CHARLESTON — The West Virginia House of Delegates debated the merits of removing protections for public librarians and school librarians from criminal prosecution in the off chance a minor encounters books and content some consider to be obscene.
“Ban books. Jail librarians.” - the bad guys in every epoch of history
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!
There are plenty of affordable places to live in Illinois.
I agree, however, the further we get into Illinois, the further away we get from our mothers.
Also, the closest Illinois towns to us are Marshall, Paris and Casey and I don’t know if I could take living in a town as small as any of those.
Effingham, Champaign/Urbana, and Bloomington/Normal are not that much further. I would personally pick blono as cost of living is cheaper with better job prospects than Champaign/Urbana. Effingham is going to be much more like Indiana.
Further enough that if there is an emergency, it would take way too long to get to our mothers. They’re already a 70-minute drive in the opposite direction.
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…
I’d encourage your mom to consider retiring and then running for local office.
We need the custodians of the public good to be in positions of authority. It’s scary to give up control you know for a long shot, but at the same time, if enough people make the leap and give us solid options in every jurisdiction, we might be able to get out ahead of the regressives’ next attack.
I think the library would die in the amount of time it would take to maybe get a local position. Further, she’s pushing 68 this year which imo is too old for something like that. Lastly, it’s a small Iowa town, and while it’s not as conservative as Western Iowa, she’s far too liberal to get mass support for a vote. That and her house is surrounded by family farm land that the city keeps trying to develop and she is fighting tool and nail against that. They wanted to build a massive horse arena right across the street some years ago, which would drastically lower her property value and qualify of life. The city keeps pushing forward trying to get things done and keeping her out of the loop like planning and land surveys for roads and shit. If I inherit some of that land when she passes, out of spite, I will ensure that the city never touches it because of how shady they’ve been. I’ll have it converted to protected prairie land before letting them ruin the area.
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.
Is there a gofundme page for this yet?
There’s room for you in Illinois.
I live in Ohio, my husband is a librarian in a small-ish town. He’s had to start looking for jobs in Columbus and out-of-state, which sucks because he really loves his community and knows most of the patrons by name. It’s maddening watching people actively campaign and vote against things like library funding, then turn around and complain that programs are being cut and service quality is dropping…
It really is. My only hope is that the library board in this town really cares about the library and freedom of speech, so maybe they will help shield the employees. I hope your husband finds something that works for him and you. Good luck!
Same to you, we’re gonna need it
I am so sorry this is off topic. You’re not a woman? (I ask because you said wife and only specifying your daughter as part of the LGBTQA community)
Seriously was convinced you were a woman because everything I ever see you say is much more aligned with a woman’s perspective than I’m used to seeing on the internet.
That said I’m sorry you don’t feel secure and safe in your home state. I hope this backsliding ends soon
Hello? There are no women on the internet
So what are all my mail order brides?
/s…
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.
Not always correct when dealing with constipation.
Republicans: The government needs to stop trying to be our babysitter
Also Republicans: this
Yeah, that is fascism.
We ALL know they are hypocrites.
THEY know they are hypocrites.
And every time we point it out they get a shiver of illicit arousal.
But it is a meme now to act shocked about it.
Enjoy your internet points I guess.
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.
Flordia: I’m the shittiest state!
Ohio: No, I’m the shittiest state!
West Virginia: Hold my beer…
Texas: “What am I, chopped liver?”
Nah, something Mexican.
West Virginia: hold my corn liquor
FTFY
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.”
As if the owner class manipulating their political leadership actually wants their indentured serfs climbing out of poverty.
"Residents of Bezonia and Muskville say quality of life is very good. Bubbafred McSisterfucker said: “I get paid 450 Bezobucks a week I can spend at any Bezomart on the compound, have a 20 square foot sleeping’ space, and get to watch Musk News any time I want on my 8 hour daily leave. I have everything I need. Ya’ll have to excuse me, I’m almost late for the weekly Corporate Citizen Contract meeting.”
I’m struggling to decide if the headline is positive or negative
This is a general frustration, so not at all about you specifically, but: we can’t keep condemning a whole state for the actions of their shitty government, even in a “haha West Virginia is full of republican hicks” or “can someone saw Florida off the mainland like Bugs Bunny already” or “Texas can just secede if they want, I don’t care”.
Painting these entire states by the brush of their elected government lowers our empathy for the people there, and that includes the people who didn’t vote for these gerrymandered fucks, children who are affected by these policies without their input, and people who can’t leave even if they wanted to. Those are real people who deserve to have things like libraries and the chance to escape poverty.
When we oppose policy decisions like this, we can’t leave behind people who agree with us but are in terrible circumstances that they have no control over. Statistically the people who are going to make the West Virginia state government any better are already living there, and we need to be in community with them rather than pushing them away.
Hot take: Every republican who voted trumpty dumpty a 2nd time doesn’t deserve empathy.
I’ll forgive the first timers, everyone else should lose their right to vote for supporting a seditionist.
I like your take. Hearing people tell me that since I live in Texas I must be a yee haw inbred who loves stripping women of rights won’t change the fact that I’m totally against that, but it does hurt.
