Banned books and why hipsters suck

A friend mentioned the old comic code. Made me think of a depressing conversation I overheard at the local Hippie Bookstore. Couple of hipsters dissing other hipsters for not being...I dunno not militate or hardcore enough. Among other things they were whining about banned books week which has apparently become something for hipsters to whine about.

It was sad, because they totally missed the point which hipsters (especially hipsters who fancy themselves as activists) almost always do. Hopefully if you're in this neighborhood you know the point, but in case you don't there are a lot of us who think things like banned books matter. No matter how small or large the group trying to ban something is, no matter how ineffective it is, no matter how pointless it is, it matters. It always matters because when any group gives itself the moral authority to tell other people what it's OK to think, what it's OK or not OK to read about and discuss...well, that's just bad no matter how you slice it. It's just wrong. No one should ever be allowed to think they have moral authority over anybody else. You can have legal authority but you don't get to decide what other people believe or don't believe. Banning shit is about preventing the exchange of ideas you don't like and in the end the exchange and discussion of those ideas is the only thing that gets us to a better place.

You can't fight every fight and you can't always win the ones you do fight but if you don't suit up for at least some of them you lose the moral right to complain about the state of the world you live in and frankly complaining about the world I live in is one of the few things that keeps me even remotely sane. The world is a fine place and it is worth fighting for, but it's also very much a fixer upper. There's a fine line between "don't sweat the small stuff." and the complacency that lets evil rule the world. It ain't easy, but to make any kind of difference at all you need to be ever vigilant and make sure you stay on the right side of that line.

This may not matter to you, but something needs to, because if nothing does...well, if you read this far it's hard to imagine I need to explain that part to you.

Wishing you as always the best of luck with all the things you do choose to care about. Have a nice day. :)