This is probably what I’m most interested in, but I find it to be a drag to even locate. I’ve gone to meetup groups and even helped organize a meetup group before but everything about them seemed pretty worthless. It could just be my particular circumstances or my particular location, but it seems like it’s difficult to find any regular community group, and then any – even sporadic – activity outside of work mixers, happy hours, ticketed events, and concerts.
At one point I took a look around the area for mutual aid groups and found only one – and this was mid-pandemic when they were getting a lot of attention and hype – and it didn’t even appear to be active anymore. I think the web link I got was dead or something.
My working theory of why this country is so far off the rails is multifaceted, but one big aspect is that meatspace is deader than myspace.
It certainly can be. And I share the sentiment as I have found it hard myself. I now have a family and kids so that takes up all my time but that in and of itself plugs me into a lot of interactions that I otherwise would have avoided.
So much of our society is built around childrearing though so I am pretty railroaded into following my own advice. But when I was younger I sought out events at local hobby shops: things like open D&D groups, card game tournaments, etc. I highly recommend it, if that’s your thing at all (and your mileage may vary significantly.) But it doesn’t always have to be direct political action to connect with members of your community.
This is probably what I’m most interested in, but I find it to be a drag to even locate. I’ve gone to meetup groups and even helped organize a meetup group before but everything about them seemed pretty worthless. It could just be my particular circumstances or my particular location, but it seems like it’s difficult to find any regular community group, and then any – even sporadic – activity outside of work mixers, happy hours, ticketed events, and concerts.
At one point I took a look around the area for mutual aid groups and found only one – and this was mid-pandemic when they were getting a lot of attention and hype – and it didn’t even appear to be active anymore. I think the web link I got was dead or something.
My working theory of why this country is so far off the rails is multifaceted, but one big aspect is that meatspace is deader than myspace.
It certainly can be. And I share the sentiment as I have found it hard myself. I now have a family and kids so that takes up all my time but that in and of itself plugs me into a lot of interactions that I otherwise would have avoided.
So much of our society is built around childrearing though so I am pretty railroaded into following my own advice. But when I was younger I sought out events at local hobby shops: things like open D&D groups, card game tournaments, etc. I highly recommend it, if that’s your thing at all (and your mileage may vary significantly.) But it doesn’t always have to be direct political action to connect with members of your community.