"Ban books. Jail librarians." - the bad guys in every epoch of history
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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My wife is a public library administrator. We are in Indiana, not West Virginia, but I could absolutely see the same thing happening here and I'm terrified. Between this, me being Jewish and having a queer daughter, I feel like my whole family is so fucked.
It may be time to at least start thinking about relocating.
We can't afford to. We also both have elderly mothers who are still living on their own but may not be for long. My mother is 82. Hers is in her late 70s and has lupus.
Sounds like you guys are living with some considerable stress... Sorry. I hope it all works out okay for you all.
Thanks, I appreciate it. Aren't most of us these days though?
For sure but we're all in this together and like my wife always likes to say when I downplay my problems and stresses, it's not a competition :)
Definitely. And I'm glad there are still enough of us that we have a chance of making a change!
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My mother is a librarian past retirement age in Iowa. She's the director and has been running the library for probably around 30 years. The state is working on killing library boards and giving all control to local government. It would be absolutely terrible for libraries. My mom won't retire because she's standing up for the library and can't do the same in retirement, and she can't find a replacement with the same passion to fight.
Republicans are doing everything in their power to hurt people, take away freedoms, and keep the population poorly educated. They are literally the worst thing for this country. I'd say pedophiles are worse, but they're the same thing, so...
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Be sure to vote I guess
No worries there. I always make sure to vote. And if my health allowed it, I'd be on the streets too.
I'm saving up to buy Nebraska and turn it into a third temple for all of us.
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There's room for you in Illinois.
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Republicans: The government needs to stop trying to be our babysitter
Also Republicans: this
Yeah, that is fascism.
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Just for the record, I voted against every one of those dipshits I could.
Thank you for trying. Seriously. Sometimes trying is all you can do, but at least doing it is better than doing nothing.
The day I stop trying is the day I just give up and move. If I were less stubborn of a person, that would have been years ago; now it's "why should I leave when they're the ones who suck?"
Not that we were ever great, but we didn't used to be this bad. So sick of this goddamned culture war bullshit.
You have a great attitude! I wish more people felt the way you do.
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The US is going to need some kind of second reconstruction era and de-nazification once it gets out of this insanity. IF it ever gets out of this tailspin.
My halfway-optimistic view is that fascism is doomed to fail. It's just too stupid not to, and the stupidity is core to the entire movement.
...but the half-way pessimistic part of me has to bring up that they're going to do as much damage as they can on the way down. Hopefully that's kept to a minimum.
Oh it's doomed to fail of course but a shitton of damage is going to be done, to people, to society, and to world peace.
All because a bunch of angry whiny children want to rule over brown people and women.
And we have to pretend their political opinions are reasonable and normal.
Some part of every generation reacts with panic to changing culture, politics, media, etc.
It's also why it's fucking stupid to be conservative, because recorded human history is literally ten thousand years of conservatives panicking about some stupid shit and getting proven wrong.
A headline from the future:
"The final public library closes its doors today in West Virginia closing one of the remaining few avenues for its population to climb out of poverty."
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Also: Coal mines given immunity.
This all reads like news in Plague Inc., but instead of playing the game you just watch as the world crumbles and destroys itself.
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So West Virginia politicians figured that literacy rates are just too damn high and they need to prioritize attacks against information? I mean, WV ain’t in a great place right now and are actively shooting themselves in the foot right before they set out to blame Democrats for the hole they dug themselves.
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Don't mess with librarians. They look mousey ... but they take their jobs really seriously and will fuck your shit up.
This is one of their favorite tactics. Pass a bill they know is going to rile up the Left. Use taxpayer money to fight the case as long and as slowly as possible, and sap as much money from Democratic campaigns as they can.
Entering the Cool Zone of history, as my nation's state legislators start doing the kind of things that end up as footnotes in the "Decline of The Empire" chapter.
I remember the assholes last year saying that this was just about elementary school kids.
Every librarian in West Virginia needs to resign in protest.
Thats probably what they want. Less education seems to be what they are working towards.
sigh Criminal prosecution when someone gets offended for someone else.
Knowledge is scary. Those perky folks down at the reference desk need to stop corrupting with fricking ideas. IDEAS!
I've never quibbled, if it was ribald, I would devour, where others merely nibbled! As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my Aunt Hortense, "To be smut it must be utterly without redeeming social importance."
Everything is lewd, when correctly viewed, I could tell you things about Peter Pan, Or the Wizard of Oz, there's a dirty old man.....
or anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
But where can they even find a reasonable person in West Virginia? Sydnee McElroy is pretty busy with being a full-time doctor and science communicator. I'm not sure there are any others.
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When does the GOP outlaw literacy?
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