Mak0rz posted:

No one ever blew into an SNES cart

Milo and POTUS posted:

Is that a dog?

Knormal posted:

The legs are quite a bit off, but I'm pretty confident it's a crude interpretation of a Peepy.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

https://twitter.com/tressiemcphd/status/1503894723467124745

cohsae posted:

If that thing threatened to kill me I'd believe it

Ror posted:

Peepy is a hardened

zoux posted:

I think they just took that one episode of Seinfeld too seriously. Here's the full collection

https://twitter.com/BirdRespecter/status/1504451899935711233

zoux posted:

Can YOU guess what this internet anarchist is talking about...

Here's another clue

hallo spacedog posted:

Not trying to be flippant but what does it mean when this person says they can't afford access to the library.

hallo spacedog posted:

Not trying to be flippant but what does it mean when this person says they can't afford access to the library.

turbomoose posted:

zoux posted:

Can YOU guess what this internet anarchist is talking about...

Here's another clue

HenryJLittlefinger posted:

Radclyffe Hall is a boss rear end name

hallo spacedog posted:

Not trying to be flippant but what does it mean when this person says they can't afford access to the library.

Pakled posted:

I guess if you're homeless and undocumented it would be difficult/impossible to prove residency to get a card, but even then you could still visit the library, you just couldn't check things out.

Beeswax posted:

Her facial expression however is not boss rear end

hallo spacedog posted:

Not trying to be flippant but what does it mean when this person says they can't afford access to the library.

Eiba posted:

As someone who works in a library and loves libraries- they can be run in a way that's hostile to lower income people. Late fees in particular are just a barrier to lower income people particularly working families, who often check out dozens of children's books and DVDs at a time, and considering they're dealing with working lovely jobs while raising kids, they're the ones most likely to lose track of time and return items late.

I do not know of any libraries that actually send anyone after you if you've accrued a bunch of fines, but they can block your account if the fines get to high or something like that. As with any monetary penalty it hits different classes differently. A parking ticket is just the easily paid tax a rich person pays to park wherever they want, while it can be a huge deal to a lower income person. Library late fees can make it too expensive for low income people to use the library.

Late fees are terrible arbitrary barriers to library access and they don't even help support libraries in any meaningful way. Or at least if they do end up being a critical part of a library's budget, something has gone seriously wrong. All the libraries in my area were thinking of abolishing fines before covid hit, and then when all the libraries did as a necessary temporary measure (can't reasonably charge late fees when the libraries are actually closed), it was difficult for them to justify reinstating fines as things slowly opened up. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but late fees are gone in my region as a result. So there's one more small instance of covid shaking things up and changing things for the better.

They way this person is talking it sounds like they didn't return something from the library. Possibly they lost it, or it was destroyed in a way they couldn't help. These things happen sometimes. That's frustrating for everyone, but does leave the library with an issue. There needs to be some mechanism to ensure people don't just keep the things they've checked out.

I take issue with the characterization that there's any significant "punishment by the state" for taking and keeping an item from the library. There's absolutely no enforcement of library fines or fees outside of the library. You just aren't allowed to take out more items before you return the previous ones. If the organizing principle, "you can take anything you want as long as you share," is too draconian for this person's version of anarchism, then I don't think they have a very sustainable notion of anarchism. (I say this as an anarchist myself.)

That said, if they lost an expensive item they can't afford to replace then it can be true that they "can't afford access to the library". That is a legitimate issue with charging replacement costs for items. It hits people of different classes differently. A rich family can check out a bunch of videogames for their family, knowing that if their kids break one or two they can cover it and they're still saving money vs just buying the games. A poor family might have to tell their kids they can only check out one at a time and have to impress upon them how important it is to return it in good condition, or else not check out games at all because losing one means losing access to the library and they rely on it for the dozens of books or comics that keep their kid engaged in reading.

These aren't hypothetical scenarios by the way, these are ordinary kinds of discussions I witness every day.

The notion that this person "can't afford the library" is actually the most compelling and cogent thing this person says about libraries and, they are bringing up a very legitimate and difficult to address issue. I have no good systemic solution to the issue myself. I would hope a library would be willing to work with people unable to pay fines, but I have worked in libraries that were sympathetic and interested in making sure everyone has reasonable access, and libraries that were happy to just get rid of "expensive" patrons and effectively ban them forever if they were going to have the gall to be poor and disorganized. It all depends on the whims of whoever's running a given library. (And, surprising no one, even in the more sympathetic library, there's notably less sympathy extended to minorities.)

That said, it looks like they're mostly mad about how they personally were treated and trying to organize a larger principle around that personal slight is going to make you sound entitled and silly. They could probably have outlined a legitimate injustice in a much less entitled and silly way if they weren't feeling so personally aggrieved.

I guess even then the anarchist solution would be to fall back on personal social bonds- appeal to the librarian personally as a member of their community, and try to break down the barrier the concept of an institution has put between them. If their tone on twitter is anything to go by that interaction probably didn't go well.

zoux posted:

You're being very generous, but the way this poo poo works is the OP says something absolutist like "ALL STATE INSTITUTIONS ARE BAD" for clout and someone goes "what about libraries" so rather than re evaulate their first principles, they try to hammer the square peg through the round hole.

zakharov posted:

The NY public library just ditched fines altogether.

HenryJLittlefinger posted:

I grew up hanging around in the library my mom worked in in a small southern town. It was the place for the jobless, the childrens' home residents, the safe after school place for kids whose parents worked late, the halfway house residents, etc. Fines were capped at $2.00 and the rate was something like $0.25/week late. I volunteered a bit there when I was old enough to check out and shelf books and stuff, and was quietly instructed that some people were not pursued for fines. It was surprisingly great.

Later in life I lived in Colorado Springs for a bit and went to a public library branch in a pretty upscale neighborhood. I was a couple weeks late returning a book and received a letter with a fine near the value of the book and a threat that it would be forwarded to a collections agency if I didn't pay up within a week. Not surprisingly, Colorado Springs is a bastion for some of the shittiest libertarians I've ever experienced.

My current library in a pretty left-leaning Colorado town has entire sections of the library upstairs dimly lit with a few pieces of furniture and lots of open space for the homeless and jobless to just hang out quietly and nap.