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not ideal that a big chunk of the most prominent lefty voices online are youtubers who post like once every 6-18 months www.mediamatters.org/google/right...

I genuinely don’t understand the appeal of almost everyone on that image, left and right

easy parasociality I guess, most don't appeal to me either

Like, not sure how this aesthetic or character has become so prevalent

It's true! We use to have third places. So if you wanted to talk anti-vax conspiracies you would have to go to some grimmy basement and meet up with a bunch of dudes who smelled bad once a week. Now you just have to listen to the Secretary of HHS's Podcast.

What third places did we have?

Books clubs Churches Coffee shops Parks Theaters The gym Local gaming stores The beach Restaurants Malls Sports events And more! Technically we still have all these, but the use of them to regularly interact is much more limited than they use to be. Especially because they aren't *necessary*

People used to join fraternal groups (masons, elks, etc) at pretty high rates, far more people attended churches, far more were in things like bowling leagues or involved in scouts…I don’t know that any 3rd places disappeared entirely, but they became culturally moribund & have withered

Think it’s true and accelerated for the high school/college kids during covid (think the Atlantic had a thing in this), with the culture-> politics pipeline, kind of wonder if the “future is female!”/“girlboss!” Movement of like 2011-nov 2016 didn’t have weird effects

Also, the cultural “acceptance” that gaming online as an acceptable replacement for in-person social activity (around the same time) fueled a bunch of unintended consequences

I think people maybe are mixing up cause and effect. I was always an introvert and so always forced into f2f interaction I never got used to and never stopped finding uncomfortable. I also lived in an area where almost nobody shared my interests. So when the internet came along it was a godsend.