@cstross

Now if I was in charge the Libraries would be funded like the military and the military like libraries (except maybe research... but see the aforementioned now terrifying public and free libraries)

Anyway I think that search should be run by the public library. Just like an alternative to banking and digital payments should be done by the post office.

*banging sound on my door of Credit Card Cartel goons come to get me*

@futurebird @cstross
County library gave me access to two online search engines mid ‘80s. The ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) and Lockheed-DIALOG. Lockeed was fabulous for Boolean syntax. 1st search=set 1 & count, 2nd=set 2, 3rd was set1 AND, OR, NOT set2. Sorely missed in the decades since.

@futurebird @cstross This *Post office offering bank accounts* is actually a thing in Germany; it's called PostBank and is run by Deutsche Post.

@Sibtodon @futurebird That was a thing in the UK … before the Tories (wearing the flayed skin of Labour, under Tony Blair) privatised the Post Office.

I'm pretty sure that's one of the things Trump's backers will ask for during his third term.

@cstross @Sibtodon

The failing of this whole project has already begun. Our president is crying out "communists! communists!" and too many people are just think "... and?"

We are due for a correction, the question is how to shape it so it is persistent, durable and not co-opted. That will be hard.

The young people give me some hope. There are still people who want to be "public servants" who find glory in that service greater than millions of dollars.

@cstross @Sibtodon

The post office is in the constitution. I know they don't care about that but the post office isn't just notion it's one of the core institutions of this country. It is more legally hallowed and protected than schools or running water. (which raises some question IMO, but let us leave that be)

I do think they will try. But I also think this will be harder to do than they suspect. The depth of the resistance will catch them off guard.

And frankly I think they will fail.

@futurebird @Sibtodon The USPS is indeed in the constitution … and so are presidential term limits: if Trump gets his third term it will mean the constitution is dead (and so is the post office). Silver lining: I don't expect him to live to see November '28.

@cstross @Sibtodon

My grandmother drove a rural postal truck, my dad would ride in the back doing his homework and passing her the packages.

I will get up and fight over the damn post office.

@futurebird @cstross @Sibtodon see also the high-tech fashion of declaring that libraries are obsolete because now you can buy books on the Internet at such reasonable prices!?

@mxchara @cstross @Sibtodon

As if libraries were just collections of objects called books ... and not institutions meant to facilitate answering of questions, access to information and through that self-constructed understanding of The World.

It's like thinking that a school is just a list of facts on a hard drive or printed on paper, or if you like churches that a religious institution is a place that dispenses grape juice and dry crackers.

Or that a hospital is a box of bandages and drugs.