muggle baiting vs. muggle torture

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 155396

> Magpie:
> > They're 16-year-old boys brought up to not Prank Muggles who do 
it
> > anyway.

Jordan: 
> An alternate interpretation would be that they're 16-year-old boys
> brought up to treat Muggles as inferior who treat them as equals
> anyway. (or it's only OK to treat them as inferior when it's to
> "protect" them?)

Magpie:
Personally, I'd rather they not be treated as inferiors (in a 
general sense, in ways that they aren't) at all, of course.  Arthur, 
the self-appointed protector of Muggles, seems fine with memory-
charming them into oblivion, which is pretty disturbing.  When that 
sort of thing is the norm, it's understandable why Wizards can't see 
Muggles as equals, and don't treat them as such.  

> 
> Magpie
> > The last funny joke placed on Dudley by a Wizard had to be 
removed
> > surgically.

Jordan:> 
> They made no move to ask him to reverse it. And they could have 
hidden
> it - or maybe it would have worn off in a matter of days, but their
> zealotry against all things magic led them to a perceived need to
> remove it ASAP.

Magpie:
But if one has to start faulting the Dursleys for not asking Hagrid 
to remove the tail, or making up uncanonical stuff to dilute what's 
in canon, doesn't it suggest something problematic with what 
happened?  Telling us that the tail had to be surgically removed, 
imo, tells us that the tail was permenant, period.  "It would have 
worn off eventually even if that's never indicated and the person in 
question has no way of knowing it" is a surprisingly common 
assertion given that it doesn't seem to be stressed in canon at all.

-m