@GeofCox

I'd be tempted say coffee shops are still thriving and expanding in the US, but they're doing so by dropping this third-space nature.

The last time I went to a cafe it was nearly empty with two employees cleaning up. I figured my simple drink would be made quickly and I could sit and read.

Then I watched for half an hour as a stream of young people came in to pick up their online / remote orders before mine was finally made.

Our cafes are mostly just walk-in vending machines now.

@GeofCox

Yes, discussing face to face in a not filtered by a rich white guys anti social life social media machine might lead to diverse thinking.

And discourse is a good thing! It makes you think and question things, life, behaviours etc.

Therefore industrial oligarchs tried to get rid of bars and taverns.

#AntiSocialMedia

@GeofCox agreed, and there's even another study with similar results from France: https://social.data.coop/@benjaoming/116031517811001465

@GeofCox I see you might read French, this should be of interest to you https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/politique/la-fermeture-des-bars-tabacs-un-facteur-de-progression-du-vote-dextreme-droite-en-milieu-rural

@GeofCox
The French revolution was literally constructed in Coffee Shops in Paris (and beyond) . Social Space like this is invaluable to revolution.

@GeofCox I live in very rural eastern France, far away from hyped Paris, in a horrible RN-fan region. When the bars/tabacs in our small towns were still open, the fascists gathered there, they gathered at the Regulars' table of the restaurants. You had left or right bars, they didn't change politics.

But I volunteer in a Third Place and it's something else building community: You don't stay alone, people chat with one another. You don't have to spend too much money and get animations. People

@GeofCox I despair of neighbours building ‘high fences’ around their ‘small gardens’. The loss of interaction with strangers and neighbours cultivates mistrust and that grows into fear and paranoia. A breeding ground for fascism.

@GeofCox I'm in Spain, where we seem to have plenty of bars & cafés around, but our far-right party continues to gain ground?

@GeofCox

it's a lot harder to treat other people as truly "other" if you hang out with them, go to school with them, have drinks at a cafe or pub with them. that process of dehumanizing and designating as "other" is a key part of fascism/racism/hate.

@GeofCox
This resonates with a thought I had a couple of months ago about a group of flag-shaggers who were gathering each Saturday at a local crossroads.

In past times they'd have been going to meet up at a local pub (all closed round here) or to play in a Social type sports club - now all priced out of reach by private/council leisure centres, or in church based activities.
The space is getting filled online by right wing oddballs who gives these people a sense of togetherness and belonging (despite the fact they're just being used by millionaires).

Cafés and social centres as third spaces - for all generations - seem to be essential for the cohesion of a civil society.

@GeofCox Don't tell Toulouse!
But more seriously the lockdowns of the early covid years caused enormous disruption in the French "Associations" which up to that point were robust and varied, flourishing cultural organizations in every tiny hamlet community. That's been 6 years this spring and it's never fully come back. I am expecting to see a similar effect. I believe what you're saying from purely anecdotal experience.

@GeofCox
See also Vienna cafe society at the end of the 19th century

@GeofCox far-right is just friendless behavior