[HPforGrownups] Ton-tongue Dudley

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 145340

Bruce:

> Did they force the toffee down his throat?  No, they did not.  Dudley 
> picked it
> up and ate it of his own free will and accord.  I'm sure that Petunia told 
> him
> not to take candy from strangers. Dudley has been taught all his life to 
> fear
> and hate magic, yet when a couple of wizards throw some candy his way, 
> does he
> leave it there, or throw it away, or otherwise avoid it?  No, he does not; 
> he
> shoves it into his fat, greedy mouth.  He has nobody to thank for what 
> happened
> but his own gluttonous self.  Perhaps he'll think twice before doing 
> something
> like that again, and anything that will get Dudley to think about anything 
> is an
> improvement.

>How is it inappropriate to treat contemptible people >with contempt?

Magpie:

Um, well, that would probably be the bully response, that it was the 
victim's fault--as if the twins' intentionally dropping the candy there so 
that someone would pick it up and eat it means nothing in the face of 
someone falling for the trap--but it doesn't speak to Betsy's or Arthur's 
point which is that pranking Muggles/Muggle-baiting is bad news and 
something he tries to stop.  If a kid who's been taught to not talk to 
strangers gets picked up in the mall by a child molester that doesn't make 
it the kid's fault if he's attacked. Even if the kid's a contemptible brat 
in the eyes of the attacker.  If a kid walks home down a street he's been 
told to avoid because a bully lives there and he gets beaten up by the bully 
the bully is still the one responsible for the beating.  A "willing" victim 
doesn't make the aggressor less responsibile for his own actions.

I understand that plenty of people are fine with the twins' joke here, and 
that's fine with me, but let's not go the Dursley-way of pretending it's not 
what it is, which is just two people getting their kicks out of causing 
others physical distress--all the better if the person has earned a spot on 
their "anything goes" list.  Imo, no one has the right to go around deciding 
who's contemptible enough to deserve to be the butt of sadistic jokes, 
imo--especially Muggle-baiting jokes.  Not James or Draco or the DEs or 
Dudley or the twins.  If I were Petunia I'd certainly make a point of 
showing Dudley the danger of picking up candy strangers leave behind (the 
point behind that rule being that some strangers are malicious and 
untrustworthy).  If they were my kids I'd apologize to the Dursleys and make 
them apologize to Dudley.

-m