Free Speech, Politics, Society

Expelliarmus: Pro-Transgender Author Judy Blume is Denounced for Expressing Support for J.K. Rowling

One of the most prominent tactics in the modern anti-free speech movement is to “hoist the wretch” — to make examples of those with opposing views to deter others from risking cancel campaigns. The idea is to immediately pile on any prominent person who breaks from the narrative on issues ranging from systemic racism to transgender rights to the pandemic. Few would want the label “controversial” that an enabling media immediately assigns to such targets. The latest example is children’s book author Judy Blume, who has publicly supported transgender rights. Blume had the audacity to say that she supports fellow author J.K. Rowling. The result was immediate and scathing. One liberal site declared “Judy Blume, seemingly incapable of just ‘enjoying her money,’ comes out as TERF.”  The term trans-exclusionary radical feminist or TERF is used for feminists like Rowling who have expressed concerns over how transgender policies are undermining the gains of women in the last few decades. In this case, simply supporting a fellow author’s right to speak has earned Blume the label of a TERF and the deadly notation of now being officially “controversial.”

In her interview with The Times, Blume expressed her respect for Rowling: “I love her. I am behind her 100 per cent as I watch from afar.”

Those words sent some into an utter hyperventilated frenzy. You are not allowed to admire Rowling, who has been designated a persona non grata by the pundits and the press.

Rowling is now the living embodiment of someone “who must not be named” except as the object of ridicule and disgust. Even showing a Harry Potter game at a bar is enough to unleash a cancel campaign against the business.

Liberals have turned to blacklisting and even book burning — all in the name of tolerance.

The usual flash mob formed to show others that there is no mercy for anyone who even glances kindly in the direction of J.K. Rowling. As one site stated:

“Yes, we are talking of none other than author Judy Blume – who used to be widely loved and admired until she is believed to have joined the coterie of public figures famous for attracting an enormous amount of media attention for their overtly non-inclusive opinions.”

Blume went into panic mode and immediately issued a pleading statement that her words were taken out of context and that she stands with transgender rights. It did not help with some who said that she picked a side.

Blume has continued to cite her liberal bona fides, including opposing laws by Ron DeSantis. However, she misses the point. People like Rowling are being used as warnings to others.

That is the case even in institutions of higher learning, which were once bastions of free speech. As shown in the recent assault on Riley Gaines, university officials today find it difficult to even condemn the disruption of events and the alleged assault on those tagged as TERFs.

Just last week, a trans protester at the University of Washington was shown turning over a table of conservatives:

The activist is shown clearly heading into one of the school buildings. However, the university declined requests for comments. If this was a pro-choice or anti-gun or BLM table, would the university be so circumspect in announcing an investigation or pledging action?

At schools like Yale, students are denouncing even the notion of civility toward those with opposing views on issues like abortion and are questioning why universities allow such views to be tolerated on campuses.

These incidents obviously add to the environment of intolerance and danger for those with opposing views. But that is the point. It is the effort to create a chilling effect on others.

That is why the treatment of Judy Blume is so notable. She is useful as a “teachable moment” for those who may have errant thoughts precisely because her statement was so mild. It is a warning that any quarter or consideration given to blacklisted artists or writers will put you on the same list.

We have seen the same McCarthy-like tactics used by members of Congress in seeking to deter anyone from looking into government-supported censorship. Witnesses who testified about the dangers of such censorship efforts were denounced as “Putin lovers” and apologists for insurrectionists and racists by leading Democrats.

Blume is now on the list. As noted by writer Jayasmita Dutta Roy, “her name is now irrevocably etched in the list of ‘controversial’ figures.” She is now the subject of a liberal version of the disarming charm, Expelliarmus.

53 thoughts on “Expelliarmus: Pro-Transgender Author Judy Blume is Denounced for Expressing Support for J.K. Rowling”

  2. The Oz fellowship of brainless and heartless people who encourage mental illness in the young and normalize it elsewhere are an intolerant clan of beasts who attack contrary thinkers with a fury akin to a pack of wolves tearing apart one of their own when they scent blood.

