I noticed a decline in nightlife even before Covid, and thought it was a problem unique to my city. But I saw RooshV writing about the same thing as early as 2017 or so, which is about the time I started noticing it, and was really cemented after travelling and moving and seeing how ubiqitous it is (at least in the US). One thing that I haven't seen anyone mention yet, I think the decline of "3rd places" has dropped precipitously in the US, and this extends to nightlife. I'm not sure why or how this has happened, but I will blame cities for continuing suburban sprawl, retarded zoning laws, and gentrification that replaces fun, cheap dive bars with upscale bullshvt that closes at 8pm. And on yet another note, I've also noticed almost all businesses now close very early compared to pre-covid days, especially restaurants, which is ALSO contributing.
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My friend and I used to go out multiple nights a week in our medium-sized, non-college town city, when we were in our mid 20s, and even on weekday nights the popular downtown areas seemed to be thriving. However, not even a decade later these same places we used to frequent have turned into former shells of themselves that feel empty. I had a similar experience visiting a friend in LA where the nightlife scene had this equally "hollow" feel to it. I was also in Tuscon recently and the bar scene was just a complete clownshow too. I will say, the Broadway scene in Nashville seemed pretty poppin' , but idk how it compares to 20 years ago.
I've noticed the caliber of women has dropped a lot in nightlife scences irrespective of all this; they are completely lacking in class and increasingly tacky and trashy both in their choice of outfits and overall behavior. I've also noticed there seem to be more ghetto blacks, especially of the fat ghetto black women variety (you know the type).
At this point I have completely lost interest in clubbing and bar hopping. I might still enjoy going to a dive bar or weird club but I typically end up chatting with some dude about things that are actually interesting rather than some braindead thot who's entire life story can be summed up as "i'm hot shvt because guys want to fvck me".