this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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Thinking Is Becoming a Luxury Good (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] sadTruth@lemmy.hogru.ch 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I agree on all of this, but were books different (except for surveillance)?

  • Back then those authors that wrote books with messaging supporting the owner class received loads of coverage from their media andtherefore spread their propaganda far and wide. While the average Joe could write whatever they want, nobody was able to see it (until now with social media), because printing is timeconsuming and expensive, and marketing even more so.
  • Back then fascists spread their ideas in books, today they do on social media. In both cases supported by the money of the 1%.
  • Back then only politically active people were surveilled, now it is everyone. This is a big change.
  • Back then entertainment was inexpensive, now it is basically free.

Also that's not really the point the article is making. They say that simply reading books makes you smarter. As if people read physics books in their freetime back then. No, they just read entertaining stories, and now they stream entertaining stories. Nothing has fundamentally changed. Back then Oil made you part of the owner class, now it's IT and the owning of marketplaces.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You're also ignoring the massive rise in literacy rates as compared to when books were new. Most people simply could not read them.

[–] sadTruth@lemmy.hogru.ch 1 points 2 weeks ago

I was thinking about the time before the internet, like 1980s, not like the more distant past