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

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

#531

Post by sgift »

lipstone wrote: post #469
cryptoz wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

From the perspective of someone from Europe this is a very valid question, cause Biden is right of the center, so not really what somehow who describes themselves as "leftist" usually votes for. Even Bernie Sanders, often seen as the start of socialism in America, is only a bit left of the center in typical political quadrants.

The problem is that US politics are very skewed to the right, so many there think clear right wing positions are on the left.

(https://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2020)

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

#532

Post by tzs »

MrZongle2 wrote: post #331
secondcoming wrote: post #232

Great, I hope r/politics is next. And then they can start censoring anti-semitic far-leftists.

Don't hold your breath, especially regarding any action taken against /r/politics or an effort to make it actually politically neutral.

How would one make a political discussion group be politically neutral?

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

#533

Post by amadeuspagel »

ipnon wrote: post #394
skrowl wrote: 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?

No it does not matter, and I struggle to understand why anyone would think it does. There's no other context where every criticism of a private company gets countered with the argument that that private company isn't violating the constitution.

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

#535

Post by runarberg »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #484
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not. Not only is "The only good Tory is a dead Tory" not a popular refrain at all [1], but a quick search for "The only good Republican is a dead Republican" returns a lot of hits for the "[...] dead Democrat" quote and almost none for the search phrase. These attempts at false equivalence reliably appear in these situations, and there's reliably nothing to back them up. The difference is the right is trying…

Republicans use "Democrat" as a swear word. Democrats more commonly resort to epithets to describe their opponents. Relevant Google autocomplete for "the only good ...": The only good cop is a dead one The only good pig is a dead pig The only good fascist is a very dead fascist Nothing there referring to liberals/progressives/Democrats. I also gave it "the only good c..." to see if it would give up "conservative" and…

A quick note: Anti christian sentiment is very much not a left wing stance. Quite the contrary, I’m more like to find crap like that in libertarian circles. The left wing are often the ones jumping in to defend religious tolerance.

About the dead cops and dead fascists... sure I’ll admit to that. However that is very much not the same. Fascism is an ideology that is a direct threat to a large number of people’s livelyhoods. To declare militant intentions against such an ideology of hate is a matter of self defense. The same applies to cops (albeit to a lesser extent).

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

#536

Post by monksy »

koheripbal wrote: post #278
smolder wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This resonates with my experience moderating a local facebook group. I get attacked and threatened by racist instigators and BLM supporters alike because people feel that any moderation against them is solidarity with the other side. I point to the group rules violated and they still assume bias on my part. I AM biased (in favor of BLM) but still get treated like crap when I'm doing my best to moderate fairly, for fr…

This is exactly why moderators ultimately quit and are replaced by activists with no interest in balanced speech. Any platform with unpaid moderators tends to biased activism.

Also paid moderators can't be trusted to moderate without bias. Supporting the ability for Trump-friendly speach (as long as it's relevant and civil) may get you bluelisted+defunded by advertisers who get harassed.

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

#537

Post by dmix »

foogazi wrote: post #388
parliament32 wrote: post #9

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;…

> and no interfering the site's functions Spamming the r/all homepage due to eliminating downvotes certainly interferes with the sites functions

Why not just remove them from r/all?

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

#538

Post by monksy »

kylebenzle wrote: post #41
ve55 wrote: 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…

Users won't allow for (use) decentralized platforms until there is a good way to censor them. Once that happens, what would be the point of switching. Facebook and Reddit are successful BECAUSE they are censorship machines. Facebook spends far more man hours on "curating" content compared to engineering. Same with Reddit. Add up all the "moderation" time spent removing negative or controversial posts and I bet much m…

Facebook and Reddit are successful because it allows for the users to be social with people they know/recognize.

Spam removal is the biggest element of reddit and FB. Unwanted content detracts from the original goal. (Also moderating in it's self does kill a community if done badly)

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

#539

Post by throwaway829 »

caconym_ wrote: post #494
ryankemper wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm also not sure how much The_Donald was as a community. It was very clearly a real community, as you can see evidence from the fact that they migrated to thedonald.win when Reddit made it clear that they wouldn't be treated fairly. > So you'd be in your other community and one day they all show up and down votes and the vitriol begins... it was no mystery that this happened, it was spoken of openly in The_Donald…

T_D was chock full of calls for violence since its early days. In particular, I remember looking one day and seeing its whole front page covered in posts glorifying Pinochet for the way he treated his domestic enemies. The mods quite clearly had no good faith interest in keeping this kind of content out, only stepping in (except to ban users going against the narrative) when they were threatened from above. I am myst…

Similar to how leftists promoted the "punch a nazi in the face" meme'. They will of course be the ones defining who is a "nazi".

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

#540

Post by subsection1h »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #99
superkuh wrote: post #51

I have no love for the political ideology or behavior of this group but they weren't breaking any laws or even any more rules than other groups on reddit that still operate. They were just politically unviable. Centralized corporate means to communicate (like, say, this one we're using) always go bad eventually. It's the natural lifecycle of online forums. Once money involved it's only a matter of time before the pro…

I generally agree with everything you said. The phrase "politically unviable" has taken on a totally different meaning to me this year. I don't watch his show, but Tucker Carlson has the most watched cable news show at the moment, and yet somehow it's becoming politically unviable to advertise on his show. Who would have ever thought that ideas with a plurality of support/viewership would be politically unviable. We…

Tucker Carlson has a "plurality of support"? Less than 2% of Americans watch his show. Do you mean a pluraility of support from cable news viewers (a.k.a. poorly-educated boomers)?
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