I watched two video essays recently and it got me thinking...

Question

It's fascinating to watch discourse slowly shift in real time. (Council of Geeks, "It's time to stop asking "Was Harry Potter ever good?"" and Willow Talks Books, "Romantasy Books are Toxic, Lazy, Conservative Propaganda")

I've lived to see Harry Potter be regarded as untouchable gem, to being ruthlessly picked apart for evidence of Rowling's flawed ideology, and now seeing a shift into being critical of the very act of that picking apart. Went from romantasy being a laughingstock and punchline, to being ruthlessly defended on the internet under the guise of feminism and defending women's sexuality/fantasies, to now being more seriously criticized, turned against, and lose popularity for its toxic aspects in a more mature way.

I know it's not a unique or surprising phenomenon that public opinion morphs and changes, but I'm still fascinated by watching it, and particularly by watching it build on top of itself. Romantasy started with being criticized, then to being defended, and back to being criticized, but it's not being criticized *in the same way* that it initially was. Lessons were learned through the shifts in popular opinion. I've gone through similar personal cycles, where I start out believing something, then spend a phase largely rejecting and critiquing it, before eventually believing in it once again, but this time for much stronger and more informed reasons. And maybe it won't even stop there, maybe it'll keep cycling, but now I'm more aware of those cycles and can watch them happen in real time to a certain extent.

It's like that one bell curve meme where the "idiot" and the "wise monk" on opposite ends have the same opinion while the guy in the middle has a different opinion. Of course, meme are reductive and this isn't always the case that you return to old opinions you had when less informed, but it does happen *sometimes* and it's interesting to explore it when it happens.

And I think the lesson to take is that there is a balance between having an open mind and having strong convictions. You should be open to accepting that you could be wrong, especially when it seems like so many people disagree with you... but if you genuinely don't believe you've actually been *given* any good reason to feel that you are wrong, it's also not inherently immoral to hold an unpopular opinion and refuse to change on it. It's up to all of us to decide on a case-by-case basis. In the long-term, you may even be proven right... or wrong, but only time will tell.

Maru · Accepted Answer

Very astute (and important) points

I watched two video essays recently and it got me thinking...

Books Community

Very astute (and important) points

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