bard-powers-activate:

eruvadhril:

girlintheglassboxx:

hatingongodot:

girlintheglassboxx:

hatingongodot:

hatingongodot:

I can’t stand… book culture. One time someone got me a canvas bag that was like “Books + Tea = Perfect Day” and I drove to goodwill with that shit so fast

Most books suck. Most books are goddamn awful or utterly extraneous. Don’t get me wrong, I think we’re deeply lucky to live in a world where most books can vanish without us losing anything culturally or intellectually, rather than a world where books are so scarce that a single person might own like twelve in a lifetime. But still. Books are easy to aestheticize as Magical Portals of Adventure and Whimsy if you only read maybe two genres

AH! Words for that whole… situation.

I work at a public library and book culture there is nauseating. Not really among the other employees (though we’ve had a few come through over the years), but the patrons?

Oh god the patrons. Most of the people who check out books are just regular people who like reading. I even have patrons who L O V E to read, and who spend a majority of their free time reading or discussing books, they’re part of multiple book clubs, they always bring a big bag and leave with it full. They aren’t the Book Culture People.

Book Culture People loudly announce that they’re so surprised that there are children who know what books are!

They act affronted when I mention our ebook service, and scoff at the idea that anyone could enjoy reading from a screen instead of off the page!

They are personally offended that publishers hire actors to read the books for audio versions, because they feel that “audio books cheapen the experience of reading” and “audio books are cheating”!

They have to proclaim their fetish for ‘real’ books, whether through tacky tote bags, weird quote filled pinterest boards and social media posts, or awkwardly shoehorning unimpressive humblebrags about all the classics that they’re reading into unrelated conversations with tired library assistants.

They’re terrible, and I resent them because I fear being grouped with them by the nature of my field.

I was literally just talking about a friend whose classmate in her library science program was bragging because she didn’t use any digital resources for her final paper because she “respected books too much.” It’s such a bizarre attitude for anyone, much less an aspiring librarian, to have

I’ve also been approached by people while I read in public who are like “Oh my GOSH it’s so GOOD to see other people who READ nowadays!! Honestly I just have NO hope for our generation” and it’s like, first of all if you’re a reader you should know the last thing anyone wants is to be interrupted by a stranger for unnecessary conversation, and second please shut up holy crap

Oh god, I’ve heard that one before.

Hating accessible books and shunning technology is basically the antithesis of modern librarianship.

I don’t get the ebook hate, ebooks are literally just books. You cite ebooks the same way, and depending on the format, you don’t even say they’re ebooks.

It’s a performative, self important approach to something that I genuinely enjoy, and I think it bothers me more than, say, fandom antics, just because it’s so much more common. People get offended when I tell them I don’t read a lot in my down time, that I genuinely prefer audio books, that I’ll skip their recommendations because I don’t share their tastes.

It’s so… boring.

“People don’t reeeeead nowadays, everyone spends all their time looking at their phoooooones”

My dude

The thing that they are looking at

Is words made of text

What’s really annoying to me about those types of people is a book and a cup of tea DOES sound like a perfect day but when they slap it on an aesthetic canvas bag in one of Those Fonts it becomes a weird performative thing instead of an honest sentiment.

Like, one of my favorite memories is the first time I re-read my favorite novel and picked up on a lot of new things I didn’t catch the first time. I was on a cruise with my parents and completely enamored with the whole “everything is paid for already so you can eat/drink as much as you want” thing and I spent the one full day at sea reading, drinking jasmine tea, and eating little strawberry shortcakes from the galley. It inspired a tradition of re-reading my favorite book every summer to see how my thoughts/perspectives had shifted (and because the plot is just really fun).

That book means a lot to me, and I take immense pleasure in reading it and other books while drinking tea because oftentimes they pair nicely together. But elitism? No. No no no no no.

People ruin things when they take something pleasing and lock it away behind arbitrary rules.

(via geardrops)

capitalisthippie:

markv5:

Mom’s Work

Reboot to support this hardworking single mom

(via geardrops)

certifiedcis:

certifiedcis:

people who think they’re smart because they refuse to consider social or historical explanations for literally anything

(via geardrops)

odinsblog:

We’re all exhausted, and understandably so. It’s been an unspeakably horrific year. The election psychologically drained everyone, and we all just want a break. But here’s the thing: money never sleeps, and money is already hard at work trying to make sure nothing fundamentally changes in politics — and if nothing fundamentally changes in Washington, then everything is going to change for the worse in the real world.

