Ok, then they demonstrably don’t apply at all. That is a reasonable viewpoint - whilst any man is a slave, none are free. The cold reality is that some people are vastly more free than others, and we are not equals. Capitalism alone ensures that.
If that’s your honest view, you need to stop complaining and you need to admit Obama etc. are wrong, because if they were genuinely being hurt, laws would be protecting them, but they’re not.
The inverse also applies - if they are being hurt, but laws aren’t protecting them, then the same necessarily applies to others. So you are wrong either way. There’s no way out of that.
The reality is that a bunch of OAPs and nearly-OAPs, pretty much all 55+, have got upset because people under that age, have had enough of their ridiculous bullshit, and have decided to vote with their wallets. Because we live in a capitalist society, and because people below 55 spend way more money than people over 55 (even though people over 55 are vastly richer, they don’t spend it, and apparently they don’t intend to change that behaviour), that means that the incomes of these aging jerks and their buddies are declining (OH NO) and they’re getting very antsy about it
Just look at the ages of the people who signed that letter. Go on, look them up. The vast majority are over 55, and almost none are under 40. Most of them are non-entities, so it can’t be only important people. It’s a generation gap. How old are you I wonder? Upper end of 40? Early 50s? You speak like someone who is at the end of their career, not the start, and was it you who had talked about taking “early retirement”? If so maybe meditate on whether you are simply part of a different generation. The benefit is you get to tell us to “get off your lawn” and complain about “kids today”, so it’s not all bad! The downside is, we can ignore you.
Screenshot or it didn’t happen.
Seriously, give your examples of “extreme ostracization”, and explain how they’re not just people voting with their wallets, and then companies reacting to people voting with their wallets. This is literally an extreme claim. It requires evidence. You have provided none.
All I’ve seen is a bunch of aging, self-regarding celebs and some rando academics getting sad because people don’t think they’re cool anymore.
At what point will you change your mind? When she likes a tweet espousing violence against trans people? Because she’s already done that. I believe the tweet eventually got deleted by the author but…
What about her cutting off Steven King, after praising him for his feminism, and after him helping her to become as successful as she is? She’s complaining about silencing, and she cut him off for just saying “Trans women are women”. At best she’s a complete hypocrit to sign this letter.
This is all a bunch of nonsense. Deplatforming isn’t real. It’s just a whingy thing snowflake-types complain about when someone decides not to book them, or cancels their university speaking gig. Here’s the thing, buddy, you don’t have a right to be paid money by universities to speak. You don’t have a right to be invited on TV shows, which overrides their desire to invite you. If that was a right, everyone would have it, not just a few smug rich people. If no-one wants to book you, it doesn’t matter if it’s because you’re a bigot, a kiddy-fiddler, a moron, or just boring-as-fuck, you don’t get to demand to be booked.
Likewise, you don’t have a right to make people buy your books. You’re crying about people “losing their livelihood”? Are you opposed to capitalism? You’re calling for some kind of weird communism-capitalism hybrid where we’re forced to buy the books of shit celebrities? If I don’t want to buy shitty books, I shouldn’t have to buy them - this letter essentially says I should have to. It says I shouldn’t be allowed to say “I’m not buying your books because you suck”. You support that? Seriously?
Wake up. That’s what Rowling is complaining about - people not wanting to buy her books. She wants to make it’s not socially acceptable to not buy her books. The problem is voting with our wallets IS WORKING. That’s why these OAPs are so upset. They’re used to being on the gravy-train, or their mates are, and now people under about 55-ish are beginning to want to not buy their shit (it really seems to that the cut-off point is very close to that - look at the letter - almost no-one under 55 signed it - almost no-one over 80 did either - this is mostly a specific generation - Boomers, with some old Gen Xers and underage GGs too).