Libraries must remain public spaces | Ramblin' & Amblin' | Oct 24, 2026

Thinking about, um, I just came from the library where he voted, um, and how important these places are, and that once upon a time, you know, I still held a regressive view because of the propaganda and, um, and, uh, well, yeah, propaganda and misinformation of, uh, of folks like Rush Limbaugh, who always, um, talked about, uh, you know, keeping every penny he had, and I remember one time I was talking with a colleague, an older, way back in the very beginning, he was already on his, he was basically retired from, uh, um, corporate engineering life, financial engineering, and, um, um, he was helping with the startup, and, uh, I worked for him, and, you know, like, he was, um, he was of a different era, he was, um, very much of a different era, but I want to tell him, he was, he was pretty progressive, and he, and I just had a very poignant conversation with one time when, uh, I don't remember how he got on it, but, you know, maybe rushing the wall to say something about, uh, taxes and paying for schools and libraries and things like that, and I tried to reason the logic with him about, uh, you know, you know, if you're paying it for other people's stuff, you don't have kids in school, why do you, why do you want to do this, I might do this, this is like 2001, two, three, something like that, uh, and, uh, he's like, well, I might not go to the library, but I want to be in a neighborhood where other people go to the library, because that means that they have a place to go, and that they can get information, and they're probably able to educate themselves, so, um, you know, I wanted to be in a place where, and I'm paraphrasing heavily here, I'm trying to remember, 20 plus years ago, um, and this, you know, he alluded to the same thing with schools, it's like, do I want to be in a place where everybody is ignorant, because, um, no, I want the people around me to be educated and well-read, and I want them to be, uh, um, able to have a place to go, uh, and, you know, things like that, and, again, mind you, I'm completely still, this time, we didn't call it a pill or anything, but I was definitely somebody who listened to Rush Limbaugh, and listened to Hannity, and let those grievances and resentments, but the person in front of me, who, hey, we bought, we butt ed heads, if you know me, that's no surprise, but this person was, he, he, uh, trust me, this, this, I'm from a different era, okay, um, and so was he, um, but, uh, so, you know, our conversations were different than, I think, some of the conversations that you hear today in an office, um, not because of good or bad, just because times are different, and the, uh, vocabulary and experiences are different, so I was pretty heavily influenced by Rush Limbaugh and all that back then, and he's pointing out to me that's perfectly reasonably, do I want to be in a place where there's no books, because, you know, like, and I might have made some kind of, like, comments about borders or something at the time, I don't know, I don't know, I can't remember, but, uh, I could imagine that, and, and then, so, I, again, I, I'm filtering this back to recollection, but the point is, is that, that, that argument would have been garbage, too, because here we are, um, corporate ownership is, is profit motivated, so, um, if they're not making a profit, they disappear, and where, where are those bookstores going to be? They're going to be in the place that's most advantageous for business, not in a community center where there's residential people all around, and, um, you can have a voting center, or you can host a user group in the basement, um, or you can take your kids there, um, to play blocks in the, uh, in the wooden trains, or you can just go and sit there, um, and, uh, upload your videos, um, in peace and quiet, uh, not with a rattling of coffee and a timer while somebody's wanting you to turn over the table. You know, corporate-owned stuff is, got its place, but libraries and schools, and things that are in the interest of the people can't be replaced by private entities, um, because as soon as the tide changes, their profit margins are affected, and they change the strategy. Um, it's not even malicious.

You know, maybe some of those first corporations really thought that we were doing something good, but, like what we saw with, uh, Pride at Target, you know, things like that, they will flip on you. They're there for money, and if they think they're going to make money by, uh, making you believe that they give a crap about any of this stuff, they will. But as soon, as soon as they can sense that they get value from the other side, gone. Gone.

Don't even, like, they never were in their side. It's just like with AI hallucinating. Like, all text, even if it's correct, is a hallucination, because I have no idea what it, what it's saying. And I understand why people are falling for the halluc inations, because I've, I believe what I was hearing, too, back then.

