Harry Potter and the Shrine to Fascism

Where do you keep your copy?

When I started this piece the first thing I wrote was the title: “Harry Potter and the Shrine to H**ler” and immediately backtracked. We live in a world of algorithm-tuned, focus-group-directed, weasel-worded safety, but that wasn’t why I changed it.

Sure, it benefits me not to get snared in the spam filter (honestly, I detest having to ast*risk words). Sure, it benefits me to use slightly softer language and not start the whole thing already having enacted Godwin’s Law thus making the whole thing pointless, but that isn’t why I changed it.

No, I changed it because it lacks nuance.

If I’m gonna be drawing connections between the world’s most well-known boy wizard and a failed watercolour painter who orchestrated the eradication of millions, then I’m going to need nuance. The excellent point that Godwin’s Law makes is that statement “You’re as bad as H**ler!” undermines any argument, sure, but worse it diminishes the atrocities that occurred. While I LOVE being an obnoxious shithead, the erasure of genocide is not a vibe and never will be.

So no, I won’t be making comparisons between the fandom of a poorly written children’s book to the figurehead of a sickness that’s festered in our culture. A movement that only weeks ago saw black-clad young men goose-step from an anti-immigration rally to Camp Sovereignty, swinging pipes and tree branches. The irony of a black fella encampment being torn down by white fellas protesting immigration being lost on them, there were arrests. And as much as someone enjoying reading the adventures of a boy wizard who flouts rules and is regularly gifted hereditary privilege, these two things are not the same.

Enjoying Harry Potter doesn’t make you “as bad as H**ler.”

No, it makes you as bad as the people who let him get away with it.

---

Let me paint you a picture, one that’s more compelling than a certain Austrian’s uninspired art school watercolours.

I’m on the train and I see someone reading a copy of the world’s least-grammar-checked book about a boy who’s gifted millions in gold and chooses not to pay off the debts of all his friend’s families. I wouldn’t think this reader is a monster, no. I wouldn’t automatically assume they were about to suddenly spout their favourite authors other writings at me either. You know the ones? Those online short-form writings claiming that transgender woman are a danger to society and shouldn’t exist?

No, I wouldn’t assume they’re a fan of those writings too.

I’d just assume they are bereft of understanding the world around them, that they’re simply socially inept. Maybe they struggle to pick up social cues? Maybe they just don’t realise that some things are best kept for the privacy of your own home and not for the rush-hour train ride. Just like trimming your toenails or masturbating, please, keep it at home.

What if it was a different book? What if it was a copy of Mein Kampf?

No, I’m not saying that the CONTENT of JK-needs-to-write-under-a-male-pseudonym’s work is the same as the content of a mass murdering fuckhead. Sure, they’re both works that centre authoritarianism as the solution to most problems. Both normalise abuse, training child soldiers and lionise little boys who don’t follow rules to amass the power to “protect good decent folks”.

If you wanna live in that fantasy land, that’s fine. But don’t be surprised if I start wondering about the content of your character. Quite simply, if you’re happy to publicly read a copy of the prison-cell-screed extolling the virtues of a gas chamber then I’m gonna start wondering what else you are okay with. Just as it is with the works of “She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”, I’m gonna start asking myself a series of questions about you:

• Do you have a special place at home where you keep this book? Is it a shelf? A plinth? Something that’s a place of honour for it?

• Are there other objects, ephemera associated with its content? Perhaps a small statue or bust? Maybe even a crest or emblem on display with it? A flag?

• Have you had one of the geometric symbols from the book tattooed on your body?

• Do you have a little lapel pin with that same geometric design you like to wear to events (when it isn’t appropriate to be showing off your tattoos, so the other folks who also love the book can know you are “one of them”?

• Do you like to dress up in specific costume to attend events where you pretend that you live in the idealised world that’s laid out in the book? A world where a privileged few are tasked with making decisions over the lives of people who aren’t even aware of their existence? A world where you have inherent personal power and the agency to chose when to use it?

And those die-hards who still hold on claim, “I just like the story!”? Or claim “I loved it as a child!”? To be clear, so did I. I loved reading about that lost and lonely boy who discovering people that care about him. I adored those books, but then I became aware of both the underlying worldview of behind them and the explicit actions of the author who’d happily see me eradicated.

And her actions ARE explicit.

Words are one thing, but money is something else. While progressives detest the Citizens United vs the FEC it is the reality we live in. You’re allowed to spend your money however you like and while this creates an uneven playing field that looks more like a cliff face than a manicured lawn, donating money to a cause means you are morally, ethically, legally considered to have “spoken” in support of it.

There is no fig-leaf of deniability anymore.

Beyond the incitements to violence against trans folks that your favourite least-spell-checked author and her ilk routinely spill into the world, there’s tangible harm. There’s a specific line that can be drawn from her wealth to legislative change in the UK. She gifted her own money, directly funding the ‘For Women Scotland’ Supreme Court Challenge into the definitions of gender.

So no, I don’t think you’re a terrible person if you enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series. You can keep reading it if you want, I couldn’t care less. Just because you read it doesn’t mean you share the opinions of the author. Hell, I’ve no doubt that dear friend of mine who did his PhD in the alt-right online radicalisation of young men has read Mein Kampf. He probably has a copy on his shelf, crammed in somewhere with other grifters like Jordan Peterson etc. It doesn’t make him a villain. But engaging in the multibillion dollar enterprise of merchandise and entertainment? You wanna buy your Hogwarts Lego sets and your little Funko Pops? And just as sure as the world record holder of “billionaire who’s huffed the most black mould” directly funded the campaign to weaken protections for trans folks, you are funding her.

So no, you are not “as bad as H**ler.”

You’re as bad as the people who threw up their hands and said, “oh we didn’t know there was a concentration camp up the road”.

They knew.

And so do you.

Continuing to engage in the Harry Potter franchise isn’t tantamount to wanting to gas chamber a minority out of existence. It’s tantamount to being okay that other people wanting to do it and that you’re okay with providing a financial contribution, however small, to them.

Money is speech after all.

And trans folk hear what you’re saying. Your comfort, your nostalgia is more important to you than stopping someone from eradicating us. We aren’t trying to ruin something that you love. She already did that; you just haven’t accepted it yet.

–S