As The Free Press wraps up the seventh installment of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the burning question, and the title of the last episode is, What if You’re Wrong?

Episode 7 begins with a brief discussion of the Salem with trials. Author, Stacy Schiff, writes about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Interestingly enough, these claims and arguments labeling a woman as a “witch” were made by the well-educated. The literacy rate in 1692 was quite high in New England at that time. The communities celebrated the delusion of being right, of thinking they were doing something “good” for the community by executing these women with no evidence of them being “witches”.

This is seen as the crux of what is happening in modern-day 2021. JK Rowling sounds off:

The crux is an abyss. I have to laugh because the hyperbole is so extreme. I’ve been told I wish for the genocide of trans people. I’ve been told ‘you want them to die, you don’t want them to exist’. And that is where I think we become it’s not even infuriated…I think sometimes you feel a little despair, like maybe we need the storm to break and for people to say ‘but wait a minute…we do need to ask questions’. We’ve seen thousands-a-percent of young women trying to escape their physical bodies. Shouldn’t we be asking why this is happening?”-JK Rowling

In fact, that is all JK Rowling did when she questioned the definition of a “person who menstruates”. The very question that started her very own witch hunt.

We do see this putting a person on trial-this demonizing of a person-all over again. This is not 1692, this is 2023. The pendulum has swung so far and those on the opposite end of the pendulum seek to demonize or classify an individual as a “witch” for leaning ever-so-slightly with an opposite view or not following the script du jour.

JK Rowling also questions if one group’s “hurt” is being prioritized over another. She cites an article from The Sunday Times where 80 percent of ssexual assaults are reported to occur in unisex spaces.

As a side note, I have, myself, been in situation in a woman’s bathroom where a man (identifying as a they/them) moseyed up to the sink to wash hands at the same time. While I knew this man and know (he) is harmless in his intent to use the ladies’ room, this man is still a biological man. This biological man feels the need to transition and does not feel “safe” in a men’s room for biological men and uses the women’s bathroom. The men complained. What about the women who don’t know this man who also used this restroom at the same time? Because men are grossed out and feel this biological guy shouldn’t use their restroom, we women have to deal with this and just stifle our frustration? There’s some mad sexism right there looking us biological women right there in the face. But, if we women were were to call this out, we’d be the bigots. We’d be the TERFs. We’d be the “intolerant nazis”.

JK Rowling muses on the absurdity that has become our language. “A woman convicted of exposing her penis” is actually a headline. She claims to have lost faith in institutions such as the publishing industry and journalism. Just take a look at the new AP Stylebook. JK Rowling has even questioned the educational system. As she should. Hey, you, to, can get a copy of The Woke Classroom and tips for instructing LGBTQ/Trans/Non-Binary youth of all ages for just two bucks on Teachers Pay Teachers. This linguistic theft-this newspeak-is taking over our 24-hour news cycle. It is infiltrated our entertainment outlets and our kids’ classrooms. The fantasy that one can be any gender they want to be (with the help of modern medicine) that is being sold to children is damaging. As a fantasy writer, JK Rowling’s life may look like a fairytale…but she is very much living in the real world.

The point of fantasy is we are allowed to explore our imagination-things that frighten us, challenge us, we’re allowed to escape into a world that us scary. But we can come back, we can close the book, we can think about what we’ve read. We can think about what it means to make irreversible decisions. By contrast, we are dealing with the real world here. We’re dealing with children, in my view, being persuaded that a solution for all distress is lifelong medicalization. That is real-world harm. There is no closing the book and putting it away. There is no playing with this, experimenting with this and not suffering harm in my point of view.”-JK Rowling

As The Witch Trials of JK Rowling comes to a close, The Onion is still gunning mercilessly for Rowling. Magazines have accused her of (GASP) mocking the gay pride/progress flag. The most zealous of trans-activists have threatened her livelihood, her home and her children.

One question pops up between JK Rowling and host, Megan Phelps-Roper. That question is, “How do you trust your mind?” How does one trust their mind to know to argue for or against an ideal? How does one trust their mind when it comes to taking a stand?

It all comes down to one word…discernment.

I know I won’t ever regret having stood up on this issue. Ever. You know, that’s the price you pay. If you want to be universally and eternally beloved, then you must curate your image in a way that I’m simply not prepared to do. I’m not in the business of doing that. There are more important things in this world than being popular.”-JK Rowling

Amen, Joanne!

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

JK Rowling herself, is far from “Alt-Right”. She is, by her own self-definition, liberal and “left”. She dared, however, to question the verbatim script that the left that has been cranking out and the left’s reactions and astonishing likeness to the Puritans of 1692. For this, Rowling is brave.