• RabbitBBQ@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Federal library funding is under threat— So go support one of the last remaining public spaces. It’s an outdated idea, somewhere a human can exist without having to spend money.

    • toynbee@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I took my young kid to a recent library event - the first time I’ve been to a library in several years, to be honest - and overheard the organizer (or leader or whatever) of the event saying “that’s why we’re here: to give people somewhere safe they can have entertainment for free.”

      I didn’t have much in the way of an opinion on that person prior to that, positive or negative, but I respected the hell out of them after hearing them say that.

  • @MrMakabar
    #AltText

    Sign at end of library shelf:
    Nervous about asking
    ABORTION 363.46
    ABUSE 362.76
    ALCOHOL 362.29, 813.81
    ANXIETY 152.46, 155.5, 616.85 BULLYING 303.69
    CANCER 616.99
    CHILD CUSTODY 343.73 CUTTING/SELF HARM 616.85 DEPRESSION 616.85
    DIVORCE 306.89
    DRUGS 362.29, 613.8
    EATING DISORDERS 616.85
    HIV/AIDS 616.97
    LOSS OF A PARENT 306.87, 155.9
    MENTAL ILLNESS 616.89
    POST TRAMATIC STRESS 616.85
    PREGNANCY 306.87, 618.2
    RAPE 362.88
    SELF-ESTEEM 185.1, 305.23 SEX 613.9
    STIs 616.95

    1/2

  • theblips@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    So refreshing seeing those words actually used in a public setting. Suicide instead of “self unaliving”, rape instead of “grape”, etc. Maybe I really am chronically online

    • lumony@lemmings.world
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      1 day ago

      Maybe I really am chronically online

      Perhaps. It is kind of nice to know that a lot of the drivel we read on these forums doesn’t necessarily translate to how people behave in the real world.

      I’ve gotten way better at identifying users whose brains are “shot” from spending too much time on social media. At some point, I’ve realized I may as well not be discussing with a human; they’re walking memes.

    • xia@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 day ago

      Even “chronically online” seems a bit euphemistic… it’s like we’re all living under oppressive technofascism.

  • notsure@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    the single most important reason for libraries to be freely accessible…maybe why certain folks want them to go away

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      If libraries didn’t already exist, to people in the USA they’d sound like some kind of socialist fever dream.

      A place where anybody can go to borrow media for free? Paid with my tax dollars?

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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        2 days ago

        I say this all the time! I use it to try to discredit conservatives when they make up reasons why we can’t have good things. Like, look, you love the library, and you know conservatives would make up all sorts of reasons why it couldn’t ever work. When they’re going on about how free buses (or whatever) couldn’t work, it’s the same

      • lumony@lemmings.world
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        1 day ago

        There could be some poor inner-city child that studies at libraries to get away from their home life and ends up joining the MIC or becoming an investment banker.

      • notsure@fedia.io
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        1 day ago

        Benjamin Franklin was a lover of life, and he seemed to think that books helped to love life…I honestly can’t believe he was so influential as to create one of the finest institutions on the planet. Remember, he hung out with slavers…

  • Remy Rose@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    In order for things like this to keep being offered, please keep an eye on your local library’s board and director. Ours are terrible, and gleefully destroying all our similar initiatives… Recent events have them feeling very empowered to do so.

    • maiskanzler@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      Also, consider picking up a job like that too or running for a seat on such boards. There’s always too few applicants for such roles and extremists have an easy time enacting change.

  • damdy@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    I really feel being somewhat neuro divergent when my first though was, ‘wtf Is that font’, it’s like someone made comic sans worse.

    • unbanshee@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 hours ago

      We do deserve librarians.

      For people dealing with or processing systemic trauma, this directory isn’t a luxury or a stretch goal feature, it’s an essential accessibilty feature.

      There are a few things I’d add to that list, like burnout, disability, and neurodivergence, but it’s a good start.

      We gotta raise the bar, it’s been in hell for too long now.

  • Lad@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    Hello Librarian, I’m looking for a book about wanking. Can you help me?

    • Favoring9181@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Be more specific dear, is it more focus on addiction/medical field, porn/entertainment field, or fetish/farming field ?

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        2 days ago

        First of all, that’s almost exactly how that conversation would probably go. Librarians are amazing.

        Second, contrary to popular belief, masturbation is not recognized as a pathway to addiction by Psychology (neither are porn use and sex).

        I know you were just doing the funny, but the internet should stop repeating this baseless idea invented by purity culture fanatics, even in jest.

        • x00z@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Second, contrary to popular belief, masturbation is not recognized as a pathway to addiction by Psychology (neither are porn use and sex).

          Lol, what? You can get addicted to almost anything. Including masturbation.

          If you specifically mean “a pathway to addiction” then you misinterpreted the single use of the word “addiction”.

          • Telorand@reddthat.com
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            1 day ago

            You cannot “get addicted to almost anything.” That’s nonsense. The DSM-V does not recognize masturbation, porn use, or sex as causes of addiction. There’s no such thing as “porn addiction,” for example. On top of that, it’s not as if masturbation addiction is a new idea that science has yet to accept—it’s the opposite, with psychology recognizing that the concept doesn’t hold up to scientific inquiry.

            People who compulsively or excessively masturbate almost always have an underlying cause. Masturbating is the symptom of that cause, and addressing the root should bring any excessive behavior into balance.

            The issue arises, though, that the internet often thinks that being horny more than their peers means there is something wrong with them. People tell them they’re “addicted” to sex, and purity culture spreads in earnest. There’s now entire industries that have sprung up based on this pseudoscience, and often because of cultural or religious upbringing, people do not question it.

            There’s plenty of good resources covering sexual behavior and addiction. As much as I dislike Google, Google Scholar is a good way to find papers and studies on the subject(s).