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

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461–470 of 970 posts

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

#461
post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the Reddit and Youtube we need again.

IDK, the internet of that era was a pretty toxic place. Sexism and racism were rampant, such that many people I know IRL simply refused to participate in most internet spaces (including HN). This gave the impression that those viewpoints were mainstream, but that was never the case. I don't think losing out on so many voices of people who don't want to be around that stuff is worth it.

[deleted]

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

#462
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/r/ConsumeProduct was antisemtic? I never saw that in the posts of theirs that made the front page. It was always memes about over-consumption, they might make fun of disposable make-up wipes for example ("And when you're done, just throw it away!" cue gallery yelling in a robotic voice: CONSUME PRODUCT ). Genuinely curious what the link to antisemitism is. Is the thought that consumerism = big business, and big busi…

It doesnt surprise me that the antisemitic stuff didnt make it to the front page, but for the record there was a LOT of it in the top posts of the subreddits. Caricatures in the posts, conspiracies in the comments. They also really focused on vasectomies, which strangely has become a strong signal for alt right presence in a community.

That's unfortunate, because I really liked the cynicism around consumerism, it made me question a lot of the purchases I was making.

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

#463
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would something decentralized help? I don't think people want that. The_Donald involved a lot of spreading their message / fake news sites / spamming across other subs and etc. Do people want to be on a platform where other folks on the same platform are targeting their community with dishonest and often bigoted content? I'm also not sure how much The_Donald was as a community. The sheer volume of users at its height…

Anything decentralized will create a vacuum of power to be filled by rational actors. Kind of like how Bitcoin is decentralized but controlled by a handful of miners on China.

Is email controlled by Google and Yahoo?

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

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the 'heavy censorship' is the only thing keeping hobby communities going well. Without that moderation, you'd be trying to learn about something fun like knitting but you'd see a bunch of hateful content, like racist MAGA stuff instead of knitting for example. Having the moderation get stronger is the only way to save hobby subreddits IMO.

No you wouldn’t, that’s the whole point of upvotes and downvotes. The community gets to decide what’s popular. Not moderators.

>The community gets to decide what’s popular

This is false. The piece of the machine that really decides is reddit's algorithm and how people consume content. It also doesn't take into account how communities can drastically change in an instant if a post gets brigaded. Suddenly it's not "your community" that's voting and deciding.

What happens is the most easily digestible content that appeals to the most people gets upvoted the most. Saying "the community decides" is at best naive.

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

#466

The title should be updated, as T_D was just one of a large number of subs banned today; even then, it has been largely irrelevant since the admins' earlier decision to quarantine it and impose other restrictions. Other larger banned subs include /r/GenderCritical (anti-Trans) and /r/ConsumeProduct which was ostensibly for criticism of consumerism and product promotion, but hid a large strain of antisemitism below th…

I liked /r/ConsumeProduct, it was funny to see them critics Reddit blattant consumerism and pornography.

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

#467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reddit is still very much anti censorship. This is just not true. They are very transparently trying to kick off users/communities that they don't "like". For example basically any subreddit associated with the "alt right", except I believe /r/DebateTheAltRight or whatever it's called. It's very simple: (1) Identify community that you don't like, generally due to association with anti-leftist political views (2) Fi…

The sense of persecution and victim-hood I hear from the right seems rather at odds with how damn successful they seem to be at the moment. It's like when the silent majority was anything but.

This is difficult because there are different definitions of 'right' as well as different environments.

They can be successful at the ballot box nationally but still be persecuted.

Remember that Brendan Eich was forced out of Mozilla for his views.

To be a professor in University of California one has to pass a political litmus test.

So yea I do think there is persecution.

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

#468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think those on the other side of your argument would consider Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be a militant SJW.

People don't understand the meaning of the word "militant" then, because AOC has never participated in arming herself during a protest. As opposed to say, WA State rep Matt Shea, who was found to be conspiring with militias to start a civil war that would end in a theocracy: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/790192972/washington-legislat...

> People don't understand the meaning of the word "militant" then

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/militant

1. Fighting or warring.

2. Having a combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause: a militant political activist.

It seems to apply quite well to some of those SJW types who caused people to quit or get fired, and physically threatened them at the same time (e.g. see Bret Weinstein).

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

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is basically a Left-wing propaganda outlet at this point. The amount of clearly targeted sub-Reddits with the aim of radicalising their target group is staggering and would make even the most nefarious of insurgents blush at how open and obvious it is.

Worth noting that from my perspective , reddit is basically a right-wing propaganda outlet and always has been (at least the last 10+ years). Weird how that goes.

Have you used reddit at all within the past 10 years? Yeah, there's some smaller subreddits that have right-wing views, but every frontpage sub leans heavily left.

For example, the most common political debate right now isn't Biden vs. Trump, it's whether or not Biden is left-wing enough to deserve a vote.

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

#470
post #394
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Americans have a constitutional guarantee to free speech. They do not have a constitutional guarantee to use Reddit. Does that difference matter here?

Reddit is not a US government entity, so the US constitutional right to free speech is generally not applicable to discussions of Reddit.

The exception is the case where a US government entity controls an account that is a mod of a subreddit, in which case they would be subject to the First Amendment when performing mod duties such as deleting user comments or banning users. This specific case would burden only that user and would not place any additional burden upon the non-government mods or upon Reddit itself or its admins.

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