Since the election was called for Joe Biden, there has been a multitiered effort to blame disappointing election results on progressives, even as exit polls and voting results show that progressive organizing rescued Democrats from the jaws of a presidential defeat. While the country was celebrating the defeat of Trump, here’s what the voices of Big Money have been doing since the election:

Democratic leaders are insisting that the party must abandon modestly progressive health care positions in order to boost the party’s chances in Georgia, even though polling says exactly the opposite.

Republican John Kasich — who was given a DNC speaking slot by Team Biden and who nonetheless failed to help Democrats win his home state of Ohio — went on CNN to bash progressives, insisting that Biden’s top priority should be appeasing Trump voters.

Ian Bremmer — a Morning Joe character who is a reliable barometer of elite thought — echoed Kasich, suggesting that the first thing Democrats should do is reach out and appease Trump supporters.

Joe Scarborough himself asserted that the election proves Democrats must run away from the left, even though their entire strategy was running away from the left, and that strategy resulted in disappointing down-ballot losses.

Politico published a list of alleged front-runners for Biden cabinet slots, filled mostly with corporate-friendly Democrats and Republicans.

The American Petroleum Institute and the US Chamber of Commerce are publicly offering to work with the Biden administration, pledging a desire to “support bipartisan policies” and “break through the gridlock.”

As GOP operatives at the Lincoln Project explore turning their operation into a media empire, they are turning their attacks on US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the party’s few stars with a large national following.

Democratic leaders and the House Blue Dog Coalition — the corporate wing of the party — have spent the week attacking progressives, blaming them for a handful of moderate freshman lawmakers’ losses — even as data show that Democrats in swing districts lost vote share as they moved further and further to the right.

They Are Blaming and Shaming the Left, as Predicted.

Before the election, I told you that no matter the election outcome, the Left would be blamed or shamed. That doesn’t make me Nostradamus — it was an obvious truth, even if it was taboo to dare speak.

Just as Republicans always spin every economic policy as a reason to cut rich people’s taxes, corporate Democrats and their allies have a left-bashing propaganda machine powered by a finely tuned algorithm designed to silence progressive leaders — whether it’s AOC, Bernie Sanders, or anyone else — and to turn every election result into a rationale to protect billionaires, corporate power, and the status quo.

The election, though, was the opposite of a demand for stasis — indeed, Democrats almost lost because they once again let Trump portray himself as the candidate of economic change, and they only got away with that because COVID-19 and organizing defeated Trump’s reelection bid. If they run back the same campaign in a COVID-19–free environment, there’s a good chance they would lose in a landslide.

Read more: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-democrats-aoc-biden-trump

(via seananmcguire)

bi-leigh-bi:

I can’t stress enough that Covid 19 and the long hauler symptoms I’m suffering from have fully changed my entire life. I can’t work full shifts, I’m exhausted afterwards to the point of blacking out. I still have Covid induced tachycardia. I’m asthmatic. The cost of my meds has doubled, I was already on so many to my chronic pain and osteomalacia. Our government is still not giving help to people. I’m using as many resources as possible to keep my head above water including food banks and local farms that are helping people out. But it’s not enough to keep paying medical bills and meds, and covering lost wages from missing work. I’m so thankful to everyone who has helped, I hate that I’m asking and having to keep asking. My paypal is here, if you can, if you can’t, please reblog? I’m so sorry.

(via awkward-critter)

theluminousnight:

aromantic-goldfishdeactivated202:

We as a website really have no logical sense of humor huh

Sounds like someone didn’t get invited to the Raybams sale

(via unpretty)

sunlitcurtainss:

sunlitcurtainss:

I love it when the little kids I’m teaching online have complete and total misconceptions of what’s going on. So far, I’ve encountered the following:

1. I had been teaching a little girl for several months, when one day she said to me: “My mother says you’re a real person, not an app. If you’re a real person, show me your husband.”

2. I was about to end a class, but the little girl I was teaching didn’t want the class to end. She turned to her mom and asked if she could please watch one more episode. Turns out she was under the impression that I was a very interactive TV program.

3. I couldn’t find my marker in class today. The boy I was teaching was like, “What’s your apartment number? I’ll come up and help you find it!” The boy lives in China and I live in the United States. I guess most people he knows live in the same building as him, so he assumed I did too.

4. I had been teaching a kid for quite some time when I mentioned my age in class. She was like, “Wait, you’re an adult????” She’d thought I was twelve.

5. I just finished my last class of the night. At the end of it, the three year old girl (in China) wanted to know if she could come over and we could have the next class at my house.

(via napoleanbonafarte)