  3. “The idea is to immediately pile on any prominent person who breaks from the narrative on issues ranging from systemic racism to transgender rights to the pandemic.”

    – Professor Turley
    ______________

    THE LINCOLN EFFECT

    You just said that. That was the lesson that Lincoln and Karl Marx taught America: Nullify and violate the law, “pile on” and impose your illicit beliefs by force (i.e. seize power, smash printing presses, jail opponents, start a war, kill one million Americans, pass amendments with a gun to America’s head). America will never recover from the “Lincoln Apocalypse” until his crimes of unconstitutional denial of legal secession, seizure of power, commencement of war against a sovereign foreign nation, suspension of habeas corpus, “fundamental transformation” of America from freedom to Marx’s communism, and forcible imposition of improperly ratified “RECONSTRUCTION Amendments,” etc., are prosecuted, resolved and corrected, placing America back on the Constitution and Bill of Rights – placing America back in freedom. Reprehensible slavery must have been ended legally and extant immigration law must have been comprehensively enforced. Lincoln threw the baby out with the bathwater; Lincoln threw the Constitution out with reproachable slavery, illegally, unconstitutionally and treasonously leaving an adverse, three million-man, foreign, standing army on American soil.

    “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”

    – Sir Walter Scott, 1808
    ___________________

    “Was Lincoln Really Into Marx?”

    Did Abraham Lincoln share a common economic vision with Karl Marx?

    That’s the thesis of a recent article in the Washington Post, which claims that the 16th president and the socialist philosopher “were friendly and influenced each other.” According to an essay by Gillian Brockell, “Lincoln was regularly reading Karl Marx” and appears to have adapted a Marxist conceptualization of the labor-capital relationship to the discussion of slavery in his first annual message to Congress.

    – Phillip W. Magness, AIER, July 30, 2019

      1. #ICYMI

        Above:

        “Reprehensible slavery must have been ended legally and extant immigration law must have been comprehensively enforced. Lincoln threw the baby out with the bathwater; Lincoln threw the Constitution out with reproachable slavery.”

      2. Lincoln’s Support for Resettlement

        Lincoln’s ideological mentor was Henry Clay, the eminent American scholar, diplomat, and statesman. Because of his skill in the US Senate and House of Representatives, Clay won national acclaim as the “Great Compromiser” and the “Great Pacificator.” A slave owner who had humane regard for blacks, he was prominent in the campaign to resettle free blacks outside of the United States, and served as president of the American Colonization Society. Lincoln joined Clay’s embryonic Whig party during the 1830s. In an address given in 1858, Lincoln described Clay as “my beau ideal of a statesman, the man for whom I fought all of my humble life.”14

        The depth of Lincoln’s devotion to Clay and his ideals was expressed in a moving eulogy delivered in July 1852 in Springfield, Illinois. After praising Clay’s lifelong devotion to the cause of black resettlement, Lincoln quoted approvingly from a speech given by Clay in 1827: “There is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her children,” adding that if Africa offered no refuge, blacks could be sent to another tropical land. Lincoln concluded:15

        If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery, and, at the same time, in restoring a captive people to their long-lost fatherland, with bright prospects for the future, and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation.

        In January 1855, Lincoln addressed a meeting of the Illinois branch of the Colonization Society. The surviving outline of his speech suggests that it consisted largely of a well-informed and sympathetic account of the history of the resettlement campaign.16

        In supporting “colonization” of the blacks, a plan that might be regarded as a “final solution” to the nation’s race question, Lincoln was upholding the views of some of America’s most respected figures.

        – Robert Morgan, The Journal of Historical Review, Sept.-Oct. 1993 (Vol. 13, No. 5), pages 4-25.

      3. If there is one thing about America that I have absolutely no desire for and fervently wish would have never happened, it is slavery.

