‘I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place’

Post by coatmatter » Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 6:19 PM UTC

everdev wrote: post #211

psychometry wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but The_Donald is always leaking. I've seen plenty of sexist/racist content on subreddits for cities, sports teams, memes, etc. Reddit has allowed itself to be a platform used in part for really despicable content, and the despicable people who generate that content regularly venture outside their cesspools.

Isn't this a symptom of a site growing to reflect the broader population? When communities are small, they typically cater to a niche audience, who invites their friends who are directly or tangentially related to that niche. Once the site grows beyond those 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections, you get exposed to those 4th, 5th and 6th degree connections that might have some values and opinions that are shocking to y…

Post by commandlinefan » Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

lechiffre10 wrote: post #18

I've significantly reduced my time on Reddit. Used to pull up the website out of curiosity every day but the atmosphere is incredibly toxic. My front page was riddled with Russiagate stuff too for some reason and every time you'd bring up an argument that isn't the norm you get a mob after you.

Post by commandlinefan » Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

douglaswlance wrote: post #23

Reddit is the only popular website where rational discourse can actually happen, thanks to the infinitely threaded conversations and complete markdown. While there is objective rude comments on there, this is why some people call it, "toxic," because their ideas are challenged, and they'd rather preserve their ideological bubble than seek to understand reality.

Post by stale2002 » Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 6:23 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #171

abnry wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and even places that are anti-racism, anti-sexism, and hate trump are often filled with emotionalism and thoughtless group think shouting. Comments decrying anything bad in a caustic way are near useless.

Comments decrying anything bad in a caustic way are near useless. Yes. The kind of mentality which is drawn to social condemnation has been a mental substrate to all kinds of bad stuff throughout history. No matter how positive the cause for which it's done, it often becomes toxic and authoritarian. Witness various religions throughout history, as well as the high ideals of the early international communists.

Post by trophycase » Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 6:25 PM UTC

tropo wrote: post #244

AimHere wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as if there aren't meme-heavy right-wing subreddits who do something similar. r/the_donald was all over the front page for a long while, and has a notoriously strict moderation policy. It's just that the right wing subs just don't happen to be as popular right now - or they get banned for lack of moderation and for having their members advocating extreme violence (like r/physicalremoval). latestagecapitalism…

Reddit has special code to discriminate against /r/The_Donald. Without that special code, /r/The_Donald would still be all over the front page. Sometimes the truth leaks out, for example in the interface that advertisers use. The number of subscribers listed there was over 6 million, far in excess of what a normal reddit user would see. In various ways, inconsistencies reveal that all the numbers are being manipulate…