J.K. Rowling is going head-to-head with fellow Brit John Oliver.
The "Harry Potter" series author slammed John Oliver for his comments on "Last Week Tonight," in which he addressed misinformation spread around trans athletes in high school during the 2024 election cycle. The British author, who has been vocal about her views on transgender people, blasted Oliver, stating he enjoyed seeing women suffer in support of an "elitist post-modern ideology.”
On his HBO show, Oliver said, “There are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere. Even if there were more, trans kids — like all kids — vary in athletic ability and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness.”
Rowling said on X she struggled to argue against Oliver because he supported her charity, Lumos. But that didn't stop the writer from stating her opinion opposing Oliver. She continued to call Oliver “an undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bull***t to support something he wants to be true, but isn’t.”
“Again and again I’ve come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points,” she said. “With a straight face, the ‘believe the science’ guys will say ‘actually, we don’t yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls’. The ‘be kind’ crew can’t see what the issue is.”
Rowling continued that people like Oliver “indemnify themselves against repercussions from cultural elites in the media, academia and publishing who’ve showed themselves more than ready to kick people to the kerb for failing to mouth the approved mantras – people with a lot to lose are currently prepared to make idiots of themselves.”
Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video's for you. An undoubtedly intelligent… https://t.co/3IS4onzXq0
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 17, 2024
HBO, who is developing Rowling's new "Harry Potter" series and the home of Oliver's "Last Week Tonight," has not commented on the incident.