Speaking of gerrymandering, a lot of folks don’t realize that it also affects statewide offices like US senators or the governor because it makes people like me feel like our votes don’t matter. So fewer people at the polls who do agree with anything more liberal than owning other humans. That’s great for the GOP. They’re already trying to throw out all the votes in my city because we’re blue so the less people that vote the more likely it is that nothing changes.
I’m both old enough and callous enough to not care what others think about me and my views, but that’s not true of everyone. So I’ll be voting against the GOP in my big red state. But the more people make fun of us the more likely it is that people will feel there’s no way they can make a difference.
Speaking of gerrymandering, a lot of folks don’t realize that it also affects statewide offices like US senators or the governor because it makes people like me feel like our votes don’t matter.
This is incredibly stupid. Not trying to be rude, but need to be honest. First of all, statewide elections aren’t actually affected by gerrymandering, which you obviously know, so I’m not sure why you all would be discouraged from voting for statewide offices.
More importantly, gerrymandering is accomplished by diluting super majority districts with the opposing party from neighboring districts. This makes the formerly supermajority District much easier to flip, along with the previously leaning minority District. So organize and get out the vote, and you can flip multiple districts.
Because people are discouraged from voting at all. They don’t believe it makes a difference.
You’re right that it doesn’t make a difference because of the way it works mechanically, but you’re failing to take into account how many people are told and believe that since Texas is a red state that what they’re doing doesn’t matter. That breeds a group of apathetic folks.
We barely had about 1/2 of eligible voters and about 2/3 registered voters voting in the 2020 election and that was a high turnout.
This makes the formerly supermajority District much easier to flip, along with the previously leaning minority District. So organize and get out the vote, and you can flip multiple districts.
Everything is easy if you’re not the one doing it. If you can’t share the secret of how you’ve personally done what you call easy then maybe you shouldn’t assume we’re just not doing it. Because it’s fucking hard when people don’t believe their vote matters due to gerrymandering and being told that we’re a red state. I’ve donated my time and money and it’s fucking exhausting watching what should be an even split statewide go red.
Unless by starting your comment with “This is incredibly stupid” you meant everything that you were about to type up. In that case I retract this comment.
I’m not trying to be rude, but come show me how YOU do it or go fuck yourself.
you’re failing to take into account how many people are told and believe that since Texas is a red state that what they’re doing doesn’t matter. That breeds a group of apathetic folks.
This is why Dems need to do more groundwork, knock on doors and get out the vote drives. Need to increase turnout numbers.
Everything is easy if you’re not the one doing it. If you can’t share the secret of how you’ve personally done what you call easy then maybe you shouldn’t assume we’re just not doing it
This is where reading comprehension really helps. If district A used to be 75% Republican and district B was 40% Republican before gerrymandering, and after gerrymandering district A is 55% Republican and District B is 60% Republican, guess what math tells us? It is now easier to flip District A! You don’t need to turnout 50,000 Dems (as an example), maybe now you only need to turnout an additional 10,000. Gerrymandering makes safe districts much closer to contested districts.
I’m not trying to be rude, but come show me how YOU do it or go fuck yourself.
Seems like you are trying to be rude. But you’re saying that gerrymandering affects statewide races, so I can’t possibly care about rudeness from a moron with poor reading comprehension.
Texas is a cesspool of Republican shit stains. Your school boards routinely try to make textbooks anti-science and anti-history. Your AG has been under indictment for about a decade. And now your state is stripping women of their rights to bodily autonomy. That’s just scratching the surface of the fuckery, I haven’t even mentioned your electric grid or plans at secession.
If after all that you’re too lazy or apathetic to vote, and to organize others to vote, then yes, you’re incredibly stupid and you deserve what you’ve got.
If after all that you’re too lazy or apathetic to vote, and to organize others to vote, then yes, you’re incredibly stupid and you deserve what you’ve got.
Now who did you say had a reading comprehension problem? I mentioned that I’m doing all those things. But you’re too busy being a self righteous fuckwit to see it.
You’re not worth it.You don’t understand what I’m saying, and you’re too stubborn stupid to actually try.
When you’re ready to tell me how YOU’VE done what you’re saying is easy for others, create a new user and message me from there. Until then, blocking.
How could it possibly be positive?
From the perspective of the hypothetical writer. Like in the future it was a story about a victory.
What possible victory could that be?
Stopping the poors from getting educated!
Anyone seeing victory in that is not worth taking seriously.
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.
The U.S.*
The world is fine (ish.)
Everyone knows pollution doesn’t have a passport and doesn’t cross country lines.
You’re probably referring to the coal thing. I was referring to the librarians thing.
Fascism won’t stop at the frontier either.
You’re actually right, especially with this era of global communication.
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.
Maybe it’s all the Mt Dew.
Like the Bible?
Especially the Bible!
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.
Almost hell, West Virginia, right-wing grifters, hateful ignoramuses
Fully agree, but too many syllables. Try “idjits” instead
That word looks like it comes from brown people.
- West Virginian Linguist
One of the regular reminders that I hate the fact that I love that song. See also: Sweet Home Alabama.
They’re good songs, even if I’m not very keen to their messages.
I know, that’s why I hate it so much.
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.
Mein Fuhreer…
Take me hoome…
To the plaace…
We ban boooks…Where’s RTGame with a meteor strike when we need him?
