u/Alarmed-Weekend1926

Almost every time I've asked for advice online on how to find friends, people say "join a hobby/interest-based club" like, what is this, a movie? I'm fairly certain I've never heard of those existing IRL. Not even once. Is it an American thing? Because I've googled such "clubs" for various different hobbies in my country and found exactly 0.

I dunno, the concept of people gathering somewhere to discuss or partake in a hobby regularly and letting random people join sounds culturally very foreign to me.

Specifically on heavier topics or ones people are particularly passionate about. I've been told that I'm too agreeable and that I rarely challenge people on what they say or express my own opinion, to the point where people don't really know what I believe, which is an accurate assessment. But I think the reason for that isn't that I actually agree with people all the time. Rather, I don't know how to find the right words to express that I disagree, so I hide my opinion in order to avoid making other people feel invalidated.

It's not even that I'm afraid of inviting a negative reaction, I just don't know how to make a statement on a sensitive topic without coming across as an arsehole.