        The African tribal chiefs and Arab slave traders were highly skilled; they “knew” marketing.
        _______________________________________________________________________

        “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

        – Thomas Tusser

    2. George, working yourself up in a hate filled rant over whether you think Lincoln had the right to preserve the Constitution by preserving the Union, will not end with going back in history and changing the whole thing. That war was litigated in blood and it is over now and forever. Robert E, Lee hated the dissolution of the Union. He thought fighting for slavery (and yes, it WAS all about retaining and spreading slavery) was one of the worst causes any war was ever fought over. He joined the South to keep from having to kill his family members and friends who had joined the South. He didn’t want to hang his own sons who were generals (fortunately, Lincoln refused to allow the hangings after Lee’s surrender – Lee said he surrendered to Lincoln’s goodness as well as his justice). He freed his own slaves in 1862 that he had inherited from his father-in-law (George Washington’s grandson) in 1858. And of coarse, the South did in fact fire the first shot and seized Federal property, These threats of succession went way back to the Founders, on that you are right. Many compromises occurred over the years, but it was done to prevent war – the inevitable aftermath of the dissolution of the country. And stop with the Karl Marx crap – Lincoln was a proud capitalist! There are many great books on Lincoln, Lee, Grant and that whole period. Start reading!

  4. This incident should be a warning to you, JT. No matter how liberal you are on issues not involving freedom of speech sh@@libs consider you a nazi too.

    The Church of Woke is a church with no salvation.

    antonio

  5. History tends to repeat itself

    Here we go again. National Guard 21 year old private Jack Teixeira got hold of top secret data & published them. I suspect Jack will want a sex change while in prison at taxpayers expense. Just like private Bradley Manning who is now Chelsea Manning.

    This represents a hitherto unknown type of lustful outburst, for which we have no complete satisfactory physical explanation.

  7. “[W]ould the university be so circumspect in announcing an investigation or pledging action?”

    If officials keep refusing to punish such barbaric and violent behavior, good people will begin to defend themselves, and to exact their own revenge. The result will not be pretty. And that result will be on the shoulders of those who are too cowardly to do their jobs.

  8. Bravo Professor Turley! This post today should be required reading for all high school students and college freshmen, followed by open discussion.

    1. Lin, bccareful of that open discussion part. Some of these you people today are very sensitive.

  9. These screamers are not liberals. The rage machine has gone far past what liberalism is or professed to be. Real liberals are still around and they are still many who inhabit the Democratic Party. The problem is they keep their heads down too often instead of defending true liberalism from the “progressives”. Or giving any appropriate pushback. I used to enjoy talking and debating my liberal friends but they seem hard to find anymore. I know that they are still there but they have fallen quiet and seem to scurry from safe bunker to safe bunker in hopes of not being noticed less they be accused and thereby condemned to progressive hell.
    They look for help and republicans could help and recruit these liberals if the move away from Trump but still pursue many of his policies. People like Desantis, Haley, Scott and Pompeo could accomplish as much or more than Trump ever did just by leaving his Toxic baggage train and personality in the rear view mirror. I think that is the true message in Desantis’ re-election last year and the loss of many trump clones that Trump picked or supported.
    Moderate personality, achievable goals, superior organization, fact based, meet hysterics in progressives and the MSM with humor, facts, and total message control. Something Trump has never mastered.
    Written by a Trump voter in 2016 and 2020. I’m tired of cringing every time my former candidate opened his big mouth.
    Republicans can turn this around but you have to achieve power and cut off the finances and resources that fuel this age of rage and intolerance. Trump does not have enough acolytes or political organization to accomplish this even if he pulled another miracle and won.
    Lastly a significant development at Cornell University as to civility, speaking and dealing with those who disrupt. Need to see more of that.

    1. Without Trump, the GOPe will lose anyway. WHAT do they STAND for?? All we see is them caving to the Progressive MOB everytime.

  10. Blume and Rowlings have bank accounts that allow them to survive even after expressing opinions counter to the leftist transgenderism ideology. Less well-off authors are dragged through shards of glass and ruined if they don’t toe the line on woke ideology. Even dead authors’ works are subjected to woke revisionism.

