J.K. Rowling lets anti-Trump bias get in the way of facts
Let the J.K. Rowling story serve as a lesson for how the severe anti-Trump sentiment that’s still going strong in progressive culture can blind us to basic facts.
The Harry Potter author has now apologized for tweets she issued criticizing the president for avoiding shaking the hand of a disabled boy in a wheelchair as he and his family visited the White House.
“How stunning, and how horrible, that Trump cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the President,” she posted on Friday, among other remarks.
The problem is it just wasn’t true. There was one video clip doing the rounds of the president shaking hands with all of the people around Montgomery Weer, the three-year-old with spina bifida, but not with the boy himself. But that was only because, as the full clip shows, he’d already been to see the boy. As soon as he entered the room, Trump went straight to Weer and spent more time with him than anyone else.
As a celebrity occasionally followed by paparazzi herself, Rowling should know all too well that you can’t judge a full scene by one freeze frame or snippet. Then again, judgment isn’t really the issue here, is it? It wasn’t about accurately judging what happened. It was about Rowling seeing what she wanted to see.
“That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilised norms are having a corrosive effect,” Rowling also posted.
She’s basically admitting she’s looking for things to get outraged by on a daily basis.
This whole silly fiasco reminded me of teacher Nikos Giannopoulos’ recent visit to the White House. Back in June, Trump hosted every state’s teacher of the year – and special education teacher Giannopolous was there as Rhode Island’s pick.
“Bold, Gay Teacher Of The Year Photo Bombs Donald Trump With Fan” read a Huffington Post headline. The thrust of the news write ups and online commentary was that Trump is some sort of intolerant, homophobic man who was taught a lesson by Giannopoulos being flamboyant and holding a fan in his presence.
Meanwhile, in the story the teacher acknowledges that Trump complimented his style and they got along well. Trump and his wife Melania were of course perfectly comfortable with Giannopoulos, as any socialites who’ve done the Manhattan progressive cocktail circuit would be.
The truth — although I’m aware few people are interested in that this day and age — is that Trump is one of the most socially liberal presidents ever and beats out his predecessor on select issues as well. (Obama publicly opposed gay marriage in the run-up to his presidency, something Trump never did.) The American political system faces a number of very real challenges, ranging from their attempts to overhaul healthcare to an emboldened North Korea.
But lazy onlookers like Rowling avoid these complicated issues in favour of the lowhanging fruit of obsessing over Trump’s tweets or off-colour remarks. And then we spend more time talking about these nonscandals than we do about the real issues.
For all of the calls for Trump to stop tweeting, his critics should consider doing the same.