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I am wondering what conservatives think about public libraries. Conservative ideology supports making government minimal, which would seem to imply they would o

I am wondering what conservatives think about public libraries. Conservative ideology supports making government minimal, which would seem to imply they would oppose public libraries, but perhaps that is not they actually think.

mee_too 9y ago
Close the libraries down, same as public baths. I don't want my taxes being wasted on those people.
- nine_k 9y ago
  Would you rather share streets with people who bathe, or not? Would you rather share the streets with people who read books, or not?
  - mee_too 9y ago
    Send them off to the private prisons ...
acdha 9y ago
It involves tax revenue helping people who are often some combination of poor, brown, and non-Protestant. They're against it, with a few exceptions who recognize that anyone trying to better themselves will probably need a library to do it. The weirdest example I have is a relative who supports every Republican cut but also complains when the libraries near him reduced their hours because he doesn't have internet access anywhere else.
tomjakubowski 9y ago
You could use Google to find articles published by conservative US think tanks, like the Hoover Institution or The Heritage Foundation. It actually turns out, though, that they haven't published much about libraries. From 1997: "Of all the great American institutions that deserve the support and affection of conservatives, lending libraries are among the most essential. At their best, libraries are repositories of our national intellectual heritage. In the free market of ideas, libraries are like banks, where any American can borrow the accumulated capital of knowledge and where some will eventually deposit the dividends of discovery. The cause of conservatism has everything to gain from this egalitarian preservation of political philosophy, classical literature, moral fiction, historical fact—of "the best that has been thought and said," as Matthew Arnold had it." but also "The nation’s libraries do a poor job of preserving conservative truths. We need to start our own." http://www.hoover.org/research/virtual-veritas http://www.hoover.org/research/virtual-veritas Also from 1997: "Public libraries are becoming de facto pipelines for pornography on the Internet. Ask the library whether it blocks pornography with filtering software; if not, establish family rules about using computers with Internet access at the library." http://www.hoover.org/research/home-front-1 http://www.hoover.org/research/home-front-1 The Heritage Foundation praises Andrew Carnegie's privately-funded public libraries here http://www.heritage.org/markets-and-finance/report/free-market-philanthropy-the-social-aspect-entrepreneurship http://www.heritage.org/markets-and-finance/report/free-mark...

mee_too 9y ago

Close the libraries down, same as public baths. I don't want my taxes being wasted on those people.

nine_k 9y ago
Would you rather share streets with people who bathe, or not? Would you rather share the streets with people who read books, or not?
- mee_too 9y ago
  Send them off to the private prisons ...

acdha 9y ago

It involves tax revenue helping people who are often some combination of poor, brown, and non-Protestant. They're against it, with a few exceptions who recognize that anyone trying to better themselves will probably need a library to do it. The weirdest example I have is a relative who supports every Republican cut but also complains when the libraries near him reduced their hours because he doesn't have internet access anywhere else.

tomjakubowski 9y ago

You could use Google to find articles published by conservative US think tanks, like the Hoover Institution or The Heritage Foundation. It actually turns out, though, that they haven't published much about libraries. From 1997: "Of all the great American institutions that deserve the support and affection of conservatives, lending libraries are among the most essential. At their best, libraries are repositories of our national intellectual heritage. In the free market of ideas, libraries are like banks, where any American can borrow the accumulated capital of knowledge and where some will eventually deposit the dividends of discovery. The cause of conservatism has everything to gain from this egalitarian preservation of political philosophy, classical literature, moral fiction, historical fact—of "the best that has been thought and said," as Matthew Arnold had it." but also "The nation’s libraries do a poor job of preserving conservative truths. We need to start our own." http://www.hoover.org/research/virtual-veritas http://www.hoover.org/research/virtual-veritas Also from 1997: "Public libraries are becoming de facto pipelines for pornography on the Internet. Ask the library whether it blocks pornography with filtering software; if not, establish family rules about using computers with Internet access at the library." http://www.hoover.org/research/home-front-1 http://www.hoover.org/research/home-front-1 The Heritage Foundation praises Andrew Carnegie's privately-funded public libraries here http://www.heritage.org/markets-and-finance/report/free-market-philanthropy-the-social-aspect-entrepreneurship http://www.heritage.org/markets-and-finance/report/free-mark...