    Interesting (and terribly sad) statistic out of a 30-year Swedish study, the largest dataset–people who undergo mutilating surgery in the name of gender re-assignment are 19 times more likely to commit suicide. The study found that those that underwent treatment were just as unhappy as before, namely, there was no resolution. And that data set does not include an at-risk demographic that was nearly absent from the data set before recently–teen girls. It’s so cool to be trans now and the majority of this newest demographic to seek these mostly irreversible changes are middle and upper middle class white girls. When foist upon teens and children, it is child abuse and Washington state will soon be the biggest purveyor of this abhorrent medical treatment on children and teens, even without parental consent.

    What is so frightening is how any concerns expressed about subjecting children and teens to this practice is called a “war on trans.” Where are we headed with this, especially now that the UN is pushing for the decriminalization of adult sex with minors? I shudder to think.

    1. As a result of these “treatments” (puberty blockers and radical surgery), you wind up with a perpetual child who looks sort of like an adolescent boy. Who do you think wants this? There is someone at that school, that doctor’s office, or that home who needs to have their computer hard drive examined.

  11. Watch as our little fascist liberals, Svelaz, “Anonymous” and Dennis McIntyre come here to scream that Florida is banning books (because they forbid porn in kids libraries).

    The “Trans Movement” will peter out (apologies) quickly even though it is one of the most aggressive “movements” we have had to deal with in a long time. This façade is not sustainable, too many people find it abhorrent that they are going after the children and the more publicity they garner the less they will appeal to the masses.

    SNL had some sort of “non-binary” cast member (it’s first, ooh, pinch me) come on last weekend to do an asinine bit about “saving the children” and I guarantee you it was not a hit among anyone except the fringe young left.

    Hey gay folks, how about speaking out against a “movement” that is trying to erase you? If any gay guy or lesbian should change their sex then it would leave us without any more gay men or women? Hey gay folks, how do you feel about this “movement” demanding that kids be mutilated prior to deciding to just be a gay adult?

    Gays and women need to speak up, but so far the far left has made doing so a mortal sin.

    1. Andrew Sullivan has been clear in his concern about the trans movement.

      I hope you are right about the rapid demise of this, but I doubt it. There are substantial financial, career and ideological interests behind it. In particular, the medical profession and pharmaceutical companies profit enormously, and the DEI commissars have a further mission. And the Democrats seemingly have gone all in. Finally, the K-12 educational bureaucracy is on board.

      So like climate change catastrophism and the neo-racist practices of CRT, there are now concrete interests behind this. It will not be dislodged easily.

      1. Daniel: Your last paragraph is soooo succinctly true; unfortunately, many young minds are unaware of the true motivation behind those “concrete interests.”

      2. I think it appropriate to quote Sullivan and the challenges these women now go through. It is not a minor inconvenience, and they didn’t have surgery.

        The net plays a part. What part does TikTok play?
        —-

        “These women live every day with the consequences of their decision: tenacious facial hair (one has to shave every three days) and body hair, deeper voices, permanently enlarged clitorises. They also suffer from the effects of “binding,” i.e. wearing a breast corset of sorts, to flatten their chests, so they can pass more easily as men. “I have back issues, lower lung capacity, and permanent dents around my shoulders,” one told me. “Every now and again, I have to push a rib back in to breathe,” another recounts. “I have permanent bruising,” another explains. “Serious back issues,” says another, who cannot carry a backpack for long without pain.”

        https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html

      3. Daniel,
        Great comment.
        While maybe not in the short term as HullBobby suggests, but maybe in the long term as you do, this movement will fail.

        Side note, I see the usual leftists are whining and crying the good professor does not post articles they want to see.

  12. Judy is a coward. J.K. Is not. I have had personal dealings with some of the folks that are discussed in these stories, and I can tell you also that one of these women is an insufferable human being in general, and they are not the one that wrote Harry Potter.

    All of these ‘liberals’ screeching to defend their street cred to avoid being cancelled by children are lacking that one thing that was hallmark to classical libs like the Professor and J.K. – a spine.

