“I thought, why is this a factor at all? I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her and I’m curious to talk to her," the actor said of the author, who has been slammed for her anti-trans comments.
I love John Lithgow as an actor but his reasoning here is horse shit.
First of all, the article’s justification for Roald Dahl being an anti-Semite is his family apologizing for his anti-Semitic statements 30 years after he died. Meaning that money from any of Dahl’s work would go to Dahl’s estate / family, the people who apologized for his anti-Semitism, not the man who is claimed to be anti-Semitic.
Secondly, the play that he was in wasn’t even written by Roald Dahl and didn’t benefit his estate, it was in fact, a play written by a Jewish playwright about Roald Dahl.
Thirdly, that play was written explicitly to address his anti-semitism. It would be like acting in a play about JK Rowling’s anti-trans crusade that in no way financially benefits her, this is clearly not the same thing.
And finally, on top of all that, from everything I can find, the accusation of Roald Dahl being anti-Semitic originally surfaced because of anti-Israel statements that he made in a book review after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. There was one follow up interview where he made some comments that do seem, quite frankly mildly anti-Jewish, but again, this is in the context of a 67 year old world war 2 vet expressing his anger about Israel turning from victims into aggressors. And that was it.
He didn’t campaign against Jews, he didn’t get any anti-Jewish laws passed, he didn’t spread anti-Jewish hysteria, and it was never something he dedicated any actual time to writing about.
The situation between appearing in that Dahl play and appearing in Harry Potter is not remotely comparable.
In 1983, he announced in the New Statesman that Hitler had his reasons for exterminating six million men, women and children. “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity,” he said. “I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”
That’s… pretty fucking anti-semitic ngl. He’s basically victim-blaming Jewish people for the Holocaust. Also “picking on them” is quite a eufemism for “industrially genociding”.
That’s got nothing to do with zionism or being anti-Israel.
I love John Lithgow as an actor but his reasoning here is horse shit.
First of all, the article’s justification for Roald Dahl being an anti-Semite is his family apologizing for his anti-Semitic statements 30 years after he died. Meaning that money from any of Dahl’s work would go to Dahl’s estate / family, the people who apologized for his anti-Semitism, not the man who is claimed to be anti-Semitic.
Secondly, the play that he was in wasn’t even written by Roald Dahl and didn’t benefit his estate, it was in fact, a play written by a Jewish playwright about Roald Dahl.
Thirdly, that play was written explicitly to address his anti-semitism. It would be like acting in a play about JK Rowling’s anti-trans crusade that in no way financially benefits her, this is clearly not the same thing.
And finally, on top of all that, from everything I can find, the accusation of Roald Dahl being anti-Semitic originally surfaced because of anti-Israel statements that he made in a book review after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. There was one follow up interview where he made some comments that do seem, quite frankly mildly anti-Jewish, but again, this is in the context of a 67 year old world war 2 vet expressing his anger about Israel turning from victims into aggressors. And that was it.
He didn’t campaign against Jews, he didn’t get any anti-Jewish laws passed, he didn’t spread anti-Jewish hysteria, and it was never something he dedicated any actual time to writing about.
The situation between appearing in that Dahl play and appearing in Harry Potter is not remotely comparable.
I was with you till you started excusing and rationalizing anti semitism
Huh, weird, not sure where you read that, maybe you meant to reply to someone else?
I think it’s more a case of yet again calling everything and everyone anti semitic
What specifically did he say that was rationalizing anti-semitism?
Is it your belief that all anti-Zionism is anti-semitism?
Not the guy you replied to, but:
That’s… pretty fucking anti-semitic ngl. He’s basically victim-blaming Jewish people for the Holocaust. Also “picking on them” is quite a eufemism for “industrially genociding”.
That’s got nothing to do with zionism or being anti-Israel.
Yep that’s pretty fucking horrific.
I think that’s case closed.
If we’re done here can you turn off the lights on your way out?