First, what is a Third Place? A location of leisure that is not work or home, with regular patrons (to the point they have friendly rapport), no clear social tiers, and where people come to chill and chat but can leave at will. Often regular artistic performance is a part of the environment. (Think the bar on Cheers or Friends' Central Perk. For further reading see here at page 163.) In the West, this idea really started with the Ottoman's Turkic coffee houses, and the concept spread quickly across the rest of Europe, leading to social movements that eventually turned into full-blown revolutions. It seemed that having an IRL safe place to talk shit about your local trashlord was vital to actually overthrowing said trashlord.
What I'm asking r/antiwork is: Do you have any place like this in your regular life? How has it survived?
For myself, I've been a part of a few radical bookstores, tucked into cheap ratholes that wouldn't have been rentable otherwise. Still, all but one has disappeared due to rising rents. My favorite coffeeshops, the ones with weird performance and satire poking at the powers-that-be, have gone bust. Churches have filled this niche for some, but many of us are allergic to churches/religion/God. Social Media has satisfied some of these points, but yegods if we aren't also all kinds of cruel on here, in ways that are still generally unacceptable in real life. Most cafes are now places to sit and do work instead of socializing. All told, it feels incredibly difficult to connect with neighbors over the shared struggle of capitalism in meaningful ways.
(Also, Mods please let me know if this isn't appropriate. I wasn't sure where to ask this, antiwork felt right though.)
TIA for any thoughts!