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)

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 or whatever, and going online if you somehow don't have the internet at home?

Does having a library in a town have any practical role in making its populace smarter, 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)