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Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

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361–370 of 970 posts

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a right way to do this which minimizes the issues, but it's counter-intuitive: reflect the negative aspects of The_Donald. It's called "closed loop hypocrisy" and the theory is that all negativity or opposition is inherently hypocritical (given we are all very similar in the end). But being hypocritical does not mean opposition is bad , if anything the issue is long loop hypocrisy where someone pretends to b…

"closed loop hypocrisy" sounds intriguing and is exactly the kind of counter-intuitive idea I'm drawn to. I'm not sure I entirely follow your explanation and Google is not bringing up much. Do you have a link to a longer explanation of some kind?

I do not. It's a theory a friend and I philosophized about for a while in college, but nothing published.

If you'd like to check our work though, play with proving/disproving the following:

1. All negativity/opposition is inherently hypocritical

2. Negativity/opposition is necessary

3. Your opposition will always focus more on your negative differences than your negative similarities

4. Focusing on similarities is the only way to truly resolve conflict.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#362

20th Century Dystopian novels are now operations manuals.

It's very sad how many leftist are cheering on the censorship.

Forcible silencing of opposing views is a central tenant of actual fascism (not the kind of "fascism" that kids on social media accuse people of just for disagreeing with them).

History repeats itself, it would seem. This is a modern day book burning.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you had any doubt about the character of TD and what it has become at its new home, just cruise around it. It’s full of conspiracy theories, misogyny, racism, and outright calls to violence. It is a common sentiment there that the only good Democrat is a dead one. These “edgy” takes receive many upvotes.

> It is a common sentiment there that the only good Democrat is a dead one. A similar sentiment is commonly expressed by far left individuals and groups on Twitter, Facebook and other mediums. "the only good Tory is a dead Tory" has been the popular refrain for decades. It's depressing these sentiments are carelessly amplified and approved by so many. Edit: Apparently this has caused a stir. I encourage others to not…

""the only good Tory is a dead Tory" has been the popular refrain for decades."

I haven't followed British politics much. The only thing I can find for your popular refrain is

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-47853588

Could you provide some sources?

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#364
post #89

Whether you agree with the move or not, it's funny how Reddit's stance has changed over time. Under the old ownership, 2012: "At reddit we care deeply about not imposing ours or anyone elses’ opinions on how people use the reddit platform. We are adamant about not limiting the ability to use the reddit platform even when we do not ourselves agree with or condone a specific use. We have very few rules here on reddit;…

That was effectively a challenge: how bad can you be without explicitly violating the rules? (I call this "I'm not touching you Fascism", after the popular children's pastime. The goal is to enrage people without ever crossing anything that might be considered a clear line. Most systems evolve a meta-rule somewhere that "pushing the boundaries of the rules is itself against the rules". At the very least "ban evasion"…

But the current rules Reddit are still an invitation to "I'm not touching you Fascism". Fascists haven't gone away. They still are around and they still think fascist things, they've just metastasized into a subtler form of cancer. The only difference now is that we can't confront fascism with the truth any more.

Ironically, by using the tools of the fascist against them we've implicitly admitted that the fascist is right. When we censor, we're saying that our ideas should be determined by who has the power to enforce censorship, not by compassion and truth.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#365
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> from any subreddit that toes their party line There's plenty of right-leaning subreddits. What set The_Donald apart was how close it sailed to being outright cultishly crazy.

How many left-leaning subreddits were banned? There're several toxic commie subs with a lot of hatred thrown around, but nobody seems to care. r/politics was default for ages and it wasn't exactly a welcoming place.

r/antifa

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#366
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Donald Trump was a democrat for most of his life. The basic tenants of secure borders + protecting american jobs was basically the Democrat platform for most of its existence.

The issue of uncontrolled immigration used to be common ground for the left and the right. For a long time even Bernie opposed it on the grounds that large numbers of low-skilled immigrants were driving driving down wages for the poorest Americans[0]. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/16/years-ber...

Yes, its not surprising that big business wants it.

But it is surprising how many "progressives" have been co-opted into F100 talking points, who they claim they oppose.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Free speech is not a god given right to spread hate, misinformation, antisemitism, misogyny, etc - And yes: Not confronting people who threaten the very basics of our democracy (respecting human rights and the dignity of our fellow citizens) will help those dark forces rise to the power. The nazis have been elected to power in the Weimar Republic.

> Free speech is not a god given right to spread hate, misinformation, antisemitism, misogyny

Free speech is a natural right. In a stat of nature one can say whatever they want. Rights are not some game of mother-may-I with the government.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#368
It's high time Reddit and other social networks ban toxic users, and boy are those political zealots toxic. The problem with these people is that they don't realize that almost nobody cares about their fringe opinions.

For all that I'm concerned, if Reddit shadowbanned every user with a history of mostly political comments and posts, nothing of value would be lost. Political discussions online do not have any positive effects on anybody, neither on the people doing it nor on the poor bystanders who have to endure all these "campaigns" and the constant attempts to manipulate public opinion.

As a European, I'm particularly tired of the constant flow of politically-motivated garbage posts coming from the US. One reason why I'm mostly on HN is that political topics are usually flagged. Kudos to Reddit if they go the same path.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My perusal of Chapo Trap House was a lot of people un-ironically wishing that gulags came back and certain people were thrown into them. Just because communists did them, doesn’t mean you aren’t advocating for concentration camps, left-wing or not.

That was most definitely ironic, for the most part. Any irony on the internet attracts those that believe it un-ironically, however.

Yep.

Consistent irony and in-jokes become real over time.

Re: Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse

#370
post #7

Worth taking note that in today's climate, you really cannot win when you are in a position to moderate important things that a lot of people use. There is constantly tremendous pressure on you to perform opposing actions, and even making no decision at all will cause you significant mental stress and harassment, regardles of what the issue is. You have to pick who you want to cave to, and to what extent, and no matt…

> could have more federated and decentralized platforms

I would absolutely not going to a platform with no moderation. The quality of the content will be abysmal.

Honestly, r/D or something like that should just go to host its own website/forum, it shouldn't be Reddit's problem to begin with. Their presence brings toxic attention/traffic that is hard to monetize anyway

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