These days getting into a political conversation with a stranger is very, very dangerous. You might find yourself doxxed on Twitter by a hate mob before you'd even finished your coffee.
Maybe knowing in 2020 one can experience rabid social media mobs, and the newness and degree of its terror is skewing our idea of how likely this kind of event actually is. But I see this view presented regularly as though every one of us lives in active risk of being a single slip of the tongue away from ruining our lives. And it’s so strange and not in line with the reality I live in.
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...
No, the GP's scenario is not at all implausible. To think otherwise is to be oblivious to the on-edge nature of our times.
Is it? Note that the person here accused is both Jewish and Mexican: https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/09/04/lawyer-accused-flashi...
Other examples exist of people being removed from their jobs for the same if you Google for it, though many of those are more ambiguous.
The Baroque Cycle series does a good job of describing the atmosphere of the old coffee houses.
And I wish it would be different. I think I had a nice and interesting political conversation with a stranger once in the past decade. That means it is not impossible, but it is hard. A good cafe certainly can do things to create the right atmosphere for this to happen more often tho.
Even having a political conversation with a friend in a place you can be overheard carries a certain amount of risk.
If you disagree with this concept, go to a west coast US metropolis and and try to have an open private discussion about something taboo (e.g. abortion) where you’re openly against the status quo. Odds are good you’ll hear about it.
For example, I used the term “wife beater” to refer to a tank top, in a private conversation, at a Berkeley bar. Within seconds I had a total stranger come up to me and tell me I shouldn’t use that term.
But....it’s nothing like the stories of old. Mostly people alone together, as the OP says. Occasionally you talk to a stranger. No wide ranging public political discussions.