What are folks reading in Boulder?

by philg

Pictures from the Boulder Book Store.

SARS-CoV-2 has achieved much more mindshare in Colorado than in Florida. Boulder and Denver are the centers of concern regarding COVID-19. As you enter the store…

The #1-selling book is The 1619 Project, which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States’ national narrative.”

(Black Americans may be at the very center of the United States national narrative, but I did not see any employees or customers at the bookstore who appeared to identify as “Black”)

Another prominently displayed book reminds customers that there wouldn’t be any Black or white people here if the Native Americans had been more successful militarily.

Joe Biden might be able to find his next Supreme Court nominee in the children’s section:

Speaking of the Supreme Court, AOC stands next to RBG. Perhaps my dream that Joe Biden will nominate thought-leader AOC to the Supreme Court is shared by others?

(Fortunately, no Deplorable had snuck in to set up a Willie Brown action figure next to Kamala.)

The best way to deal with climate change is stoned and drunk:

If you need pocket-sized constant inspiration:

22 thoughts on “What are folks reading in Boulder?”

  1. Does anyone still go to bookstores (or libraries) anymore besides Phil? I admit that when I am travelling and have nothing to do I will wander into a bookstore like the above with their recommended table of books by the great thinkers of our time, Michelle Obama and Hillary and Whoopie Goldberg and so on. But I never buy anything because who wants to support that and anyway it is always cheaper at Amazon. As for libraries, in NYC at least they are now hangouts for vagrants who sit at the computers playing games after they shoot up in the bathrooms. So who would want to got there?

  3. Occasionally, a young couple will open a bookstore in my area, but the only ones I’ll go to are used bookstores and thrift stores. The books are older, cheaper, and saner.

  4. Strange how Colorado has become Calif*. Colorado was a republican stronghold, 20 years ago, claiming a balanced budget despite low taxes. Boulder was sold to generation X as the dating capital of the world. Now it has a reputation more like burning man. All the houses are over $3 million. All the sparkfun employees look like hippies.

    • Denver has been top destination for young people who fled high housing cost for about a decade. They have been coming from the usually suspect areas as CA, MA, NY and bringing the woke infection with them. The results of their invasion are obvious. It’s not Portland yet but getting there.

      https://www.westword.com/news/denver-named-number-one-city-for-relocating-millennials-in-2020-11610314

      Boulder is somewhat different. It had been woke fore a while before the word was invented.

    • California used to be solidly Republican state. Remember Reagan?

      Anyway, that’s what GOP gets for being polite to idiots, nutcases, and psychopaths (and make no mistake, after 20th Century one needs to be in one of these three categories to be a leftist).

  5. The 1619 project is a great business opportunity:

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/1619-project-founder-nikole-hannah-jones-was-paid-55000-for-university-of-wisconsin-event

    I’d say this kind of literature has existed for a long time since the 1970s. Back then it was probably mostly targeted at bored women who felt like they were “fighting for something” (by sitting in a room and reading). What is new and concerning is that recently it has become corporate and state religion.

    If you search for “black history month” on Google now, you are rewarded with a display of confetti. People are trained like Pavlov dogs (you are rewarded even when misspelling “Black” as “black”).

  6. Millions of people streaming across the border, a travesty noticed by the BBC back in March, and we’re money and treasure fighting an airborne respiratory virus by vaccinating children as young as zero while the older ones spend their most important learning years trapped in a contamination zone, wearing masks and being tested twice weekly or more so they can attend school.

    We need a revolution. Soon.

  7. Bold Words from Black Women: the Holocaust was “not about race.” – Whoopi Goldberg, The View, February 1, 2022.

    Brewing With Cannabis: “Now, I’m a pretty decent bowler, especially when I’m baked. But this time, I was in The Zone. I mean, I was one with the ball and pins. And the fact that I couldn’t put a sentence together or look anyone in the eye only helped my concentration. I bowled a 199, which was a personal best. When we wrapped up that game, Ron said it was my turn to buy a pitcher. I handed him $20 and told him that if I buy, he flies. At least I think that’s what I said.” – Jim Anchower, The Onion – “That Rob’s Got Some Seriously Strong Shit” – April 23,2003

    https://www.theonion.com/that-robs-got-some-seriously-strong-shit-1819583986

    By June 9, 2009: “I’m Thinking About Cutting Back on the Weed”
    https://www.theonion.com/im-thinking-about-cutting-back-on-the-weed-1819583599

    • Sorry, I got the dates wrong. Jim Anchower tried to cut back in 1999 and couldn’t hack it, but about four years later he bowled his personal best with the help of pitchers of beer and some of Ron’s Seriously Strong Shit.

      As I’ve personally witnessed the ginormous profusion of essential marijuana dispensaries and billboard ads spring up during COVID-19 as restaurants and other businesses died off in MA, I’m a little disappointed. I haven’t seen a proper homage to Ron or Jim with a dispensary named: “Ron’s Seriously Strong Shit.”

  8. I have a feeling that books such as Applied Partial Differential Equations aren’t on their best sellers list. Where is the “diversity” ?

  9. re: “I did not see any employees or customers at the bookstore who appeared to identify as “Black””

    There is a shortage of them here. Current city of Boulder demographics:

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/boulder-co-population
    “White: 87.37%
    Asian: 5.80%
    Two or more races: 3.82%
    Other race: 1.51%
    Black or African American: 1.20%
    Native American: 0.21%
    Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.10%”

    Apparently that leads many academics to feel rather guilty so at CU Boulder you’ll see things like:

    https://redstate.com/alexparker/2021/09/05/colorado-university-hosts-teacher-training-to-fight-the-white-supremacy-of-productivity-n438266
    ” Colorado University Hosts Teacher Training to Fight the ‘White Supremacy’ of ‘Productivity'”

    and various social justice activism programs barely bothering to pretend to be academic, and academic departments like the law school with pages like this:

    https://www.colorado.edu/law/anti-racism-and-representation-initiative
    “University of Colorado Law School Anti-Racism and Representation Initiative”

    at a law school that had Stacy Abrams as their commencement speaker last year. Even random other departments like the Institute for Cognitive Sciences wants people to put anti-racist statements and land acknowledgements as part of their email signatures, amidst other similar things you’ll see in the department’s ” Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Committee” statement (as you’ll find throughout CU in other departments):

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i2guY_JvWFR0lnr_FtvRq-JupOFzwwbHzu4-xqeWqiI/edit
    “Add the following statement under the contact information of email signatures:
    ICS stands against oppression and discrimination of all kinds. We are an inclusive, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory, pro-equity research and educational community.
    We recognize that the university sits upon land within the territories of the Ute and Arapaho peoples. Further, we acknowledge that 48 contemporary tribal nations are tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado”

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