I'm sad to say it because I'm fond of them, but who really needs libraries in the internet age anyway? Most people are very literate but hardly anyone reads actual books anymore, and those who do can either buy them cheaply on Amazon or source them elsewhere online.
Aside from that there's, what, borrowing DVDs, reading newspaper archives, and going online if you somehow don't have the internet at home? They do have value as community spaces, but I doubt he's referring to that, and often that value is subverted by using them as staging grounds for propaganda.
Does having a library in a town have any practical role in making its populace more educated, as he implies?
This is actually a great example of how many progressive beliefs are purely performative. I doubt "KP4NC" and his son have stepped inside a library for years. I think they by default believe that saying "Yay libraries!" is the enlightened, sophisticated position and they don't think even a single step beyond that.
(I'm including his son in that because it sounds like they were sniffing their own farts together for the whole trip, which is sad)
My local one is rather great for what it offers kids and teens as a place to hang out and play video games or do other random tasks to keep themselves occupied. Its usually quite full with the poor kids in town who'd never be able to afford a video game. No drag queens yet, so that hasn't been exploited.
I think the original purpose as a book center has long since lost its use, but the libraries themselves have adapted to make up for it overall and people who don't use them (like rich self-centered liberals) never noticed.
No manga for the poor kids? Other than that I agree that library has changed to be more of a meeting space rather than completely be about lending of books.
The problem with manga from a library is that its a complete trap.
They'll have a portion of a series, which gets you addicted to it, and then you want to spend money on the rest which you cannot afford and should absolutely spend on something with more lasting usage (reading a volume might get you an hour or so every few months). For the clever ones who learned where to read it online they are fine, but then they don't need the physical editions to begin with.
Not to mention, most manga worth reading is pretty inappropriate for kids. The things that aren't are either way too niche for a small town library or part of a super massive series like Naruto which compounds the prior issue.
I'm sad to say it because I'm fond of them, but who really needs libraries in the internet age anyway? Most people are very literate but hardly anyone reads actual books anymore, and those who do can either buy them cheaply on Amazon or source them elsewhere online.
Aside from that there's, what, borrowing DVDs, reading newspaper archives, and going online if you somehow don't have the internet at home? They do have value as community spaces, but I doubt he's referring to that, and often that value is subverted by using them as staging grounds for propaganda.
Does having a library in a town have any practical role in making its populace more educated, as he implies?
This is actually a great example of how many progressive beliefs are purely performative. I doubt "KP4NC" and his son have stepped inside a library for years. I think they by default believe that saying "Yay libraries!" is the enlightened, sophisticated position and they don't think even a single step beyond that.
(I'm including his son in that because it sounds like they were sniffing their own farts together for the whole trip, which is sad)
My local one is rather great for what it offers kids and teens as a place to hang out and play video games or do other random tasks to keep themselves occupied. Its usually quite full with the poor kids in town who'd never be able to afford a video game. No drag queens yet, so that hasn't been exploited.
I think the original purpose as a book center has long since lost its use, but the libraries themselves have adapted to make up for it overall and people who don't use them (like rich self-centered liberals) never noticed.
No manga for the poor kids? Other than that I agree that library has changed to be more of a meeting space rather than completely be about lending of books.
The problem with manga from a library is that its a complete trap.
They'll have a portion of a series, which gets you addicted to it, and then you want to spend money on the rest which you cannot afford and should absolutely spend on something with more lasting usage (reading a volume might get you an hour or so every few months). For the clever ones who learned where to read it online they are fine, but then they don't need the physical editions to begin with.
Not to mention, most manga worth reading is pretty inappropriate for kids. The things that aren't are either way too niche for a small town library or part of a super massive series like Naruto which compounds the prior issue.