What I've learned about spacing between sentences

I have been getting the side-eye recently for using 2-spaces after the period that ends a sentence.  An inference, a subtle hint, that the cool kids don't do it this way anymore.  Here's the thing:  if you want to get me to change my habits, you need to give me a good reason why, and "it's not currently fashionable" is typically not a good reason why for me.

After my typically ignorant and unsubtle inquiries on twitter, @mattthomas gave me a link to this Slate article (which I recommend you read), which lead me to this rebuttal (which I also suggest you read). The comments in the Slate article were also helpful.

So what's my conclusion so far?  It's an aesthetic choice, a minor culture war blip amongst writing nerds, and it doesn't truly matter whether you use one or two spaces in your writing.  To hear it told from the Slate article, there is a conclave of typesetters who have determined the purity of the single space and there are rogue english teachers leading people astray due to a love of former teachers and a too-great attachment to mid-centure typewriter aesthetics. 

 Given the rebuttal and some other facts, I'm not sure this is an accurate assessment.  For one, I have not seen real compelling evidence that all typesetters believe in one space between sentences and for another there are plenty of style guides who ask for 2-spaces (the current APA style guides for instance) and others that don't have much to say on the matter.  I am sure there are typesetters and publications that prefer 1-space, but I see little proof that this is an industry-wide standard and I've seen little documentation to back up the insistence on 1-space as anything more than a fashionable aesthetic choice.  Even Manjoo admits that is exactly what it all boils down to, he's just arguing your aesthetic choice is bad because you aren't him and the typesetters he knows, whose opinion should be deferred to because of expertise. This is not the most compelling argument for an industry standard.

It may be possible that 1-space is more suitable for certain fonts and publications types and 2-spaces may be more appropriate for others.  This might be an okay scenario that we can all live with in harmony.

My advice, based on the evidence so far, is if you're looking to publish for a certain community or publication, simply look up and follow the style guides they have provided (and if they haven't provided a style guide they have no right to complain about style).  If it calls for one-space, use that.  If it calls for 2, use that.  CTRL-F (or command-F for you mac users) is your friend in either scenario.  Beyond that?  Use whichever spacing style seems most readable to you and doesn't get in the way of your writing flow. 

If advocates for either style want to enshrine either practice as a universal standard, they're going to need to make better arguments to more people (especially people who write style guides) than they have so far.