  13. I am a proud TERF! I was never a radical feminist until they all disappeared on the stage of defending women in society. Go figure—now I am one.

  15. This “transgender movement” will age about as well as East-German athletes, with the all-important difference that only a small number of communist athletes were harmed or exploited.

    Transgenderism actually only affects 0.5% of the population, but 20% of young people have been brainwashed by media and academia into believing they might be transgender; thus, the potential for permanent medical harm is off the charts.

    When young people hit 25 and their characters and personalities start to stabilize, if millions of them have been permanently scarred by virtue signaling with their bodies, they will want to blame somebody, and unfortunately, those somebodys will deserve it.

    Good luck with that.

      1. Thanks, Lin. If the Democrats don’t install their one-party dictatorship, they’ll have hell to pay.

    3. According to Professor Paul McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins, transgenderism is a mental illness. Most (90-95%) transgender people ‘grow over it’ when they become adults, about 25 years old. For that reason, so-called gender confirming surgery before the age of 25 is medical malpractice.
      A recent study by the Williams Institute (UCLA) estimates that 1.6 Million people in the US, ages 13+ consider themselves to be transgender, which is 0.6% of all people 13+ of age. Among adults, 0.5% or 1.3 Million is transgender; among 13-17-year olds, 1.4% or 300.000 are transgender.
      That it higher under young people may very well be caused by the continuous celebration of transgenderism and the encouragement to identify as such (it is cool to be transgender). Encouraging mental illness is by all standards an absurd practice.
      Good psychiatric help is the best approach for those suffering from gender dysphoria. Early surgery backfires when at adulthood someone no longer identifies as the opposite sex of his/her ‘birth sex.’ The suicide rate among transgenders is 19 times higher than he US average. That is to some extent caused by the celebration and encouragement and lack of proper medical attention.
      Diogenes is correct that there is a lot of money to be made by pharma and medical specialists performing the unnecessary surgery. Unfortunately, a rational conversation is impossible with the radical ‘progressives’ (regressives would be a more appropriate classification) and as a result these people do not receive the help they need. It is a shame.
      Indeed, the doctors and pharma make the money now; the lawyers make the money in the future when the no-longer transgenders sue the hell out of them.

      1. Outstanding comment, DoubleDutch. The first two sentences should be a warning label tattooed on the forehead of every gender activist, just like on cigarettes.

  16. What our 21st century cancel culture is engaging in is pure unadulterated persecution. Persecution using both social and physical acts is exactly what the brown-shirts did as the Nazi’s rose to power in the 1930’s.

    Persecution: hostility and ill-treatment, especially on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or political & social beliefs.

    1. RE :”What our 21st century cancel culture is engaging in.” ….and being supported by the institutions which one would hope to stand as a bulwark again it. But NO!! The backlash against ‘Mickey’ and the ‘Beer’ gambits should serve as a warning.

  17. Blume went into panic mode and immediately issued a pleading statement that her words were taken out of context and that she stands with transgender rights. It did not help with some who said that she picked a side.

    Blume gets the same treatment as Turley

    The extreme trans activists confuse standing on principle. Taking the side of right, not whatever some radical leftists are pushing at the moment.

    Turley is labled a Trump supporter, when all he ever does is standup for the Constitution and rule of law.

    Leftists make enemies of anyone that supports principles instead of people. “Blind” Justice has no place it leftist propaganda.

    1. I support the right of J.K Rowling, Judy Blume, Riley Gaines, and all others who exercise free speech, and I denounce those who use trans rights as a cudgel to silence others.

      1. I just bought Hogwarts Legacy (one for PC and one for ps5) to show my support for her.

    2. iowan2: Again, great comment. I add that unlike Blume, Turley does not feel the need to apologize, explain, modify, or rescind his writing…(Blume’s response may have been affected by pecuniary considerations/self-interest)….

  18. RE: Reminds me of the backlash when Bob Dylan went electric. The ‘Movement’ had lost its hero and the bands played on. .

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