Has anybody else noticed the complete conversion from generalized subreddits on r/all to oddly specific ones focused around calling people out from a placae of "moral high ground"? I really hate it now.
No matter what the subreddit is, it’s full of radically far left political comments. They get upvoted and any attempt to provide reason gets downvoted.
Not sure how it became this way but perhaps it’s as simple as what you say:
> People sound like I did 10-15 years ago when I lacked the life experience
They’re kids.
Or perhaps it’s more sinister and coordinated. Either way, the political component of Reddit has made me abandon it. It’s unfortunate because I used to enjoy niche subs in the same way you would any other niche forum.
And what’s worse, the contents of subreddits are incredibly homogeneous; there is no place for dissent. A subreddit named ”music” or ”films” or ”games” (just conceptually, ok?) fancies itself as the reference for that specific thing, when it’s actually just a reflection of whatever political stance the mods have (usually simply reduction to average). Outside people will see that and think ”oh nice a centralized discussion for concept X” and that just makes things even worse.
It’s not just Reddit, either. This same story has played out for me on Anime News Network’s forums, some gaming forums, etc.
Ultimately I just take my toys and go home - they don’t want me there, and it’s their legal right to say so.
But it results in a forum of views that appear to show unanimous consensus that {x} is good or {y} is bad, which is potentially dangerous for society at large and certainly bad for an open society of debate and knowledge sharing.
Even worse, I’ve seen instances where a blatantly bigoted, racist, or violent extreme view is allowed to stay (down voted to hell, of course) while my and others’ more nuanced or intelligent takes are scrubbed and banned.
I can only presume this is intentional with the effect of demonstrating that “only violent extremists are anti-{x} or pro-{y}, and you wouldn’t want to be associated with those people, now, would you?”
I only wish I had an example handy to share, because it’s been pretty blatant at times.
Ultimately the moral judgements associated with every political argument is getting ridiculous and (intentionally?) stifling debate while stirring unrest, and most of it feels artificial.
The tone went from rough-and-tumble, big tent libertarianism to hate filled right wing politics. From weird and funny to stupid and rude. I didn't want to be contaminated by that thinking or have my name associated with it, so I moved to Reddit where eventually the same thing happened.
There's some kind of Godwin's Law corollary here that revolves around whether your board removes "I'm just asking questions" posts or not.
It feels like a sea change over the last year or so. Reddit used to feel pretty progressive, but now, even in the tamest subreddits, it feels like casual racism flourishes. Guess that's how it goes with social networks; they always start off with interesting people and interesting dialogue, and as the community matures and grows, the mob-mentality breaks down the doors, says "nice round-table you have here" and proceeds to ruin the place.
It seems like a right-wing contingent has taken over the moderation of a lot of smaller subreddits, specifically city/country subreddits, and both the content posted and the commentary reflects that.
It's a dangerous trend for both society and reddit itself.
Yep reddit is increasing its conformity and intolerance to dissent at a very quick pace, maybe because it's election year? But in the past such forays have been one way only.
As the subs where you can speak with some degree of openness are ever smaller, it's not worth the time anymore.
I agree, one of the worse offenders that I've found is r/DebateCommunism. That subreddit is strangely similar to the now defunct r/theDonald and I would go as far as calling it a brainwashing academy for the débil mind.
I used to spend a bit of time on r/StLouis and it was the same. The problem with subredits is the same all over the site: They are run by humans with their own built in beliefs, biases, and grudges. Truth matters not what a mod believes.
Linked post references red pilling and 4chan, celebrates being hated by people, talks about how great their terrible user base is, and mentions Christian shit multiple times.
Gives me the impression that it was always intended to be populated by the types of people that populate it.
This "cult like" division of people and ideas is rife throughout reddit. Subreddits where reasonable objections get downvoted out of sight and preaching to the choir gets upvoted to the top reinforcing those beliefs.
It ruins the whole point of reddit. The mods are very biased on some subreddits that aren't even based on extreme ideas and they have so many unnecessary rules they can lock any thread they want for any reason just because they don't like it.
Reddit has become a cesspool for discourse. There are a couple of good subreddits but that's because they are based on discussion (e.g /r/casualconversation)not the subject of discussion.
Many subreddit don't want reasonable discourse. They want a safe space full of "yes men" that fall in line with and reinforce their beliefs.
You have to go in with the mentality that lots of communities have been infected by exaggerated groupthink. The core values and typically accepted wisdom is usually pretty decent, but people become zealots for it and the subreddits become more like weird experiments in enforcing ideological purity.
I've been using reddit since the big Digg 2.0 migration. It is disappointing to see the popular/frontpage subreddits become such a bubble. In r/pics, for example, most of the top pics have a clear political slant. I'm not sure how much of that is intentional propaganda versus just what happens when content is based on how a majority of its users vote. I miss the days when it was mostly harmless advice animal memes.
Agreed. I am quite tired of these craven point-and-shame sites. Couple years back, I also used to browse communities such as /r/circlebroke or /r/subredditdrama that thrive on mocking their ideological enemy while being protected from any kind of criticism. Since then, I have realized what kind of deleterious effect browsing those websites has. The constant positive feedback loop only leads to groupthink and the further dehumanization of others. Unfortunately, Reddit really encourages this type of community model.
Reddit is and will change more over time. Today I get “posts you may like” on my home feed which are basically rehashed horrible takes from /r/politics on a different subreddit.
Every subreddit is also now beginning to just get political, making their job worse.
Majority of frontpage reddits are political subreddits:
/r/whitepeopletwitter
/r/blackpeopletwitter
/r/antiwork
/r/economy (yeah even this now)
/r/workreform
Thankfully the more I browse reddit the more I develop a de-sensitized self to extreme left/right wing. Now I just auto-filter it on my brain. That's a good thing.
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