Greentext

Nobody is on the side of the house elves because Hermione is the pet leftist. Ever watch Downton Abbey? Pretty good show tbh, but if you have, then Tom Felton is the Downton Abbey Hermione. Why is Downton Abbey, of all things, relevant? Because it's conservative apologia for the way things were, just as HP is conservative apologia; these types of media will often include a zany leftist that they can soften and win over to show how their conservative agenda is good actually. Think about it, HP isn't left vs right, it's old conservatism (Dumbledore and his muggle-loving ways) vs batshit insane ultra conservatism (the Death Eaters). If you swap wizarding blood for noble blood, being a wizard for being a noble, etc. it works almost perfectly. Hermione is new nobility that the old nobility doesn't respect; Harry is from a good pedigree, but was raised by his peasant aunt and uncle and doesn't know how to act the part, etc etc. The left (Hermione) wasn't supposed to win (and didn't), that W was meant for the old conservatives all along.

HP and Rowling have always been conservative, it was just that we misread the struggle being portrayed there.

I searched for her denying the Nazi analogy and only found the opposite

Q: Many of us older readers have noticed over the years similarities between the Death Eaters tactics and the Nazis from the 30s and 40s. Did you use that historical era as a model for Voldemort’s reign and what were the lessons that you hope to impart to the next generation?

It was conscious. I think that if you’re, I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime we would think Nazi Germany. There were parallels in the ideology. I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel. It wasn’t really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry even before it’s taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and love. [Laughter and applause.] So you ask what lessons, I suppose. The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think ti’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books, but I think that’s it’s a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.

Source: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowling-at-carnegie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more/

Also, the whole house elf thing was… Really, really rough to read as a kid. I could never understand why no one was on Hermione’s side, and how no one could see that elves didn’t want to be free because their condition would be that of an outcast, and in a world where only wizard’s were allowed wands, nonhuman humanoids were veru clearly subjugated to the point of delusionality.

The motivation behind the idea was a good one, the execution of the idea was absolute cringe.

Let me explain. The intention was to highlight that the wizarding world has its own logic, and trying to apply the morality and philosophy of the mundane will end in failure, but Hermonie can't see that being too smart for her own good in this area...

Unfortunately JK picked FUCKING SLAVERY as the way to make this point, because she is a dumbass. No, that's underselling it: She's a fascist who only had Voldemort be evil because the book needed a villain. JK Rowling legitimately believes that some groups of people are perpetually below "The normals"

Like take the concept of Royalty (Some people are better than others because they are of Noble Blood) and turn it onto its head, that there are people who are lesser than others because they are of dirty blood. (To JK these include the Irish, transgender people, and anyone who isn't white)

"Mudblood" being a slur in the HP Universe is just JK's way of projecting her worldview onto perceived enemies.

Oh and one last thing. JK did the "Wizard morality is different because it's wacky and whimsical" a second time, in the Fantastic Beasts movies, where the worst crime in Wizard History was.... drumroll Trying to stop the Nazis from coming into power... (You see why Harry Potter just doesn't work with serious stories?: JK herself is impossible to take seriously, and infact is outright dangerous because there are those who attempt to do just that.)

I bailed on the series halfway through book 5. That was a slog.

100% agree. It's just a huge slog of everything being terrible for Harry for the whole book. Absolutely the worst in the series.

Half blood prince was my favorite

The easiest explanation is that it's magic and we're all muggles and therefore incapable of understanding it.

If some wizards of quantum mechanics can write math for... whatever quantum mechanics is... I think there could be a way or two, to manipulate magic by science.

The movies also frames Dumbledore as a hard boiled unhinged detective who slams people against walls and shakes them down for information, whereas the book totally missed out on that great aspect of his personality. Swings and roundabouts

It's been a long time, but I very much remember it being played as the powers that be are simply afraid to acknowledge that V is back. They do attack Harry's story some to help justify keeping their heads in the sand, but that didn't seem like the point to me.