I was certainly not defending her. She is, as you say, egregious in part because when she was called out she refused to reflect. I was more talking in the general sense. The world sucks right now, but we are quick to attack people on their views without granting them opportunity to change.

I call this out because of the trend of ‘leopards-eating-faces’ kind of jokes. When the leopards eat your face, you might notice they were not friendly to begin with and the rest of civilization can welcome you back instead of mocking you; or they can mock you and you will feel isolated and defensive and the other bigots will welcome and validate you instead.

I want to caution about reading -isms into authors works. People often don’t really know their own stereotyping unless it’s pointed out (you, dear reader, probably have some problematic world views that no one has noticed or mentioned…). The fallout afterwards is where the problems exist, when someone doubles down on their viewpoints after being informed of them.

Rowling has clearly done that and is dismissed because of it. I will avoid things that give her a platform, and the original art itself is tainted due to her continued stances; but, back to the general case, just because art might be racist or antisemitic, etc., at the time of creation, if the artist can be convinced that their views are wrong, we should celebrate that – just with footnotes and context.

I’d wager that women are taught to be aware of their surroundings for safety and men just don’t ever get told, so unless there’s an experience that teaches them, they tunnel vision.

Teaching situational awareness seems to be something that is lacking. Similar to critical thinking, I believe that there are skills we sometimes just don’t get taught by our parents or natural experiences. These are things we hopefully learn over time, but having them called out while we develop isn’t happening (I blame screens, but it’s nuanced).

I tend to monologue to my kids when doing routine things, like loading the dishwasher (There’s a big bowl over there that I need to save room for…) or driving (I can see a car on the on-ramp, it will want to be where I am in a few seconds, so I’m adjusting my speed); just pointing out things around me that have either a real impact or a potential one and why those items came to my attention.

This was an interesting article. I’m not a service provider, nor in the EU, so I have little personal exposure to this change. I like the customer freedom it will probably provide me as splash damage, though.

The thing I really want to call out is the tone of the article: “This thing we relied on is going away. Instead of gnashing your teeth and being mad, here’s how to leverage it to make your offering more attractive than your competition.”

not a locksmith, but…

One of those candidates for ‘worst memorable phrase in history’ is the old “duct-tape for things that move and shouldn’t and wd-40 for things that should move and don’t”.

WD-40 isn’t a lubricant. It often works to get something un-stuck, but then you need to still clean and lubricate the parts to keep it working.