J.K. Rowling says her "personal red line" with regard to free speech is "Alex Jones and Sandy Hook" as she reacts to Charlie Kirk's death

Author J.K. Rowling has shared her thoughts about free speech in light of Charlie Kirk’s death.

On September 12, she shared an X post, explaining how she perceived certain political terminology.

She said that if someone wanted free speech only for themselves and not for people who disagreed with them, then they were not truly supporting freedom. She also said that if no amount of proof could change what a person believed, then that person was being close-minded like a strict fundamentalist. J.K. Rowling’s post went on:

“If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you're a totalitarian. If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you're a terrorist.”

Meanwhile, an X user commented below her post, asking:

“Do you think free speech should have any limits or is it truly absolute?”

J.K. Rowling replied:

“My personal red line is probably Alex Jones and Sandy Hook. In lying about what happened to those children he knowingly incited retribution against grieving families. He exacerbated those parents' trauma in service of his own brand. I find that indefensible.”

For the uninitiated, in 2012, a shooting incident happened at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. At the time, radio host Alex Jones claimed that it wasn’t an actual shooting but a staged one and called it a hoax. Following that, a defamation suit was filed against him by the parents of one of the children who lost their life in the incident.

When the suit was brought against him, Jones said it was an attack on his right to free speech. However, according to a BBC report from August 2022, he said:

“Especially since I've met the parents. It's 100% real. They [the media] won't let me take it back.”

Here’s how netizens reacted to J.K. Rowling’s X post

J.K. Rowling’s recent X post also met with criticism from the online community. One netizen reshared the post, asking her not to speak on such matters, especially when she allegedly wanted fatal harm to people who were expressive of their gender identity.

Rowling shared a screengrab of the comment on her X, writing:

“I’m sure you can back up that assertion with a quote of mine, because otherwise it might look like you’re exactly the kind of person I’m describing: fixed beliefs, zero evidence, inventing grievances to justify a desire to silence people who say things you don’t like.”

In J.K. Rowling's original post, one X user commented that they felt a heavy sadness. They couldn’t understand why the death of someone they never knew, and often disagreed with, upset them so much. They also didn’t know why the thoughts of a writer in Scotland, who created great stories, mattered to them.

They wondered how they could go back to having conversations with people who would celebrate their death. Even though they had already faced terrorist attacks, hurricanes, and losing loved ones, this still felt harder than expected.

J.K. Rowling replied, calling them an empathetic person who did not have to agree with everyone. She wrote that despite the absence of being familiar with someone, one could still feel a loss, especially when someone loses their life in a violent act.

Also read: "He built a real machine that was fixing this country": Podcaster Tim Pool grieves the death of his friend Charlie Kirk

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback