booktok, brainrot, and why it’s okay to be a hater

sometimes all you need is a seriously good steamy book so here are my recommendations and I'm going to try and convince you to read these books in just a couple words or less I would like to is it is it I swear to God you laughing you trying to laugh funny pretty much any however you speak a word against my baby and we're going to have a problem um is there alcohol in oh God honey no what kind of mother do you think I am drink oh no can't I swear to [Music] God I give

up my I'm retiring [Music] one of the first things that people get to know about me is that I am an Avid Reader I love books to a worrying degree my mother was the personification of this meme so essentially the only form of entertainment I had available as a child was books the first big gift I ever got was a Kindle in the second grade with a handful of Classics downloaded onto it and the first book I ever remember reading cover to cover was the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes I had to get glasses at

5 because I was read reading so much in the dark that my eyesight was ruined and whenever I did something bad or worthy of punishment I had my books taken away here are some of my Goodreads stats for over the years and I make it a rule to always have a book on me whether digital or physical reading is inextricably linked to who I am as a person yet among my friends I'm known as somewhat of a book pessimist a hater my average Goodreads rating is a 2 .92 out of five and I've rated 27

out of 550 Plus Books five stars my positive reviews are short and my negative ones are novels in and of themselves before I start yapping I just want to say that I don't think being a book snob gives me any right to State whether a book holds Merit or whether it's meaningless I think you can gain something from pretty much any book even if you think it has the dest characters or the slowest plot or the worst grammar establishing an a objective bad within art is impossible and honestly it's a waste of time I'm not

the arbitrator of your personal taste that's an individual preference the phrase I get met with most often though when I criticize a Colleen Hoover or Ali Hazelwood or Penelope Douglas novel is why can't you just let people enjoy things and honestly I can't I think being a hater is good and I blame book talk for making it so popular not to be [Music] book talk is this weird elusive term for the general community of Book Lovers on Tik Tok the community gained traction back when the pandemic happened when everybody was stuck at home and bored

out of their minds so creators started posting book recommendation videos and Aesthetics about their favorite books and soon they started blowing up these book talk books soon it became a full community and the power within the publishing industry can be seen in recent releas pieces like fourth wi or Icebreaker this is a common criticism for critics of book talk so I'm just going to get this out of the way when I say book talk books it's the general branding for those explosively popular books that can attribute a lot of their current success to Tik Tok

I'm also referring to those books that spawn because of Tik Tok because of those tropes and those demands that the readers online want I'm not referring to those books that are recommended by book Talkers in specific niches I'm referring to those books you know those books the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo Colleen Hoover novels anything that you would see in your local Barnes & Noble on a table labeled Tik Tok I know that you curate your own for you page and I have received many good recommendations from book talk but a lot of people aren't

willing to go outside of their own bubble and seek out these well-written diverse stories leading to more uncritical consumption and a promotion of these rather bad books here are some books that I have personally discovered because of Tik Tok and loved I who have never known man perfumed the story of a murder the female of the species human AXS my dark Vanessa a certain hunger I'll have a full list Linked In the bio somewhere but please note that I'm not disparaging book talk as a whole it's multifaceted on one hand it's a place to discover

new books to find Community with those who share your similar interests and to see books that deserve praise and success finally get it when I scroll Tik Tok I see creativity Joy pleasure energy and a contagious enthusiasm for books however there is a lot going wrong on this side of Tik Tok as well I feel like every single one of my videos revolves around performance under a gaze of some sort and this is no exception Tik tok's online panopticon promotes performance of a certain aesthetic of reader it was like entering a parallel universe where reading

wasn't just something that someone did for fun it was a lifestyle an aesthetic people were readers like Lorraine Kelly is Lorraine Kelly you need certain things to fit that aesthetic a lot of books obviously tabs highlighters maybe even certain clothing and don't get me started on dark Academia Stephanie danler author of Sweet Bitter wrote an essay for bustle about how she just couldn't gel with the platform of Tik Tok but my inability to get hooked on book talk actually has more to do with the way the app works that it's not a social media app

but an entertainment app on it you can't just show a book by Clarice Le Spectre the successful accounts performed being a woman who reads Clarice Le Spectre Tik Tok is a turning machine of consumption and book talk is no exception a lot of cont content revolves around consumption of books ownership rather than readership you can see so many people doing book hauls shopping sprees book buying bands from how many books they've been buying and just constantly promoting the newest release over and over and over it makes me wonder just how many of these people have

actually read the bucketfuls of books that they have lying around their homes maranne and Lucy coslet writes for Guardian some people treat books like totemic magical objects this phenomenon is best illustrated by a poster that shows a cat and bears the slogan that's what I do I read books I drink tea and I know things apologies if you own this poster but to me it encapsulates everything that is smug and middle class about the cult of book ownership I don't mean reading provided you're lucky enough to still have a local library that is a Pastime

that is accessible to almost everyone no I specifically mean having a lot of books and boasting about it treating having a lot of books as a standin for your personality or believing that simply owning a lot of books makes one know things being able to goofily laugh at the mammoth number of books you read or purchased that year online and to friends contributes to your bookish cerebral identity to exude this air of reader people have been acquiring hundreds and hundreds of books fueling this trend of overc consumption jumping onto the trend needing the newest releases

or fancy additions to just look intelligent and trendy we have book talk influencers promoting the newest releases and people will jump on the train and buy it before they even know what it's about this is the business model of the influencer economy you forge a connection with your followers and then you can use that to sell them stuff you can even see this kind of Branch off with celebrity book stylists yes they do exist and all those cool girl books that you see celebrities toing around in their paparazzi photos carrying a book is a symbol

of status a symbol of identity I stopped making book videos because the community had become overrun by commercialism near the end of the 2010s many of the major booktubers had essentially become Pawns in the hands of publishing houses they receive boxes upon boxes of books that they then haul basically just show off and then you never see those books mentioned again the act of reading became replaced by the act of being a reader actual reviews became few and far between and many of the smaller genuine readers on the platform jump ship it feels like book

talk has got to the same place only much faster now we're seeing readers hungry for a hard cover they want beautiful covers and end papers and unique art inside for books that look beautiful on their shelves they want to go online and show them off the hype just builds and builds this trend of consumerism has also affected the content that we see within books if you visited your local Barnes & Noble at any point in the last year or so you've probably seen a table labeled romance or fantasy or Romany a combination of the two

genres this is no mistake the genre is growing at a massive rate on book talk and more and more authors are writing more and more books to fuel the growing demand adult fiction was the brightest spot in 2023 fiction print sales grew by 1% or 1.5 million units over the prior year led by fantasy romance coming of age and historical fiction subjects this genre of new adult Romany is driving authors and Publishers to churn out similar content I like to refer to them as popcorn books easily chewed up easily forgotten the rapidly turning wheel of

Trends means books are quickly sensationalized but also quickly forgotten once the hype dies down Publishers are on the hunt for the next quick read it's fascinating to try and analyze what it all means for our future Dena says but thinks there's no going back Publishers are no longer The Taste makers or driving Trends in Romance it's coming entirely from the consumers it creates the illusion of choice within this Market that the consumer is running it instead of The Producers is the one who's constantly churning out more and more material for people to eat up on

medium Madison hingo writes the subject matter of popular book talk books is also of note as it mirrors the type of content that succeeds on social media itself digestible and Sensational similar to the palatable short form content that succeeds on apps like Tik Tok book talk books of the ya variety often contain predictable story lines that are easy for readers to swallow we can begin the book confidently knowing that the enemies will turn into lovers and that the fake dating will turn into real dating all will be tied up with a neat bow yet these

books are as chewable as they are Laden with spectacle they often contain a lot of vibrant smut or graphic sexual material I think that book talk acts as a helpful case study showcasing how companies will find any way to capitalize on what people love online our current stage of capitalism thrives off bottling people's passions and interests and selling them back to them in a cheapened sterilized package this inevitably leads to the erosion of artistic authenticity and books becoming less of an art and more like products that tick the right boxes when marketing books Publishers are

now utilizing methods that drive with the quick formats of Tik Tok in order to summarize books and Market them efficiently they turn to tropes tropes are typically short phrases that broadly summarize plot points within a story best friends brother fake dating enemies to lovers etc etc they're predictable cliche now popular books on book talk seem solely written to fill in these tropes instead of having a story injected with thought out substance critics of the tropication of the book industry have weathered similar attacks on their perceived elitism it's easy to see critics of tropication as supercilious

self-appointed guardians of proper fiction but Tropi literature is not a concern of taste it's one of content when literature is reduced to only one Trope and when this kind of literature outsells all others it signals a concerning future for literature as easily consumable entertainment rather than something that encourages a thoughtful exploration of larger themes another level of marketing within book talk is spice this is first and foremost not a condemnation of sex scenes within any form of media we are far beyond the haze code era spice levels have existed for a long time when discussing

books but now it seems that a large group of people will not read a book book unless it has sex of some form in it for publisher Ali Watts a strong level of spice across romance and romantic is a huge factor in the appeal of the genres readers are looking for it and it's considered a strong selling point if it has a good strong spice level she says this need for sexual content has led to two things one the miscategorization of adult books as ya because of their cute little cartoon covers without considering the actual

material inside and two a sort of brain rot that creates books with SE scenes and not much else to indulge in there are surface level stories with tropes strung together and romanticization of harmful Behavior but people don't think about that because all they're reading for is the sex I saw someone say that people who enjoy calling Hooper are the people who stopped reading in middle school back when adults would say all reading is good reading they've carried this mindset with them as they've gotten older and reading has become trendy again now they have this outward

behavior of intellectualism but they don't care about what's actually in the book in their hands I appreciate book talk as a concept I appreciate it for the smart well-thought individuals it has led me to I appreciate it for the books it's given me and I appreciate it for bringing people back into an activity they might have abandoned years ago book talks consequences and general attitude of consumerism though it might not have started out this way are just not things that I can get behind especially this flattening of major tastes into just a few genres the

exceptions to this trend of romantic books like normal people a little life a secret history are waved around to indicate intellectualism say hey we can read smart books too we can analyze too but readers often never move outside of that scope they read those popular books they post a video of them crying at the end and then they just kind of retreat back into their shell people are not pushing to diversify their reading tastes when they get marketed the same things over and over again I get it Romany is safe it's fun it's predictable Lee

Stein writes for liit Hub a vessel seeking pleasure as Bailey is speaking I realized she could be describing every reader in this bookstore she could be describing me when we read fiction we're no longer our workplace name tags our email addresses the emergency contact number on the school form our lives are hard enough readers are vessels seeking pleasure but I would disagree with that sentiment it's a dehumanizing one one that implies that we are like baby birds opening our mouths to whatever is regurgitated inside just as long as it fills our stomachs we turn our

minds off we eat we Gorge solely consuming this kind of literature not only promotes the publishing Market to churn out this soulless genre fiction but it also perpetuates this defensive attitudes towards criticism of any safe material the final and most dangerous thing that I've seen on book talk is the rise of anti-intellectualism [Music] I will always be a hater a Critic I think it's a crucial element of being informed yet as more and more people critique authors like Colleen Hoover or popular books like Icebreaker a common response from people is can't we all fun you

will begin to cough in 3 days the moment we stop in this attitude of uncritical consumption like people with rat brains mindlessly chewing up the pig slop that were fed is the day that I can find rest mindless consumption is the key to capitalism and you are perpetuating A system that does not care about you everything is driven by capitalism and consumerism especially this way that we have adopted reader as an aesthetic label over actual pursuit of knowledge I want to say before I go any further I'm not lambasting book talk as anti-intellectual or actually

anybody reading these books or the books themselves as bad or stupid an attitude of anti-intellectualism has resulted from the Le in machine of online consumerism that book talk has fallen victim to social media provides us with the ability to find a community and learn information in a way that is accessible to us however the same platforms can also encourage misinformation inaccuracy lack of nuance and distrust of experts now this is not a revolutionary concept and I am far from the first person to say hey maybe anti-intellectualism is bad but hey maybe anti-intellectualism is bad this

concept of it's never that deep is steep in this mindset a term heavily discussed in Richard Hoffer's Book anti-intellectualism in American life he defines intellectualism as such it accepts conflict as a central and endearing reality and understands human society as a form of equipoise based upon the continuing process of compromise it shuns ultimate showdowns and looks upon the idea of total partisan Victory as unattainable as merely another variety of threat to the kind of balance with which it is familiar it is sensitive to nuances and sees things in degrees it is essentially relativist and skeptical

but at the same time circumspect and Humane as Hoffer implies there is a line between intellectualism and elitism elitism is born out of superiority intellectualism is born out of genuine care and understanding but to complete all analysis with elitism and classism is reductive and diminishes the impact that constructive criticism can bring to a work I'd also like to push back on the idea that interacting with Theory critique and Analysis is always classist or wholly inaccessible in fact I find this idea a bit repulsive as it seems to imply that poor people or people with less

time in formal institutions are incapable of learning or reading or thinking critically Hof stator defines anti-intellectualism as resentment of the life of the mind and those who are considered to represent it and a disposition to constantly minimize the value of that life it rises from an attitude of skepticism towards intellectuals and a prioritization of Common Sense over an attained education Daniel Ry writes about the effect of modern mass media on anti-intellectualism if there is an anti-intellectualism of The Fourth Kind in American culture today it might be named unreflective Hedonism a flight from the hard and

often painful work of reflective thought we have turned away from critique and contemplation when consuming media effectively shutting our minds off to me it matters less the art that you consume but how you consume it elitism is believing that Classics are better than genre fiction intellectualism is believing in bringing a Discerning attitude to any piece of media whether it be a 19th century classic or a modern romance novel this conflation of reflective thought with elitism leads to an acceptable attitude of rejecting intellectualism because you're fighting against the elites Classics or more sophisticated material in general

are equated with snobbish critics leading people to reject this attitude and the material they associate with it people will voice complaints about a book that is contrary to popular opinion and the immediate response is just to uncritically consume more just let people enjoy things this reflective deflection can be traced back to a 2016 comic drawn by Adam Ellis in it someone is mindlessly badmouthing someone else's interests and of course that leads to the response of let people enjoy things however this has now become a blanket statement for all criticism it's understandable for the more female

dominated interests like romance novels they have consistently been the target of misogynistic bad faith criticism the Relentless stream of belittlement towards women's tastes has led to an attitude of exhaustion when fighting criticism and it's just easier to lump it all together but we have to think about criticisms leveled against media just as those criticizing media must think about the validity of their arguments I'm sure we've all seen this quote at one time maybe the curtains were just blue this is a popular phrase that criticizes the concept of over analysis in English classes when teachers would

prod and poke meaning from the smallest things that seem meaningless the phrase has done detrimental harm to our perspective of analysis and upholds anti-intellectualism like nothing else once again it's understandable this disdain for the forced analysis in our classrooms in our timed essays it's born out of exhaustion from classes going through symbolism over and over until it feels like you're just beating a dead horse but this overgeneralization that all analysis is tedious leads to a detrimental view of critique the complete opposite that our teachers in schools want to instill in us saying let people enjoy

things also implies that you do not want to think about what you're taking in it implies you know what you're consuming is bad and that it has points of valid criticism but you're choosing to ignore it anti-intellectualism is a privilege ignorance is a privilege in her article don't let people enjoy things Kate Wagner writes the subtext image is a four-fold confession one I do not want to feel judged for my consumption choices two I want to silence people who disagree with me about this particular piece of media by making them feel like they are cheerless

or judgmental three I recognize ize an aspect of this media that is worthy of criticism and I am defensive of this and four I do not want to think critically about the things I consume and if I absorb any criticism about the things I consume it will magically ruin my enjoyment of them there tends to be this All or Nothing attitude when it comes to critics of art either you are deeply in love with something and defend it wholeheartedly or you are a double horned hater who runs off of Spite and Malice and being a

contrarian it's a revolutionary concept but have we maybe considered that people who provide critique don't have black or white opinions on a piece of media you can probably love something and still dislike aspects of it I don't know what ever happened to Nuance this pseudointellectualism promoted by Tik Tok encourages an optimistic Feelgood attitude towards all media if I don't enjoy it I won't read it or read into it if we're only allowed to be blissfully joyous about culture the thinking goes then none of our joy actually counts we need to be able to call attention

to the negative in order to recognize the positive by noticing and then analyzing the negative our entire understanding of a work of art becomes clearer and stronger if we remain uncritical we fall into the hands of capitalism capitalism thrives off the consumer believing they have the Power of Choice only to be given slightly different equally meaningless products this is something called manufactured consent a concept discussed by Edward S Herman and N chsky in their book manufacturing consent the political economy of the mass media they argue that corporate news media with their power to fix the

premises of public discourse and debate effectively control what the general populace is equipped to think and think about public opinion is thus largely a manufactured product produced not by conscious conspiracy and imposed censorship but rather by the shared assumptions and institutional interests of media Elites the corporate media are not distinct from the corporate economy they contend but are rather extensions of it and their filtering of the news inevitably reflects these institutional interests I don't want to say the FW but this is a critical element of fascism many dictators throughout history have utilized this manufactured consent

along with an attitude of anti-intellectualism to make sure nobody questions it this is why being a hater voicing criticism is so important it's vital it's good we should be running towards it not away yes there is bad faith criticism but I would argue that that is also born out of anti-intellectualism it's people taking the lazy way out of exploring why a piece of media makes them uncomfortable not only does good faith criticism promote critical thinking in our everyday lives it also Keeps Us educated and gives us the tools to prepare for our future to fight

back against the systems that want us to remain uneducated Emily St James writes her Vox every film even when a more marginal success tells you something about the culture that produced it and the more knowledge you have of how films are made of how they can create false narratives we desperately want to be true and of how they intersect with other forms of philosophy and thought the more you can understand how they serve as signposts towards whatever is to come next cultural criticism is necessary because it is part of how we begin to understand both

ourselves and this weird vibrant crumbling country we are all a part of it may seem harmless when you only apply this mindset to book talk romance novels but that attitude directly transfers into other forms of media books TV movies news all which contain relevant cultural topics this rise of anti-intellectualism can be seen across online spaces not just book talk you might have seen girls splaining taking rote across social social media produced as a direct opposition to mansplaining girl splaining has taken a turn for the worse mansplaining the act of a man explaining a difficult concept

to women in Dumb down terms because her small woman brain can't handle it is obviously misogynistic and annoying so Begins the rise of girl explaining a woman explaining difficult Concepts to women through frivolous images and oversimplified metaphor is because her small woman brain can't handle it we're back where we started the same rhetoric with a different performance there are other forms of casual anti-intellectualism from I'm just a girl to I'm a 26-year-old teenager Silly Ways of explaining away criticism or ignoring valid issues you can't I'm just a girl your way out of everything you pay

taxes you can vote you're not healing your inner child you're regressing into ignorance it takes more than watching an entertaining Tik Tok that clocks in at under 2 minutes to develop the understanding necessary to see through politicians journalists and celebrities attempts to manufacture consent it takes emotional fortitude to engage with a seemingly NeverEnding stream of horrifying information photos and video it takes care to seek out many sources of information from on the ground reporting to books to firsthand accounts it takes research to determine whether they're credible or not and media literacy to assess their biases

and most importantly it requires thinking about what argument is being made because there's always an argument even in seemingly straightforward news pieces who's making it what their motivations might be and how it fits into the larger context of everything we've been reading in all things but especially this we actually can't just consume information we have to judge its accuracy and think about it in the context of our existing worldview and political Frameworks all of which is to say understanding the world around us does require effort and that's okay the need for material to be spoonfed

to us to be handed to us on a silver platter and to reduce the amount of work we put in to verify information or seek out resources is derived from anti-intellectualism in the era of social media we no longer feel responsible for educating ourselves further from the shallow overview a 30-second Tik Tok can provide we' have been conditioned to be stagnant and feel disdain for those who choose to dig further within this capitalist consumerist attitude that drives our online spaces being intellectual has no benefits if it cannot directly produce or consume a product it is

meaningless in the cogs of the machine that's why being an intellectual partaking in that identity is more important than actually being educated projecting that label enables consumption in some form promotes products for the masses to buy if there is no economic value behind being educated behind being well read and critical why should people care capitalism wants us to succumb to this attitude that nothing is that deep that we shouldn't be reflecting or analyzing things when our energy could be better spent elsewhere such as consuming the newest romance novel or buying this new Limited Edition version

of a fantasy series but the far worse alternative would be a world without criticism a world well-wishing people are now working to build for their bosses one where monopolistic media conglomerates cater to our simplest desires and most superficial political awareness breeding critically does not mean writing sprawling essays about the newest 250 page book that you finish reading it can be as simple as reflecting on the themes of a book wondering what makes this book tick or what makes it fail and understanding exactly what message it's trying to convey to you you do not need the

multicolor tabs or handful of highlighters to critically contemplate a novel all you need is your mind you should want to delve deeper into the substance of a novel regardless of if you enjoyed it or not it's reasonable to respond offensively to a criticism of media we love after all we feel a personal connection to it something that makes us feel something that makes us happy it's also strange to believe that such information could ruin a specific piece of media or rather it suggests that the film or TV show is simple enough to be ruined by

a piece of information or otherwise that this over advertised piece of crap entertainment actually in fact sucks simple escapism and entertainment value is not the aim of art though it might well be the goal of enormous media conglomerates we just want to enjoy what we're consuming right but to critique something is to me the greatest form of adoration to fully immerse yourself in the contents of a piece of media to explore the intricacies it holds is to love it further books and all forms of media have this unique power to enable us to feel things

we've never gone through before don't you want to Revel in that experience when our media landscape is inextricable from Capital we move through the messaging and ideology of monopolized capitalism even as passive witness to look is to love it is the quality of being thoughtful that allows us to perceive the pain and pleasure in the sights and sounds around us and so we need critique we need criticism and we need to want to be observant careful and patient these things Elevate culture and more importantly Elevate discourse perhaps with time moving us away from a py

liberal presentation of marketable representation and into a fluid po IC multifaceted cultural Consciousness we need to be continuously pushing an attitude of curiosity of exploration both online and offline this anti-intellectual attitude extends into our schools and our libraries and our laws into the book bands that we are currently seeing take place across the nation from Florida's don't say gay law to the Texas's reader act book bands have become more and more prevalent over the past couple of years even Governor Ron de santz is walking his stance back after his law made it overwhelmingly easy for

books to be pulled off of shelves with over 1,500 complaints made in the past year alone book banss actively promote anti-intellectualism dissuading the general public from consuming media that is thought-provoking or contains complex topics one of the chief issues that comes with being an intellectual is the growing separation from the uneducated and book bands seek to further that divide but anti-intellectualism is often a symptom of a larger problem many of those engaged in academic and policy work have lost a sense of obligation to connect what they do to the Daily struggles of Ordinary People members

of the intellectual class also must do more to bridge The Divide between Academia and The Wider World limiting the scope of literature within Public School libraries one of the only places people can access these books for free is treacherous for the mindset of the general public and springboards directly off the back of anti-intellectualism of this nonchalant attitude of letting people enjoy things no image is apolitical Aesthetics carry with them associations which become signs art media entertainment is made through choices and these choices carry with them aesthetic weight which necessarily and inherently become political weight reading

is inherently political because of the associated values between being literate having access to books and being educated in general I think it is incredibly dangerous to sit in Comfort while you read and not challenge yourself in any way I think it is incredibly dangerous to not take advantage of the fact that reading allows you access to different viewpoints to hear about struggles that other people are facing and to challenge yourself to go outside of your own mental Bubble book bands aim to rid our libraries of any books that would challenge somebody's Viewpoint that would continue

to strengthen critical thinking and I think it is so precarious that we promote this mindset that is actively affecting our children in the literature they consume if we allow this mindset to penetrate across all our school systems our counties and our district this idea that we do not need to think critically about any of the media that we consume the books we read that nothing is that deep and that it's never that serious we are promoting a lack of critical thinking that then fuels this movement of book Banning that is enabling parents to strip libraries

of books that they personally do not find comfortable if we don't detach from this self-absorbed attitude of paity we risk losing so many unique perspectives and ideas that promote change you do not have to agree with this and you do not have to believe this but I have always thought that reading is first and foremost about expanding your mind reading is the greatest act of empathy that anybody can practice it's about challenging yourself having literature change you mentally emotionally and socially I believe reading is one of the greatest tools that we have to fight against

the systems and powers that are ruining our country reading can and should be enjoyable but that does not equate to being comfortable reading is not an activity for you to turn your mind off to stop thinking and mindlessly consume words on the p page reading should be an activity that keeps your mind going that's why it's perceived as intellectual because you are continuously expanding your base of knowledge as you read if you want to live in this aesthetic of intellectualism of dark Academia of being somebody who reads then you need to understand why reading is

so critical to education and politics you can't simultaneously have the aesthetic of being a reader and not understand why it is such a vital Act and why it is associated with power and resistance this attitude coupled with the consumption habits that Tik Tok is continuously promoting results in Mindless consumption and people blindly accepting whatever is given to them you don't think about what you're consuming you don't think about how much you're consuming and you don't think at all I think targeting anti-intellectualism online is incredibly important especially as more and more children grow up in this

digital age however I think we also need to direct our energy towards offline anti-intellectualism what lives online seeps into the real world into our laws and political systems if you want to fight anti-intellectualism you need to be fighting all forms of it especially book bands to close this out I want to read you a chunk of a letter I wrote back in 2021 to my state officials when a Senate bill was being passed around that would effectively make the process of book Banning within my state much much simpler the bill proposed that all book complaints

would be streamlined through the school principal instead of a committee of librarians now that bill has since been signed into law and the effects of it have begun to take place place across my state my high school librarian texted me last semester to tell me that she was told to pull books off of her shelves it is incredibly disheartening to see so many similar laws take place across the nation and 16-year-old Alicia felt the same my name is Alicia I am 16 years old I live in Atlanta Georgia and I am writing this to discuss

