muggle baiting vs. muggle torture

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 155326

> 
> Random832:
> I'm suggesting that "muggle-baiting" is a specific term, and that
> neither what the twins did nor what DEs do is "muggle-baiting", but
> rather what the DEs do is a more severe crime and we disagree on where
> what the twins did falls on any spectrum.

Pippin:

What Mr. Weasley says is that he spends half his life campaigning 
against the mistreatment of Muggles, and his own sons are undermining
what he does. What the DE's did at the World Cup was not usual --
even now that Voldemort is back, the DE's are not marching in public 
and openly flouting the ministry. 

What Fred and George did is  more like Morphin's misbehavior. That
*is* probably something that happens all the time and Mr. Weasley
spends half his life campaigning against -- a wizard has 
a personal grievance against some Muggles and thinks he ought
to be able to  use magic to get even, and if the laws don't allow it,
they jolly well should.  That may be  different than picking on 
random Muggles just because, but it's still anti-Muggleism.


Muggles have chosen to believe that magic is abhorrent and unnatural, 
and, as far as possible, non-existent.  That may be shortsighted
of them, and vastly illogical, but the wizards have encouraged this belief 
and benefit from it, because  they're not being constantly badgered to find
magical solutions for Muggle problems, as Hagrid says. 

That being the case, using magic to get even with a Muggle carries an
overtone that using magic to get even with another wizard doesn't
have. To me, the Twins using magic to frighten and humiliate Dudley 
is a bit like tricking a Catholic child into cursing the Pope or an Orthodox
Jewish child into eating pork. Regardless of whether those particular
children deserved to be frightened or humiliated, it would be an attack on 
their beliefs and thus an attack on everyone who shares them. 

It's also unfair if wizards are allowed to use magic to punish Muggles
whenever they feel like it, but aren't allowed to use it to help them. 

Pippin