1374

Source: Hot Paper Comics

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Harry was billed in early books as this "Anti-Voldemort", who'd lead Wizardy to a gilded age and do great things... But JK Is a Status Quo loving Neo Liberal and can't imagine a better world. In all of her works the system is corrupt, but it's fine because the only thing that would make it go wrong is one bad faith actor (In this case Voldemort), who will stumble upon some obscure rule that undoes him. (In this case, killing Harry who was at that time the last horcrux)

Harry becomes a cop and doesn't change the status quo because the world as it is is the best JK can imagine it.

It's kind of like how no one did anything about Trump, they kept waiting for him to trip over some rule that sends the system crashing down on him, but it never happened.

It never happened because the system is powerless to punish anyone, because the system is just an idea, it is immaterial.

The Electoral College isn't going to magically vote for Hillary because it recognizes Trump's evil. People have to recognize his corruption and change the system to combat it...

The Democrats never learned they couldn't just wait for the System to punish the Republicans after they accumulated enough good/bad boy points

[-] PatMustard@feddit.uk 8 points 2 years ago

JK Is a Liberal and can't imagine a better world

Wtf do you people think "liberal" means? Some people think it means communist, some think it means socialist, some somehow think it means fascist. I'd love to what you actually mean when you use a word that has a specific meaning of "anti-authoritarian".

[-] Xerodin@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago

In political party terms, a liberal is someone who supports the economic system of capitalism but wants to give concessions to the general population (free healthcare, cheap public transportation, etc) to placate the people from changing the system. The idea is if people are making a somewhat decent living then they will be less disgusted with the ludicrous amount of money the actual wealthy make and won't revolt. Messaging from conservative parties has purposely conflated liberals with leftist (socialism/communism) ideology in order to tie it to the Red Scare and convince lower income people that the idea is meant to take more from working class people.

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago

Social Welfare is neither historically nor currently a liberal value.

Generally the idea seems to be social liberalism, e.g. people should laregely do what they want, and since a few decades bastardized with neoliberal economics, which are the opposite of freedom. E.g. ideas like reinstating slavery, selling children, murdering people with impunity all based on an arbitrary freedom of contracts.

American liberals are far right conservative/reactionaries sprinkled with some gay rights by most countries standards.

[-] PatMustard@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

Isn't that American "libertarians"?

[-] PatMustard@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago

Firstly, thanks for actually giving me an answer! Secondly, that sounds insane, I've never heard any definition of "liberal" that means that, though I have heard that the USA just has their own completely different definition of the word. For instance in Britain the term "liberal democracy" is used to mean "not a dictatorship". Language is about communication, assuming everyone uses your own pejorative definition of a word is not good for discussion!

[-] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Hey OP, just in case you didn't gather this from the various other comments, in political science, Liberalism refers to a specific movement (think John Locke, social contract theory, abolishing various aristocratic privilaeges, etc) but can be applied to modern political philosophies too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

Liberalism in media terms often means something quite different depending where you are in the world. But, it typically refers to something like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_liberalism. Pro-market, pro-welfare (to a limited degree), somewhat focused on individual freedoms, etc. It's a wide-ranging term and can cover anything from as far right as America's gov't to as far left as something like Sweden's.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago

Here it means "Someone who is loyal to the status quo"

[-] PatMustard@feddit.uk 5 points 2 years ago

That sounds like the definition of "conservative"

[-] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago
[-] PatMustard@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

open to new ideas

So the exact opposite of "loyal to the status quo"?

[-] Halosheep@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

As far as I can tell, it seems to be a catch all for "people I don't like". There's no real meaning and often times the same commentor describes conflicting idealogies as liberal.

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 2 years ago

I only watched the first three movies and didn't read the books. Why do people say harry was a cop? I didn't get that impression from the movies I watched.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 29 points 2 years ago

He is not a cop, he becomes a cop after he graduates, despite a heavily recurring theme of the books being how corrupt, incompetent, and unjust the Wizarding government and judicial system is.

Rowling never really seems to connect the dots and think, "Hmm, maybe the Aurors are part of the problem," very much a "cops good no notes" mindset for some reason.

If you want to give her the benefit of the doubt you can assume she thinks Harry will be a reformer, but, also, in the books she never really seems to think anything but the status quo is good so probably not.

[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 years ago

Don't forget: Harry was groomed to become an Auror since like book 4 or 5. Old ass men were like "yes, come here 15 year old, let me tell you about my awesome job that you should definitely take once you graduate!" Like, Harry is seen deliberating over the decision and he feels coerced into it, then at the end of book 7 he's like "okay fuck it I'm an Auror now". Truly wonderful writing.

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 6 points 2 years ago

TBF I read the books too long ago to remember well what was the state of the depicted society except for an obvious negligence for student safety. In part it's because I wasn't old enough to notice that.

I think it did feel "govt bad cops good" at that point and I didn't think about the government and cops being parts of the same system πŸ˜…

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago

I mean the cops are also doing the bidding of the obviously corrupt minister, with the exception of Kingsley Shaklebolt, who is an undercover agent of Dumbledore.

The entire concept of "fighting dark magicians hurr durr" is never put in the context of how subverted or openly on the side of dark magicians the ministry of magic is. Sometimes it is hinted at, like how Arthur Weasley is dissapointed that the department for the missuse of muggle artifacts is chronically underfunded and wizards that like to play harsh pranks and torture muggles aren't punished properly.

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one -3 points 2 years ago

i'm gonna be completely honest with you, almost everything you said after 'graduates' went over my head. i have no clue what an auror is, did you mean the aurora like the thing in the sky?

