One of the sadder aspects of online hyperpartisanship, especailly on social media sites designed to farm outrage, is the need by some people to fall into a false dilemma fallacy of pure contrarianism against anyone who disagrees. Such a contrarian self-positioning happened recently in a response about libraries in rural areas.
A person posted a tweet on Twitter/X mentioning that they noticed on a drive between two rural locations they saw many churches and Trump signs, but no libraries. Another persons on Twitter responded with not only a defense of churches, but a belittlement of libraries—which rural areas and their churches apparently don’t need—to the point where libraries had become synonymous with “authoritarian control-freaks and “ignorant SNOBS”.
It is as if a bad thing becomes bad because a bad person thinks they are good. This is a very, very manichean view of the world.
Ignoring the fact that many urban cores and others outside rural areas also tend to have many more churches than libraries, this person who posted this tweet is equally guilty of derisive scorn against non-rural people as the original poster was guilty of derision aimed at rural people.
Plenty of people in urban, suburban, and exurban places indeed do have many friends, just as there are people in rural areas who feel isolated and alone (typically leaving the rural area if they have a chance), just as much as the opposite can be true. The value of books and learning, and the importance of education and libraries has been recognized for generations, especially amongst those who built this nation.
When libraries become a symbol of evil, perhaps it is you who need to reevaluate your views if not your life.
P.S. Large libraries are indeed awesome and access to the wealth of tangible knowledge in a university library is often well worth the cost of tuition alone.
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