The dumbest protest I've ever seen...

[Seriously?]

I worked as a manager in a large bookstore when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released. As you all probably know, most of the large chains did some sort of party when the Harry Potter books came out. We were one of them, and management was "encouraged" to dress up for said midnight release party. That's okay, I don't mind dressing like a witch sometimes. It was crazy that night; we had people everywhere. I was running around trying to make sure everything was set up and ready, when I get a page to call the front desk. I called the front desk from the office, and this conversation ensued:

Me: "What's up?"
OM (Other manager): "We've got a protester here who's demanding to talk to the general manager."
Me: "Seriously? What are they protesting? The party?"
OM: "No, they're protesting the fact that we carry the book because it has magic in it or something."
Me: "Okay, on my way."

Now, please bear in mind that I'm dressed like a witch head to toe, minus the hat because it kept getting in my way. I hurry to the front of the store because a tv crew was coming and I didn't want to them beat me there, only to see...

A seventeen-year-old kid. In jeans and a red t-shirt. No sign, nothing to indicate he's angry about this. I take quick look around, and OM sort of nods to the kid, so I head over to him.

Me: "Can I help you?"
Kid: "Yeah, I want to protest."
Me:..."Protest what, exactly?"
Kid: "This book series. It is evil, and I don't think you should carry it."
Me: "Um, okay. Noted. Did you want to stand here for the entire release? Because I'm going to have to ask you to move out into the parking lot by eight parking spaces; that's where our property ends."
Kid: "No, I'm not staying. I just wanted to make sure someone knew I protested."
Me: "Okay, have a good day."

He left. Strangest thing. I had my comeback all ready, too: "Okay, I respect your right to protest, but I really hope you've never watched a Disney movie or read a fairy tale, since they've almost all got magic."

Not really sucky, I guess, but definitely strange. I just wanted to share.

Maybe he had a civics class assignment?

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Maybe he had a civics class assignment?

...or he was on a dare.
Or he was upset because he is called Henry Potter and everybody takes the mickey off him.
Or he is a real wizard and was worried about the undesired publicity his people were having

[2gigch1]

In the world of protests, that was civil & to the point. I can appreciate it.

[bainsidhe]

I remember asking people if they wanted to reserve the book and a few of them got a nasty gleam in their eye before snarling how Harry Potter was the devil's work. Then they went on with their day like nothing happened, so the suck factor was quite low.

You're welcome to your personal beliefs and I won't foist mine on you. Though I always found it interesting that you could never tell who might be a Harry Potter hater. Just as I could never tell who was a Harry Potter lover. My favorite was a big, angry biker dude who got real excited when I asked if he'd like to reserve the next book. Ever see a bubbly angry biker dude? It's pretty awesome.

[infinitemonkies]

I have a friend who used to be a fanatical christian.
He used to rant and scream for hours about how Harry Potter was teaching witchcraft and devil worship to children; Having, of course, never actually read any of the books.

Finally, his roommate forced him to watch one of the movies, and the transformation was amazing.

"That's not witchcraft!" He exclaimed, "That's latin. Badly conjugated latin."

He went on to become a big fan of Harry Potter, and even more impressive, actually reads a book before screaming at strangers about content he disapproves of.

[MoonCat]

Back when the books first came out, there was a church group at some dinky town somewhere in the wilds of New York State (yeah, I can say that, I live in NY state) who were terribly concerned that children were going to point their fingers at each other and recite the spells from the book.

My reaction: "Annnnddd....?"

I mean, did they seriously think that anything was going to happen? Do they also think if kids point a finger and say "Bang! Bang!" a bullet's going to come out of the finger & kill someone?

[Magpie]

One of the friars (he spent a lot of time at the school) decided to buy the books so he could see what they're all about (this is back when they were first big, before the Vatican felt the need to give a seal of approval to the books). He was discussing this with some of the others and gets

"oooh, you shouldn't have done that. I have the whole series already." (It works better if you read a pause between the sentances).

OTOH, one of the women in my church was making it out like a bad thing that practising witches won't let people commit until they're 18 (this is one group she heard about). Because, you know, that means it's dangerous

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Wee anecdote loosely related to the "Harry Potter is EVIL" topic (I am a huge Potterist myself by the way)

In the 1960, an Italian band called "Nomadi" recorded a song called "Dio è morto", meaning "God Is Dead".
That created a huge ruckus, with NO radio station accepting to play that "evil, blasphemous song".
Until a religious radio station started playing it.
Why?
Because the message in the song was about death and resurrection. Yes, they had bothered to actually READ (or listen to) THE LYRICS.

[Magpie]

As for that woman in your church, I wonder how she'd react to learning that some of us are brought up pagan right from the get go. I can understand the waiting until age 18 to commit - by then you're considered a legal adult in most jurisdictions and free to make your own decision. And by then you should be able to figure out if the path you're following is indeed the right one for you. Ideally.

Oh, it gets even better. A lot of Christian denominations don't let you join the church until you're an adult (not always 18, sometimes 16, but not as a child). (Jackdaw belongs to one of them, and he was brought up in that faith tradition, but he wasn't a member).

[Dave1982]

Folks, we're starting to veer off the original topic. The pros and cons of various religions is better suited to Fratching. Let's stick to the OP's protestor - who never once mentioned religion, BTW.

[jedimaster91]

At least the kid was civil about it.

[Mikkel]

At least the kid was civil about it.

Dumb and polite . The funny thing is that the magic in the Potter books are so obviously fake. What does those protesters think will happen if children point a wand at someone and say "petrificus totalis"?

[XCashier]

Back when the books first came out, there was a church group at some dinky town somewhere in the wilds of New York State (yeah, I can say that, I live in NY state) who were terribly concerned that children were going to point their fingers at each other and recite the spells from the book.

My reaction: "Annnnddd....?"

I mean, did they seriously think that anything was going to happen? Do they also think if kids point a finger and say "Bang! Bang!" a bullet's going to come out of the finger & kill someone?

The funny thing is that the magic in the Potter books are so obviously fake. What does those protesters think will happen if children point a wand at someone and say "petrificus totalis"?

I wish some of those spells worked! I can think of quite a few people I'd love to use "Silencio" on!

Back OT, I'm not sure what he thought he was going to accomplish. "Oh, gosh sir, you're right, these multimillion-selling books are just chock full of evil! I guess I'll just chuck the entire expensive shipment into the incinerator!"

And at the conversation between the two friars!

[Mikkel]

I wish some of those spells worked! I can think of quite a few people I'd love to use "Silencio" on!

I would like to be able to apparate, that would save me a lot of time and money for gasoline.

[Shalom]

Dumb and polite . The funny thing is that the magic in the Potter books are so obviously fake. What does those protesters think will happen if children point a wand at someone and say "petrificus totalis"?

Their friends will laugh at them?

Although I read an article once that claimed that the HP series made reading cool again. Kids who earlier wouldn't have been caught dead with a book were now lining up at midnight to get their hands on a book that was 800 freaking pages long. If nothing else, that alone made the series worth while.

On the subject of uninformed protesters, the most famous case was regarding a filmed biography of Mohammad made about 1976. Islam forbids showing pictures of Mohammad, so when news of this movie came out, there were all sorts of protests against it. The kicker? There never were any shots of Mohammad himself in the film. Any scene that included Mohammad was shot from his own point of view; you didn't even hear his voice, just organ music. The film credits don't even list an acting credit for his character!