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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 13, 2025

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I think the issue of lost trust has an impact on the park and 3rd space issue. Those places often end up attracting homeless people, criminals, drug users etc. because they’re free to the public and thus nobody can stop them. Which makes nobody else want to really use the space for the intended purpose. And thus when people want a third space that they can be relatively sure is safe for them and their family, the admission charge is a feature, not a bug. The same sort of problem plagues the building of public transit. It cannot go anywhere useful (because people move to good neighborhoods to avoid the kinds of people who ride buses, subways, and trains), and because the public transport itself often invites the criminals and homeless and others. You aren’t going to see either thing take off until the issues creating a low trust society are solved.

I think in some cases it’s why the internet has become the hangout of choice. Watching TV or doing things online doesn’t involve contact with such undesirables or the results of their activities. Buying online is simpler because you don’t have to hunt down an employee to unlock the item you want.

I think in some cases it’s why the internet has become the hangout of choice.

What follows is speculative but, this feels to me as completely backwards causality. The internet didn't become a hangout because of the decline of 3rd spaces it's the opposite. People go to third spaces for things like

  • It's a schelling point for engagement
  • To get stimulation
  • To get information

The internet is much more efficient at all of these things. Unfortunately, efficient doesn't= better at scale, and there are a bunch of 2nd and 3rd order benefits that have been lost to the point that the system of community is worse off for it in many respects.

But you can't return people to libraries by getting rid of the homeless. You have to get rid of high-speed, wireless internet. The homeless are in these places because communities abandoned them, not the other way around.

The decline in social connection has happened across the first world, whereas the takeover of public space by derelicts is mostly US-specific. So that is unlikely to be a major contributor.