It was all just slop to make me stop supporting my local community and trust in a corporate entity. Then we get Citizens United, and it's, it is a trap. We are in a panopticon. No single pixel is out of place.

It's like, when you watch, um, animation, uh, every single thing on that screen is intentional. Uh, there's, there's nothing unintentional. Um, with AI-generated media, everything is unintentional. And, there is no occlusion in AI.

There's only generation. so that even absence is, uh, predicated upon the presence of something else. So you can't even have an, an isolated individual thought. Every single pixel is predicated by the pixels around it.

Um, the pixels just being this attempt to quantize and, and decompose every single interaction into some kind of transaction. Um, I know I'm going a little bit esoteric here, and I'm trying to pull it back. You know, the gravity is great of the digression, and, but, uh, yeah, the, the point is, is that our libraries being deplenished, um, and replacement of books, and the, like, why is it that they have to destroy the book after they, they skin? Why does it have to be destroyed?

Why? Ask yourself, fucking ask yourself, why do they have to destroy the books? And, you know that OpenAI was, once upon a time, one of those, ooh, in the public interest companies, but as soon as the money, they got, the sharks got that smell of blood, and the money, it was no longer a public, um, interest company. So, when we're talking about the, um, propaganda against libraries, against schools, I didn't see this one coming.

But these guys are crafty. We can't ever think that they're stupid. they're, vicious, malevolent, um, all while wearing a smile, because they think they're doing the right thing for their master, uh, while putting the boot on your face. and you'll think that you're getting barns and coffee when you're actually getting, uh, corporate control, and, um, no place that is a, uh, a solace without, uh, without pain.

So, the guy, I worked with, I'll just say Jerry. Jerry was right. He said, I don't want to live in a world where there's not. stuff like this.

They're, uh, there are no punishment for the end of the season. And then there's, there's a kid here getting a book from the free library. There's also a lady that comes through here and she steals a bunch of the books. And then, uh, I know this because the, uh, the ladies that work here, uh, and keep this place, um, told me I had to keep an eye out for her.

And I saw her eventually one day. That's, uh, yeah. We've been getting work done for a long time. Too bad in our own.

Internal support systems that aren't coupled to, uh, um, corporate interests and that we're told that anything being run by our own government is somehow evil, but that a malevolent entity that answers to nobody except their stakeholders in the stock market is automatically, um, somehow superior. Why is that? I mean, to me, it was like a, kind of a stupid question at this point, but once upon a time it wasn't. And I imagine for other people's it isn't either.

I don't, because I talk to some of them that they don't know where they're, I know people with, uh, special needs children who, uh, they're vocally Republican and they know so little and whenever presented with context they just say I don't care. why because it hasn't reached them yet and as we're all sitting here thinking about me, I'm projecting you know, is that's, yeah, this is news to some people and, uh, it's, it's disheartening but I'd like to also believe that there's hope that learning and, um, as I'm really learning how to be human again to, um, how to engage with the reality that we exist in not entirely decoupled into, um, some story by somebody who isn't even here with us is off living in a different world um, what are their motivations for taking away the things in our neighborhoods and our own connections and trust in each other and awareness of who's really funding, um, your, your support system and that it's not, uh, being taken by the immigrants it's not, I mean, yeah, there's immigrants that are in fact taking advantage of things but the lies that are mixed in there make it impossible to have that serious conversation but, um, I've said this is the, this is, this is the foundation, all this jabber jabber that I've had is the foundation for why I say that, uh, the MAGA and blue states are going to be the last two, the last holdouts is because, um, they're not, um, who you hear necessarily on media, um, they're just living their lives, doing their thing, um, ignoring everything around them, getting their benefits, filing bankruptcies when they get over leveraged and they're perfectly fine with it because, um, he says the things that they like and then they want to talk to me about Muslims and trans people, I'm like, what are we, what are we doing here? But, maybe one day I gave you that to Jerry, but they're not me. Alright, thanks, bye.