In a recent YouTube video called Look What’s Happened to Bookstores! from The Warrior Poet Society, the narrator bemoans and bewails the fact that Barnes and Chernobyl (a little indie bookseller humor there) is becoming increasingly woke in its inventory selection while reducing the size of their Classics section and history sections.  

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While the narrator’s conclusions are correct (buy great books like you won’t be able to get them anymore) some of his attitudes illustrate why true conservatives are losing the culture wars.  

We are losing because we don’t understand the power of “story.”  Progressives DO. The bookshelves at Barnes and Chernobyl prove it.  

At the beginning of the video, he compares the size of the World History and Social Studies sections with the size of the Young Adult (YA) section. The implication, of course, is that the bookstore is seeking to create a generation of idiots. Besides the fact it’s not really the bookstore, but the publishers, combined with the realities of what actually sells. He misses the point entirely. YA’s bread and butter is using fiction to groom youth toward transgender, green, and generally progressive attitudes.  

Neo-cons love to bewail this stuff, but in this case, the narrator unwittingly proves the point by making the comparison between YA and non-fiction facts and data.  

If neo-cons had the first inkling of a clue, they’d stop cursing the darkness and free their minds. They would break out of these conventional mindsets that for generations have equated youth with stupid and facts as king. It hasn’t worked since World War II, and it will not work now.  

Instead of polarizing the young whipper snappers against the old farts, the old farts need to start encouraging the creation of well-written YA fiction from a Christian worldview by talented young whipper snappers. And no, I am NOT talking about writing Christian YA fiction (which mostly sucks).  

I AM talking about well-written fiction that, in one hundred years or so, ends up in the Classics section.  Which, in turn, creates classic film.  

So how would the old farts (like me)“encourage” the young, talented whipper snappers? They would use their money to invest in companies that are building platforms to fund and distribute their work.

Whatever you do, do NOT try to turn these kids into the next facts and data guys. If they have a talent to write story, encourage THAT. One Ben Shapiro and one Ben Walsh is enough. We need an army of talented storytellers if we want to win this culture war.  

Loor is now seeking to close its second SAFE round of investment. We’ve changed our strategy. While we are still pre-revenue we’ve have lowered the minimum investment against a $2 million targeted raise. Help our tech team build the subscription mechanism so we can take what we have learned in beta and launch our first formal season of Loor.  

It’s time to stop yelling at the progressives to get off our lawn. Let’s go out and take their lawn. And their house.  Their cars.  You get the idea.