apropos this thread
and this post
A thing I've been grappling with lately is that the conservative / right wing has systematically enclosed and captured third spaces -- they're the wing of commercial real estate, church, church groups, etc. They bought out and destroyed local news, so no one follows what's going on without connections. They bought out and enclosed spaces like parks, plazas, outdoor pedestrian malls, or paved over them into either streets or parking lots. they divert funds from maintaining parks. They control the vibe of many bars. In tandem they work to make third spaces only theirs, though how clear this is to rank and file when their betters imply it's for soft;segregation reasons is unclear.
They go to a space as groups and often loudly make their bigotries and selfishness-but-for-their-group known. Driving them away is harder than driving away anyone else, because they've been taught that ignoring it is a show of strength and power.
To the point where they've essentially captured more than a few rural communities and suburbs enough to treat them like a cult, inducting new members by focussing the entire town's attention on care-bombing them, or freezing them out if they aren't compatible.
Whereas the progressive/left wing is spread out online because they know local stuff is important, but in order to get diverse and realistic perspectives you can't just focus your attention locally. You don't have cash to organize events because everyone's spread thin and you don't have advocacy groups pouring money into you through donations. space owners "don't want drama".
the ground wasn't ceded, it was taken, because dems and further left refused to, as a gestalt, see that they are fighting against an organized opponent playing the long game, because they're too busy making fun of the aesthetics or perceived intelligence of the figureheads of the other side.
And idk how to solve that yet.
But maybe we need to start thinking about it through the lens of like, "social counterinsurgency".
Especially with how many of their advocacy organizations, law firms, and ancillary church groups act as independent, unofficially connected cells with a lot of leadership overlap, but rarely the same people in the same space, so it almost forms a "ring species" to further camouflage it.
