[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore and Secrecy /Re: JKR site update WOMBAT part 2

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 159168

 Pippin:
>
> In the first place, making an issue of Voldemort's lies about his
> race would make race itself an issue, and Dumbledore is fighting
> against that.
>
> Also, anti-Muggle prejudice is far more  prevalent in the WW than
> out and out Voldemortism. IMO the number of people who would
> be turned away from Voldemortism by this knowledge would
> be far offset by the number who would think worse of halfbloods
> for knowing that Voldemort is one of them. Dumbledore wouldn't
> want to encourage that either.

Magpie:
That seems like a stretch to make it seem like Dumbledore needs to do this 
odd thing for good.  It's assuming an awful lot about the way the Wizarding 
World will act in defense of keeping a secret Voldemort himself wants kept 
secret.  His being a Half-blood is hardly the issue-the issue is that he's a 
guy named Tom Riddle, an ordinary guy, not some god-like superbeing no one 
has a chance against.  Why keep all this information from the world at large 
when they're too afraid to even speak his name?  Because they can't be 
trusted to not go postal on Half-bloods and Muggles if they knew?  Why? 
Right now everyone thinks he's a Pureblood and don't seem to hold it against 
Purebloods.  You can make Voldemort's past public without making blood the 
focus.

Pippin:>
> In any case,  that vanishingly small group of people who actually
> trust Voldemort would  be sure that Dumbledore was
> lying. Everyone else already knows that Voldemort is a liar.

Magpie:
Those people aren't the most important.  It's the general public that could 
do to know this stuff about Voldemort.  And even that vanishing number might 
care--though we'll never know if it's kept secret.  I just can't see any 
good reason (beyond liking it for the plot) to keep this secret.  Saying 
that Dumbledore has just pre-emptively decided that he's got to keep it 
secret because otherwise it brings blood into it or will make the WW act out 
against Half-bloods is would be ridiculously paternalistic on his part, 
certainly going far beyond being on the lookout for spies in his Order.

-m