porn/5af2adf0-bec8-4a10-b061-014de679422a/

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=437

Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

https://www.westword.com/news/randy-ankeney-suit-that-could-free-thousands-of-prisoners-headed-to-state-supreme-court-6054115

Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crane

Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/02/opinion/journal-beverly-russell-s-prayers.html

Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bauman

Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

http://www.njherald.com/article/20060510/ARTICLE/305109971

Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

https://www.arktimes.com/TheHoglawyer/archives/2007/08/28/the-latest-republican-sex-scandals-plural---more-of-the-same

Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/06/us/politics-the-senate-maine-candidate-again-faces-1990-child-sex-accusation.html

Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2004/01/brother_stephen_convicted_of_soliciting_sex

Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

https://www.houstonpress.com/news/jon-matthews-conservative-talk-show-host-and-sex-offender-pulled-from-kpfts-prison-show-6740755

Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

https://culteducation.com/group/1255-false-memories/6514-man-in-notorious-sex-case-finishes-term.html

Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

https://www.semissourian.com/story/57773.html

Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

https://www.arktimes.com/TheHoglawyer/archives/2007/08/28/the-latest-republican-sex-scandals-plural---more-of-the-same

Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2002/6/21/23202/Tennessee-Legislator-Commits-Suicide.aspx

Republican Kentucky state Representative & pastor Dan Johnson, who committed suicide after an exposé revealed his serial lies, suspected arson, criminal church, racism, accused rape of a teen, and more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Johnson_%28Kentucky_politician%29

Wait, so scientists are saying Tesla Cybertrucks were a bad idea? That doesn't make any sense, Elmo is a genius.

I think the post image has a tighter vertical crop, but a higher resolution than this one.

Can you access https://sci-hub.se/ ? It may be blocked in your area. You can find a list of mirrors to try on their Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub

For the documentary aspects of it, yeah.

It's mostly a collection of found news footage, shots lifted from other dystopian films, and a low-budget self-narrated life of a silent women of the future living in the rubble of a mall in San Fransisco. The future fiction parts feel over the top coming from September 2022 when it was announced, or even October 2024 when it was released, but in July 2025 it definitely hits different.

The documentary parts take up the lion's share of the run-time, and are relevant to our role as citizen news aggregators. It puts the right-wing news actors and politicians in their proper context, and is a good summary of what we're up against.

I'm sympathetic to the tragedy of tainted nostalgia. I had a similar experience with the author of Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. It was distressing discovering that some of the literature that raised me and became in many ways my story -- not only had a corrupted source, but contained questionable themes that originated from that corruption and were always present in the work. I wouldn't describe exposure to news about the homophobic war monger as traumatic, but I do understand the grief that comes with having to re-examine and re-contextualize childhood beliefs and memories.

At the turn of the century, it was ambiguous whether the religious right would continue to wield political power. Harry Potter's unflappable rise in spite of theocratic pearl-clutching about witchcraft in literature gave hope that a less religiously dogmatic future was possible. In a time when scholastic book sales were flagging, JK Rowling helped millions of children to learn to love reading. You're not only losing the good feelings associated with childhood nostalgia, but also a shibboleth to a community of agnostic people who love reading for readings' sake. You're not wrong to want to preserve some part of that. It's not wrong to grieve for the parts that can't be saved.

You're also not a bad person for loving the literature. Fantasy is the power to imagine different lives in different worlds, a prerequisite for changing our own. I find it difficult to think of a work that does not have some suspect themes, and all authors are flawed so some degree. In a world where unparalleled success in fantasy writing didn't give someone policy power to harm of millions of people, a conversation about Rowling's fringe ideas about gender identity would have a very different tone. While not unique to the Wizarding World, one of the redeemable themes of that work is that individual people, each doing their own small part, can defeat an evil that is much greater than any one of them. Your small part may be to come to terms with the need to walk away.

On the other hand, your childhood experience gives you a rare power - you're on much better footing to empathize and soften the blow to others who are at a different stage of grief with the same struggle. You're in a much better position to weather the abuse you will receive if you stay, because you understand the place of hurt that it comes from. Harry Potter is about unexpected people rising to a challenge, and by joining the fight against JK Rowling, you are honoring the best parts of what you discovered through her literature.

I feel slightly alarmed that I need to explain this to you.

JK Rowling is traumatizing to trans people because she wants them not to exist. There's very little trans people can do to take away JK Rowling's power to harm them. Note that Rule 3 of !trans@lemmy.blahaj.zone is "Don’t post negative, depressing news articles about trans issues unless there is a call to action or a way to help." !jkrowling will be a !trans rule 3 violation community.

I imagine JK Rowling is traumatizing to you because she wants trans people to stop existing, is using your participation in her fantasy world to fuel her crusade, and the cognitive dissonance between that knowledge and the belief that you aren't an oppressor of trans people is uncomfortable. Maybe you are comfortable with Rowling's goal to erase transgender identities. It could be that are concerned with the growing social consensus that Harry Potter is fueling transphobic policies and propaganda, and people are catching on to your bigotry more easily because of your enthusiastic participation in the fandom. I honestly don't know why you consider your exposure to news about JK Rowling's politics in a HP community comparable to feelings of anger, anxiety, and depression exposure to JK Rowling news is likely to cause in a trans community.

There's a fundamental difference between the trauma you are concerned about and the trauma I am concerned about. With the knowledge of what JK Rowling is doing, you can choose to pirate the content and encourage your friends not to give JK Rowling any more money. You can make trans-inclusive fan art of HP characters. You can choose to listen to the many trans people who have asked you to stop engaging with the franchise entirely. You can stop building your identity around her specific fantasy world. You have so much agency to deal with the trauma of knowledge. Trans people cannot stop being trans.

In your internal chat, have you come to a consensus that JK Rowling is or isn't transphobic? What is .zip's position on her statements?

That document is extremely vague and boilerplate for the task that you're taking on, don't you think?