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 10 points 2 years ago

auror = cop but with magic

[-] HenryWong327@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Because in the epilogue it's said that Harry ended up joining the Aurors (wizard cops) after Voldemort was defeated.

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 2 years ago

ah ok thanks for the clarification! wish i read this before replying to DragonTypeWyvern

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

So the books early on hype up the idea that Harry Potter will grow up, defeat Voldemort, change the Wizarding world for the better, and fix the corruption in the Ministry of Magic that lead to Voldemort's Return...

In the actual ending, Harry grows up to become an Auror, which is basically the Wizarding World's version of a cop, and they answer directly to... The Ministry of Magic, which hasn't changed leadership... and is still ran by the people who didn't want the masses to know Voldemort existed even whilst literal children were dropping like flies because of his douchebaggery because "That would make us look bad!"

Imagine if George Washington's story ended up with him, having just won the Revolutionary War, becoming a soldier in the British Navy instead of becoming US Present... It's that kind of vibe

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 2 years ago

lame, day-by-day im more satisfied with not reading harry potter (mostly cuz the magic didn't make sense to me and i kept mixing up the names of the characters...)

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It really doesn't, especially when it's revealed (Very early on) that magic is literally just saying the right words and waving your wand...

But how can wizards be stronger than other wizards if this is the case? Which the book states that some are....

And there are Wizards said to create new spells all the time as part of their jobs... but... how the fuck does that work if the words and wand movement are all that's important? In most settings where it's via some magic essence combined with force of will, it makes sense how you could conjure up spells... but here it's like somehow being able to create a new console command for a software you can't update or modify...

Plus the scale of what magic can do changes depending on the scene...

Hagrid, a high school dropout with a broken wand concealed inside an umbrella, can effortlessly turn Dudley into a pigboi..... but learning how to take on just one animal shape is super difficult and only a select few called Animgai can do it... Sure....

Oh and an IMPOSTER Mad-Eye Moody casually turning Draco into a full-on ferret despite Animagis being this rare and overly difficult to learn thing is also bullshit.. (neither Moody nor the imposter were an Animagi)

And Hogwarts Legacy just has Animagi as a common enemy type despite them being so rare, but... hey there I can forgive it because without them we wouldn't have good enemy variety (Why are all the creatures in the forbidden forest spiders!??!?!)

Like, what are the rules? Because if Rowling doesn't care, why should I?

[-] JohnDoe@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 2 years ago

yeah this was my kinda sense, why do fans tell me it's simple? i like brandon sandersons system, doubly so because he has like different implementations of the same magic system in different series in the same universe ('cosmere')

this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
1374 points (96.9% liked)

Comic Strips

23809 readers
1958 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

Rules
  1. πŸ˜‡ Be Nice!

    • Treat others with respect and dignity. Friendly banter is okay, as long as it is mutual; keyword: friendly.
  2. 🏘️ Community Standards

    • Comics should be a full story, from start to finish, in one post.
    • Posts should be safe and enjoyable by the majority of community members, both here on lemmy.world and other instances.
    • Any comic that would qualify as raunchy, lewd, or otherwise draw unwanted attention by nosy coworkers, spouses, or family members should be tagged as NSFW.
    • Moderators have final say on what and what does not qualify as appropriate. Use common sense, and if need be, err on the side of caution.
  3. 🧬 Keep it Real

    • Comics should be made and posted by real human beans, not by automated means like bots or AI. This is not the community for that sort of thing.
  4. πŸ“½οΈ Credit Where Credit is Due

    • Comics should include the original attribution to the artist(s) involved, and be unmodified. Bonus points if you include a link back to their website. When in doubt, use a reverse image search to try to find the original version. Repeat offenders will have their posts removed, be temporarily banned from posting, or if all else fails, be permanently banned from posting.
    • Attributions include, but are not limited to, watermarks, links, or other text or imagery that artists add to their comics to use for identification purposes. If you find a comic without any such markings, it would be a good idea to see if you can find an original version. If one cannot be found, say so and ask the community for help!
  5. πŸ“‹ Post Formatting

    • Post an image, gallery, or link to a specific comic hosted on another site; e.g., the author's website.
    • Meta posts about the community should be tagged with [Meta] either at the beginning or the end of the post title.
    • When linking to a comic hosted on another site, ensure the link is to the comic itself and not just to the website; e.g.,
      βœ… Correct: https://xkcd.com/386/
      ❌ Incorrect: https://xkcd.com/
  6. πŸ“¬ Post Frequency/SPAM

    • Each user (regardless of instance) may post up to five (5 πŸ–) comics a day. This can be any combination of personal comics you have written yourself, or other author's comics. Any comics exceeding five (5 πŸ–) will be removed.
  7. πŸ΄β€β˜ οΈ Internationalization (i18n)

    • Non-English posts are welcome. Please tag the post title with the original language, and include an English translation in the body of the post; e.g.,
      SΓ­, por favor [Spanish/EspaΓ±ol]
  8. 🍿 Moderation

    • We are human, just like most everybody else on Lemmy. If you feel a moderation decision was made in error, you are welcome to reach out to anybody on the moderation team for clarification. Keep in mind that moderation decisions may be final.
    • When reporting posts and/or comments, quote which rule is being broken, and why you feel it broke the rules.
Banned Artists

The following artists are banned from the community.

  1. Jago
  2. Stonetoss

It should be noted that when you make reports, it is your responsibility to provide rational reasoning why something should be removed. Saying it simply breaks community rules is not always good enough.

Web Accessibility

Note: This is not a rule, but a helpful suggestion.

When posting images, you should strive to add alt-text for screen readers to use to describe the image you're posting:

Another helpful thing to do is to provide a transcription of the text in your images, as well as brief descriptions of what's going on. (example)

Web of Links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS