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What is a popular book that everyone buys but nobody reads?
(midwest.social)
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this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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Asklemmy
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The bible
I don’t even need to buy them. They just pile up unread. One of them has nice art in it.
How? I've read this many times, but I never understood it. Do people just hand them out on the street or is it customary to give bibles as a gift?
When I was in college, once or twice a year there were people from some religious group who would come and stand at the most busy intersections for foot traffic and literally hand them out on the street, yes. They were quite pushy about it
You missed the chance to push back in your refusal. You had plenty of justification to be nasty.
Look, the people who hand out Bibles are usually from a specific sect of Christianity.
I get it, they're just as shitty as most Christians, in most ways, but...
The reason they give the Bibles away is because they figure that knowledge is power and they don't want to force people to have to spend money they don't have to be able to read the Bible.
I hate to say it, but I agree with their attitudes regarding freedom and access to information. They may not be distributing information I care for, but I can't fault the attitude. Information and access to it shouldn't be limited, because knowledge is power.
Right attitude, wrong values otherwise.
I want to choose when (and if) I read bullshit, thank you very much.
I mean they are giving them away freely and not forcing the book on people. They accept "no" as an answer if you don't want a copy. You are really free to ignore them.
They could be spending their free time doing something good for the world, instead they are spending it handing out bullshit that is responsible for most of the hatred in the world today
Thank you for articulating my position perfectly.
Thank you for confirming that I'm not the only one who feels this way.
I have pretty bad social and general anxiety, it is extremely difficult for me to be pushy with anyone, at least in person. At the time I think I mostly avoided them or lied and told them I already had a copy at home, which seemed to placate them.
In any case, I think all they really achieved was wasting a lot of paper and ink, because the trash cans around campus and especially the outdoor ones near those intersections were absolutely filled with bibles by the end of the day whenever those people came around. Once or twice I saw some student accept one and then two steps later toss it in a bin that was right next to the guys handing them out.
Sadly, they thrive on the social mandate to be polite even to abusers.
Why refuse free toilet paper?
When you celebrate a life event in church you go home with a new Bible.
Really? I've been to weddings and funerals and baptisms in churches and never have I been offered a bible. Maybe it's a local thing?
Count yourself lucky. If you want one, any church would be happy to provide.
I inherited a ton of books from my father, who was a minister & a Jungian psychologist. Lots of old interesting bibles, in a handful of languages. (Plus a Koran, and some Crowley, and of shelf full of Trotsky... ha ha. Lotta books.)
American? I haven't seen a bookstore selling a bible in ages, if ever
I was going to contradict you, that bookstores always carry bibles...but then I realized the memory I was thinking of was from the 90s.
I'd say this is just a good excuse for me to go to the bookstore and check...but they've all become so small and sad that I kind of don't want to. I just get depressed.
I know ebooks and audiobooks have massively taken off so people are reading/listening still...I just miss my childhood refuge being stuffed chock-full of treasures.
Sucker play, it's trivial to get a bible for free. For instance, one could find it on libgen or something idk
I just take the complimentary ones from hotels
Yeah, haha I was hoping the joke would land
They're really lousy for critical reading, though. I like the ones from United Biblical Society, with maps and appendices. They're good for linguistic reference, and they add titles and illustrations.