#just stop

No, you don't want that otter. No, that is not a pet. No, that up close encounter where you can pay to cuddle with an otter is probably not ethical. No, I'm pretty sure that channel with a guy and his pet otters is not a legitimate "animal rescue", stop recommending it to me.

Yes, the otter is cute. Please admire them either from a distance, or behind a barrier at an accredited facility. Thank you.

just tell me you don't understand Harry Potter. Just tell me you're too American to understand Harry Potter.

He isn't a "trust fund kid" he's a fucking orphan. It is his good luck that his parents were wealthy and that wealth has been safely stored for the past ten years but then it is his incredible bad luck that his parents were murdered and he was sent to live in an abusive household where he was clothed in hand me downs and never given enough to eat. So - you know - swings and roundabouts.

Harry did not grow up with privilege. He just happens to have enough money that he doesn't have to worry about buying school supplies.

He isn't a "jock". Because a jock is an American concept. School sports are really not a big deal in the UK (as clearly seen by the way they just cancel Quidditch - twice - with barely a shrug). The athletes on school teams don't wield social power because of their place on the team and there will be no scholarships allowing them higher education. There are no stereotypes around the type of kids who play the sports, no idea that they're all "dumb" and only good at whatever it is they play but are getting preferential treatment because of their talent. They don't date the cheerleaders (we don;t have cheerleaders) they're not the popular kids, or the rich kids. They can be any kid. School sports are just another extra curricular activity that any student might or might not take part in as the fancy takes them.

Quidditch is just a hobby that Harry happens to enjoy.

If you wanted some kind of obnoxious sportsman equivalence, you could say Harry was a "rugger bugger"... but he really isn't. He doesn't fit that stereotype at all.

"Jock" is a concept which fits neither the character nor the culture. It is an entirely futile and inaccurate prism through which to view Harry and means you cannot understand him if you insist on enforcing your own cultural labels and stereotypes on him.

And he didn't grow up to be a "cop". FFS. he grew up to be a Dark Wizard catcher. Again, there is a lot of cultural imperialism misunderstanding going on here when people on the internet talk about cops in relation to HP. The relationship the British have with their police is very different to the one the Americans have with theirs. British police are unarmed (apart from specially trained officers, whose job is to be the armed response unit and who most people will never encounter). They "police by consent" - and that is genuinely important to the officers themselves. Are they popular? No. But are they widely seen as a fascistic force murdering citizens? Also no - because (by and large) they're not.

They wear funny helmets, and sometimes ride horses, and work in the community.

The entire social structure of the USA is so different to the UK that it is impossible to just transplant a concept from the US and assume it will work for the UK. But the American lack of a welfare state, the war on drugs and the insane amount of guns in the hands of private citizens and police mean that the relationship between the two is shaped in such a way that crime is driven by poverty, crimes of poverty are dealt with much more harshly than they need to be, and the police feel empowered to kill (mostly black) people just because they looked at them funny. The police are the enemy.

But if this is your understanding of "cops" then you need to leave it at the door when you engage with British media. It's a totally different culture.

And within a culture of "policing by consent", it is possible to imagine a fantasy law enforcement office that is made up entirely of good guys, who hunt down only bad guys - the type who kill for fun. And that they do it justly and humanely (because that is what the police are supposed to be, even if they fall short in every corner of the world).

This is what the aurors are under Kingsley Shacklebolt's Ministry. They catch dark wizards - the type who kill people for fun. And they use the power of the wizarding state to arrest them and put them on trial.

Harry had no time for the Ministry when it was corrupt. He spoke out about them arresting the wrong people. he refused to work with them when the Minister himself asked for his support.

Harry Potter does not become a mindless "cop".

But in the aftermath of a brutal blood war, once the Ministry is run by someone he trusts, he joins up to clear up the last of the Death Eaters and stays to make sure it doesn't happen again. People rail against the fact that the system is not upended totally at the end of the books, and the Harry preserves the status quo - but that's just silly. You can't just tear down a system and hope for the best. Nature abhors a vacuum, and something worse would rise in its place. Harry is putting in the hard work (the real and necessary work) to clean up an imperfect system and make it work the way it is supposed to. He's making actual, possible changes that help make his world better and safer. That's far more radical, and far more useful, than the armchair anarchism of those who criticise his career path.

So please stop with the bad takes which not only show that you have no understanding or respect for the books, but that you have no understanding or respect for the culture they hail from or understanding and respect that the whole world doesn't live the way you do.