An incredible, awesome video posted to X on February 3 shows a young student accusing “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling, a noted critic of some aspects of the transgender movement, a “bigot,” then getting challenged on that viewpoint and changing his mind when pressed on it.
In the video, the student, who is off camera when the clip starts, asserts that the author is “transphobic.” Continuing, the student presses the teacher on Rowling’s alleged “bigotry” and asking the on-camera teacher whether that “bigotry” changed his opinions on her work. Instead of backing down or responding with outrage, the teacher responded by turning the accusatory question into a learning moment.
Doing so, the teacher asked the student to explain what reasons he had for thinking that Rowling is “bigoted” and “transphobic.” The student first retreated somewhat, saying that his claim was based on other claims from other people. Then, building some outrage momentum back up, he went to Rowling’s X feed and started reading a post.
Rowling, in the tweet at issue, was defending the free speech rights of those who disagree with some of the claims of the transgender activists. In the post, she said, “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?”
The teacher then took the opportunity to press home the point that what others say isn’t always true. Drawing out of the student that the supposedly offensive tweet wasn’t actually offensive, the teacher asked, “So you find that bigoted?” The student again retreated to the “other people said so” defense, saying, “I’m just going with what a lot of other people have said.” He also admitted that he didn’t find the X post problematic.
So, the teacher made it a learning moment. Encouraging critical thinking and doing research, rather than blindly believing the accusations of others, he said, “Do you think it’s fair that there’s a – that she’s being attacked by a large group of people, people are calling her like you said at the beginning of this conversation, you said, ‘Given the fact that J.K. Rowling is transphobic, how do you feel about Harry Potter?’ Now, retroactively looking at that statement, do you think that was the best way to phrase that?” Laughing, the student admitted, “No, I feel like an idiot.”
Posting the video on X, political commentator Lee Harris said, “This is utterly brilliant. A student accuses
@jk_rowling of being transphobic. This teacher skilfully dissects the claim and challenges it by asking questions. He teaches not what to think, but how to think critically. Watch until the end. You see the epiphany in real-time.” Check out the video here:
As the video has gotten more than 42 million views as of the time this article was written, hopefully at least some of those who watch it take the opportunity to think about using common sense, critical thinking, and personal intuition to escape the thoughtcrime prison created by the cancel culture types.
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