Salazar, Slytherins and Bigotry

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 179948

> >>Mike:
> We know so little about the founders. Therefore this post will be 
> heavy on speculation.
> Do you really think Godric Gryffindor befriended Salazar Slytherin 
> for reasons of expediency?
> <massive snip>
> So what am I trying to say? That Salazar's opinion may not have    
> been singular with regards to Muggleborns. That there could have    
> been a pervasive attitude of the times that fostered a fear of     
> Muggles and Muggleborns. That legend superceded reality when it    
> came to Slalzar's CoS. Basilisks aren't only Mudblood killers.      
> Legend conflated the CoS with Salazar's perceived pure-bloodism.

Betsy Hp:
Oh, Mike.  I had theories. Beautiful, beautiful theories.  And now 
they're *crap*! <rbg>  That was back in the day that I thought the 
rift between Slytherin and Gryffindor was something that needed to be 
dealt with.  Since it seems it was never meant to be I have no idea 
*why* Gryffindor and Slytherin were ever friends.  Cynically, I've 
determined it was mainly to get that particular house into the school 
in the first place.  You know, to provide bad guys. <g>

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > I mean, I doubt the Sorting Hat's song will have changed much when
> > it comes time to define the houses.  Slytherin will still be the
> > house of the ambitious, cunning and bigoted.
> > <snip>

> >>Mike:
> Keep them smelling salts handy, for the most part I agree again. 
> Ambition and Cunning are characteristics that the Sorting Hat looks 
> for. Bigotry is not.

Betsy Hp:
Doesn't one of the Sorting Hat's songs mention something about 
Slytherins being those whose blood is the "purest"?  Either way...

> >>Mike:
> It is a learned trait that seems endemic to the type of families   
> that favor the Slytherin credo.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
That's true.  And therefore I see nothing changing.  I mean, 
Dumbledore didn't even make the attempt, so I kind of get the idea 
that it's not possible.  In this world if you're a bigot at age 
eleven, then a bigot you shall remain.  You know, so that we can have 
bad guys. <eg>

> >>Mike:
> <snip>
> Maybe Draco, with his bad experiences under the thumb of Voldemort, 
> will have come to understand that pure-bloodism led him into that 
> morass. So maybe he will have changed his tune when it came to 
> teaching Scorpius what credos are worth following. That is where I 
> garner hope for the future of the WW. Not from what Harry learned 
> during his quest, from what Draco learned during his time in 
> purgatory.

Betsy Hp:
Or, he may have decided that what comes from trusting a half-blood. 
<veg>  I just get the impression that Draco isn't a character who 
learns much.  He's just one more bad guy for Harry to pit himself 
against, but not a living, breathing character in his own right who 
suffers and grows.  I think purgatory is his place.

Betsy Hp (enjoyed the agreement and the smelling salts! <g>)