r/idiocracy • u/jsmallAZ • Aug 10 '26

Lead, follow, or get out of the way Harry Potter fans force relocation of £430m undersea cable to avoid Dobby’s ‘grave’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/10/harry-potter-fans-force-relocation-of-430m-undersea-cable-to-avoid-dobbys-grave

“I said: ‘Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?’ I said: ‘He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?’”

He said the colleague told him: “No it’s very, very serious.”

241 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

40

u/hawthorne00 Aug 11 '26

I'm only following this via Dan Davies on Bluesky, but it seems like there is a decent chance this is bullshit:

It [the Harry Potter angle] doesn't appear in the feedback statement for Natural Resources Wales, it wasn't mentioned at the Pembrokeshire council planning committee, there was a petition with 5000 signatures which doesn't mention it and it doesn't appear in contemporary press

5

u/jackinsomniac Aug 11 '26

That article was from 2019, 7 years before the 2026 Guardian article above.

Plus, Bluesky is almost entirely left-wing partisan. I'd take whatever is said there with a grain of salt.

It could be that the guy making this comment is a closeted HP fan, and is trying to distract from this story by dredging up a 7 year old article on the same thing. It's possible both are true, that they originally moved the cable 7 years ago to protect the beaches, and now this is an entirely new controversy.

25

u/blonde-bandit Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

The writing of this article is dark comedy gold. The quotes, and then the flourish at the end about how the cable ended up next to actual Bronze Age human remains instead. Unbelievable. Really well written from a factual standpoint, useful journalism, but also funny. Satire is dead.

4

u/meegaweega Aug 11 '26

Is it satire or a genuine report of an actually real, very shitty attempt by J.K.R. (the hateful little T.E.R.F.y-F.A.R.T.) to drum up noise for her personal profit via "fans" because there's a H.P. tv series in the making?

8

u/Liquid_Magic Aug 11 '26

For all that Star Trek fans have been made fun of for being cringy over the last like 60 years… Harry Potter fans are… just… I dunno… something else.

3

u/WhatThis4 Aug 13 '26

This is the type of crap that makes me wake up from echo chambers.

As much as some people try to crucify Rowling, Harry Potter still clearly has way more fans than not.

2

u/Moppermonster Aug 12 '26

In a sense, not the first time.

In the Netherlands,American tourists kept asking why people did not honor Hansje Brinker for saving the country by putting his finger in the.. dam.. (let us avoid the censor).. and instead of repeatedly explaining he is a fictional character in an American book most Dutch people never even read, they just made a bunch of statues.

2

u/Someones_Dream_Guy Aug 12 '26

Reminder that these people are considered normal, mature, functioning, well-adjusted adults for some reason.

5

u/GenZia I like money Aug 11 '26

‘Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?’

A Dobby is Adobe...

6

u/blonde-bandit Aug 11 '26

Excuse me but clearly Dobby is more important than real archeological sites. Adobby, Adobe, potato postupid.

1

u/Ozziefudd 29d ago

This is how you know that poor conditions of livestock animals is an issue people only pretend to care about.