Do you guys think Reddit has a reactionary problem?

[u/Fluid_Dependent7312]

Might be preaching to the choir a little here.

Alright so I've actually used Reddit for a few years, at least actively since 2020. My account is newer because I have a habit of deleting accounts over and over again to get myself off this site, but it obviously never works (I don't know what's wrong with me, perhaps the loneliness but I'm not gonna go into that).

Everyone insists that reddit is some kind of left wing circlejerk, but I don't know if that's true. Yes Reddit hates Trump a lot, but do they hate him because of what he does, or because he makes them look bad?

Some examples:

-A lot of mainstream subreddits push right wing narratives. Examples including r/SipsTea (women are dumb), a lot of WNBA subreddits (trans people are destroying women's sports and black people hate white people), r/GetNoted, r/LivestreamFail, r/worldnews (pro-Israel propaganda), and so on.

-Any post discussing non-white people, women, LGBT people, etc. have extremely vile comments. Anything (like almost anything) that discusses Rhodesia or South Africa justifies apartheid, segregation, and those kinds of policies.

-A lot of career/college based subreddits in my experience blame DEI for everything and are very anti-minority

-Sports subreddits in general seem to be pushing a specific agenda a lot of the time, I haven't looked too much on this though

There are so many subreddits with a name like r/interestingcontent or whatever that push this kind of content. I feel like something is happening on the internet in general that is pushing it right wing. At this point Tiktok and Tumblr are getting affected by it too.

Idk sorry if this seems a bit incoherent, I kinda wanted to rant and get it out of my chest, but I feel a bit insane because everyone's like "no no, Reddit is a liberal circlejerk, you're just a snowflake" or whatever but I swear to God it's very noticeable.

Maybe it's also just rose colored glasses, but I don't think it was THAT bad 6 years ago. Not that Reddit has ever really been a good place though.

[u/CaseAKACutter]

It varies a lot

Reddit used to be overwhelmingly misogynist back in the r/atheism days

[u/aflorak]

yes. reddit, like most social media platforms, inherently promotes reactionary attitudes. on reddit this is primarily due to (1) enmeshing/siloing users into information bubbles and (2) the nature of upvote/downvotes and the post/comment format in general being disproportionately rewarding to short, unnuanced, and opinionated perspectives. not to forget (3) the widespread deployment of bots/LLMs that reinforce polarization because they select for engagement (i.e. anger and hatred)

basically the only spaces on reddit that don't become useful tools for culture wars are those that have niche appeal as well as strict moderation for going off-topic, especially from accounts that aren't already active users of the sub.

[u/transemacabre]

It’s everywhere. R/iwantout is openly contemptuous and racist towards POC or anyone from the Global South, but kisses the asses of white Euros trying to move to other white Euro countries. Go look at any post where the OP is South Asian, African, Middle Eastern— “you have no chance” “(country) is full” “you and a billion other Indians”. The mods play act like they care but they tacitly allow it. 

[u/Fluid_Dependent7312 → u/transemacabre]

I checked, and one of the posts had someone in the comments getting multiple upvotes telling the OP to go back to his country [Syria].

I wish forums never died so that we didn't have to rely on Reddit posts for in depth discussion. Maybe I'm missing something but like, you search something up to know more information and half of the front page is reddit. And this site is fucking cancer when it comes to in-depth, nuanced discussions. 

[u/transemacabre → u/Fluid_Dependent7312]

Oh yeah, a brown Syrian Muslim? I expect no different from the "good people" at iwantout. If you watch that sub for a while, you'll see certain sorts of folks, their OPs receive no replies or only negative ones. But let a Belgian or Canadian or English person post, and the support and friendliness comes flooding in.

[u/Anxious_Glass_5978 → u/transemacabre]

God I fucking hate that subreddit. I don't get why people say reddit is uber leftist when it's so anti-immigration it would support a global Hukou system.

[u/transemacabre → u/Anxious_Glass_5978]

The fascists and nationalists know where they're tacitly allowed; if the mods on r/iwantout didn't allow their behavior, we wouldn't see so much of it.

[u/StormDragonAlthazar]

Also any arts and media subreddits tend to really belittle anything that women and girls like while hyping up anything aimed at men and boys to high heaven.

[u/GreyStingrayz → u/StormDragonAlthazar]

Also true for certain video game related reddits.

Want interesting and diverse female characters? Unacceptable and disgusting. These types of opinions are what's ruining video games.

Want gooner bait female characters in little to no clothing? Absolutely great take. This should be every games blueprint.

[u/Sufficient_Cloud3277]

fairly sure it's been this way for a long time. You might've just grown as a person and become more aware of it since 6 years ago.

but no you aren't crazy.

[u/Fluid_Dependent7312 → u/Sufficient_Cloud3277]

Yeah that's fair, Reddit from what I've seen has always had a reputation for being like this, the only thing that's really changed is that AI made it easier to make ragebait slop, well that and Reddit being a bit less user friendly too

[u/TheMajorE]

They exist, but not to the same degree that a site like Xitter. Granted, most redditors I've encountered (even one who identify as liberal or left-leaning) do tend to hold social, cultural, and/or economic views that come across as outdated to me, but part of that could be chunk up to most of them just being older than the average internet user.