That one weird guy

Like, there is literally no universe where it matters that this guy can't get a shop, or isn't part of the Chocolate Makers Guild, or is targeted by the Chocolate Cartel, because he has magical powers.

It doesn't matter what the other chocolate makers do to try and smear his reputation or ruin his business, because ultimately their biggest innovation is a chocolate bar that melts in your mouth but not in your hand, and the original Roald Dahl sequel book tells us that Wonka somehow has access to the world where people's souls go before they are born (à la the Pixar film) and has invented a cure for old age.

Even if they did somehow manage to stop him selling ‘candy’, he could easily just rebrand his business and reopen as ‘Wonka's Literal Actual Magic’, and what the hell are they going to do to him then?

The only thing that could touch him in the original film was people bribing his employees to sell them his secret recipes, and he solved that problem almost immediately by firing his entire staff and replacing them with magic singing elves who are happy to be paid in chocolate. This isn't a guy whose problems are normal problems.

not just him, but there were many other examples too, like white conservatives who have mexican immigrant friends and family or people in the community important to them who were mexican immigrants, and they voted for trump because they thought trump was just getting rid of “criminals”, and then they regret it when their families and communities get torn apart by deportations of their spouses, their friends, their favourite restaurant owners, etc.

anyways, i hope young queers, trans people esp, understand that when conservatives talk about “pedophiles” and “groomers”, they’re not talking about actual child abusers, they’re talking about all queer people. they’re talking about all trans people. it’s why in florida, they’re categorizing “drag” as a child sex crime, and making sex crimes against children punishable by death. they’re trying to execute every single trans person, and that’s just the rhetoric they’re using

it’s not about actual pedophilia; your average right winger doesn’t even know what the first thing about addressing pedophilia looks like in the U.S. about how it has largely been turned into a diagnosis, and how our society manages the existence of pedophiles has largely turned into the domain of the field of mental health management. is this better for the safety of children than carceral justice, or worse? wrong question! because it’s literally not on the radar for most fascists. pedos are monsters, and so any undesirable you can associate with pedos can be similarly banished. it’s literally never been about actual pedophiles

the gamergate outrage was never about videogames

the trumpies have never actually cared about the logistics of legal immigration

the trans athlete ‘debate’ has never been about the sanctity of women’s basketball, or marathons, or whatever sport it is this week

the hillary truthers never cared about political integrity

anticommunist reactionary outrage has never been about positively righting the minutia of political hierarchy

reactionary outrage over minimum wage has never been about providing a logistically sound alternative to compensating the poor

the antiblack focus on ‘tough on crime’ politics has never been about actually mitigating crimes and keeping people safe because they don’t fucking care

every. last. one. of these conversations are proxy conversations. what’s actually being discussed? who gets to participate in society, and who doesn’t. fascist authorities will give any reason, no matter how ridiculous, and fascism enjoyers will parrot any party line, no matter how ridiculous, because no matter what is the Biggest Issue On Earth this week, what they’re actually saying is quite simpler: this is why we’re getting rid of minorities.