Georgia Senate Bill 226 or gasb 226 a potential new law that would drastically change the process of banning books throughout Georgia I am not a lawmaker I am not a government official I am not a politician and I do not want to be but what I am is a constituent of Georgia a constituent that this law would directly affect I am part of the 23.3% of Georgian residents aged 18 and under I attend a public high school I visit my public library almost every day and I have checked out an immeasurable number of books over

the years reading is something that is near and dear to my heart and it is precisely why I believe this law is absurd in every way a principal is primarily hired to oversee and maintain a school and Foster a productive learning environment not to take Express amounts of time to review parental complaints you would not ask a fisherman to fight a fire a politician to design a school curriculum or a neuroscientist to build a bridge in the same manner expecting a school principal to review books a process previously handled by larger committees and school librarians

is unacceptable and outlandish I fear this locally based one person review process will bend to mify the anger of a few to rectify a situation that appears easier to resolve by giving into to some parents rather than taking a long amount of time to review do we trust the opinions the biases of a singular person to properly review all complaints with a clear mind and objective view I understand the impetus Behind these actions we want to protect those we love it is just as natural as breathing parents can and will individually police their children's reading

habits but to have a select group of parents police the majority is absurd to project a blanket opinion that not only impacts one concerned parents child but every child in a school or District is harmful and limits their right to read what they choose in the Supreme Court case Island Trees school district versus Pico in 1982 the Supreme Court ruled that local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be Orthodox in politics nationalism religion

or other matters of opinion this is a matter of subjective opinion that threatens to impact the objective expansive material provided in a school library As Americans we are known for one particular Freedom a freedom that allows for Dissent discussion and dispersion of ideas every elected official in the state government has sworn to preserve protect and defend the Constitution thereof and the Constitution of the United States these small but dangerous measures to slowly allow the Banning of books to become easier and easier threaten not only our school libraries but the heart of democracy itself is this

proposal not the very antithesis of the First Amendment an integral pillar of our country are you not part of a nation that Prides itself on its literacy rate its freedoms and its ability to stand at the Forefront of progress in my AP Literature class we have already read two regularly challenged books Invisible Man and slaughterhouse 5 as far as I am concerned I have not descended into complete degeneracy yet these are books that raise important questions about class race and War topics that lawmakers deal with daily that the ordinary citizen would do well to be

educated on reading expands knowledge and knowledge promotes change as murakami once wrote if you only read the books that everyone else is reading you can only think what everyone else is thinking where would we be without opposing viewpoints without as the ACLU puts it the open exchange of ideas in the public without the potential to think to read to empathize with others experiences and learn books are hated and feared because they show the pores of the face of life I think I read that in a book somewhere chiefly read books to engage language that's where

the that's where the rubber meets the road books have given me a magic por to connect with people of the past and the present I know I shall never feel lonely or powerless again books break the shackles of time he kept being conscious even though being conscious hurts reading is a form of thinking that's why it's difficult to read because we have to think what you're doing is that you are reducing the human identity by removing these books from it and that is a very grave crime and writing taught me everything I needed to know

about creating worlds where people could be seen and heard where their experiences could be legitimized and where my story read or heard by another person inspired something in them that became a connection between us a conversation and isn't that what this is all about finding a way at the end of the day to not feel alone in this world and a way to feel like we've changed it before we leave and in that sense I kind of understand book Banning because I think books are a threat to many contemporary power structures because many of those

power structures want us to see other people especially marginalized people whether they're marginalized because of race or sexuality or gender identity or mental illness or whatever power structures want us to see those people as less than fully human and so I would argue that if great books have an agenda it is not a liberal agenda or a gay agenda or a Christian agenda it is a humanizing agenda a mission to recognize and acknowledge the human value in ourselves and others [Music]