22 votes

The cost to librarians and libraries from the US culture wars

Posted by boxer_dogs_dance
Tags: libraries, usa, censorship, politics, culture wars, author.tovia smith, long read
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/11/1192034923/the-plot-thickens-the-battle-over-books-comes-at-a-cost

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Title
The plot thickens: The battle over books comes at a cost
Authors
Tovia Smith
Published
Aug 11 2023
Word count
3301 words

3 comments

  1. [3]
    Akir
    Link
    There aren't enough expletives in the world for me to express how much this kind of thinking pisses me off. He's aware of what he's doing but he can't help himself. The best thing he could do for...

    Council member Garry Talbert has been at the center of some of the antics. In retrospect, he tells NPR, there are some instances he may not have "handled the best way." He acknowledges all the rancor and demonization of the other side is taking a toll.

    "We politicize crap that doesn't need to be politicized. It's like all one way or all another and there is no happy medium," he says. "And so if we all listened, then I think we would realize people don't eat their kids for supper."

    But in the next breath, Talbert steps right back in it.

    "I'm digging myself a hole, but I can't shut up either," he says as he explains how he believes certain LGBTQ people are trying to "shock" the community, and are the ones instigating the divisions themselves.

    There aren't enough expletives in the world for me to express how much this kind of thinking pisses me off. He's aware of what he's doing but he can't help himself. The best thing he could do for society would be to back off and shut up about it until he can control himself.

    11 votes
    1. [2]
      Promonk
      Link Parent
      I think he's actually hitting upon something that largely goes unacknowledged, or at least isn't remarked upon nearly often enough: the type of political discourse he's referring to–this "culture...

      I think he's actually hitting upon something that largely goes unacknowledged, or at least isn't remarked upon nearly often enough: the type of political discourse he's referring to–this "culture wars" crap–it's emotionally addicting. People get just as hooked on righteous indignation as they do porn, gambling, or shopping, to name a few examples. These all tap into the brain's mechanisms for rewarding behavior that contributes to sustaining life as a human being.

      The big problem is that the delivery apparatus is the Internet, and not only is it too new for our biology to handle (as has been the case with many cultural revolutions), it's too new and fast-changing for our culture to deal with.

      It's not going away anytime soon though, so we're going to have to endure some pretty heavy-duty growing pains. My hope is that we can see our way through in something resembling a sustainable way. I'm not very optimistic.

      10 votes
      1. boxer_dogs_dance
        Link Parent
        The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher is a reasonably good book talking about the phenomenon you just described and gives examples of some of the harm it has caused as well as the motives for designing...

        The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher is a reasonably good book talking about the phenomenon you just described and gives examples of some of the harm it has caused as well as the motives for designing social media algorithms that preferentially spread rage bait.

        4 votes