Denver Police and the Tattered Cover: Why I Shop Indie

Some people look at me quite oddly when I tell them that I absolutely do not shop at Amazon nor recommend it to anyone nor do I shop at the big box bookstores anymore. You see, I purchase all of my books at the Tattered Cover but there are reasons why beyond the fact that Amazon abuses it’s influence. Even beyond the ideals of support local businesses and the creation of jobs. What I support is how the management at the Tattered Cover stood up to Denver Police when they requested a list of what books people purchased. Yes, that is right, I support the fact that these people have served as true freedom fighters. I also believe the fact that it is a good idea to support local businesses and keep more money flowing in the local economy. This is will be especially true if my wifey ever breaks down and lets me move up to beautiful Boulder.

Let me state very clearly that I do love my country, I really honestly do, and I do wish my country were not turning slowly into a dystopian hell hole. But the fact of the matter is that given the piss poor education that most people get from our public schools, the fact that the fundamentalist Christian churches of America and Republican party, both wishing for the destruction of our beautiful earth and all of it’s inhabitants, are perfect bedfellows. Our country is inhabited with people who could care less about liberty, democracy and freedom and more about cleansing the earth of the heathens so that Jesus can come back and reward them for their Nazi-esque efforts. I am very fucking serious when I say that Mike Judge’s Idiocracy was not a movie, but rather an accurate depiction of what is in store for us on this earth, within the next few decades if not centuries. I believe that if we do not act fast, this nation will become a country full of ignorant, ill-educated born-again Christians and this is one of my deepest fears. After all the trouble the founding fathers went through, it would make them turn in their grave if we became a theocracy like Iran. But alas, this is what the Christians hope for – wide-spread ignorance like the Dark Ages has never seen.

I believe that shopping indie helps put money back into our community simply because they hire people with similar ideals towards keeping money in the local economy. It helps to make our local economy stronger and much more robust. It helps to create jobs for our friends and neighbours. It helps to encourage more people to start their own business and put more back into the local economy.

I also believe that if there is a surge of people who shop indie, it will keep the bigger chains honest. Amazon will not have the wiggle room to do such evil shit like their campaign to reduce the visibility of materials supportive of homosexuality. Or their forced removal of the books Animal House and 1984 from every owner of their e-book platform, the Amazon Kindle. And do not even get me started about how Walmart treats the community around them and their employees.

The thing about the freedom to purchase materials without the government knowing or prying too far in to your personal life is that it should be respected. Unfortunately, in our horrific surveillance culture, such is not the case. So I am thankful that there is at least one haven that respects our privacy so well. I am very thankful in the retail world at least, there is one place that would respect our privacy and this is why I choose to purchase indie as often as possible. Because it is well demonstrated that by shopping Indie, we are working with stores that serve our communities best interests, provide jobs in the community and also keep the cash flowing in the community. In addition, the big box stores we all know and loathe do so much horrible shit, as I have shown from Amazon and Walmart.

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Tags: 16th Street Mall, book, booksellers, Colorado, Denver, freedom, freedom fighters, government, Idiocracy, LoDo, Lower Downtown, privacy, store, surveillance culture, Tattered Cover, United States, values