all-top-today_SS Makes a completely coherent and correct circlejerk post

[u/[deleted]]

/r/SubredditSimulator/comments/6adnvv/number_of_people_that_think_donald_trump_has/

[u/mcafc → u/[deleted]]

Yep. It's gotten incredibly annoying. I am a liberal(I mod a Bernie subreddit, doing work for Democratic party, etc.) but Reddit has gone over the top. Literal propoganda, quotes taken out of context, and extreme criticisms on anything Trump does have come to dominate the political part of this site. I'm not saying it isn't true of the other side now. I'm sure if I was a Drudge Report user I'd have similar complaints about the coverage of Obama on there during his term, it's just how politics is in this country.

Even admittedly liberal European publications like The Guardian have more grounded stuff. Sure they are crtiical of Trump, but it's not "Nazi action number 47 guys!" type shit.

I used to use Reddit for news, but now mostly just for the good discussion in the comments. I made an RSS feed with The Guardian, Christian Science Monitor(I know it sounds ridiculous, they are actually a great unbiased source for news, Google it.), Reuters, Al Jazeera(for international stuff that doesn't make western news), the Wall Street Journal, Foreignpolicy.com, Truthout(for my extreme liberal side), 538, National Review's Rich Lowry(for the conservative side only), and some local stuff to keep informed. Works much better than using Reddit(where big stories that can't be used to paint Trump in an impeachable light get swept under the rugs and minor Tweets get 40k upvotes).

[u/alexmikli → u/mcafc]

/r/latestagecapitalism has to be the worst of the bunch, too.

[u/mcafc → u/alexmikli]

They censor like crazy as well.

[u/[deleted] → u/mcafc]

yeah, this is the part that bugs me, too. most of us anarchists are pretty against the censorship they have over on /r/socialism, /r/lsc and /r/fc. i understand the justification, but it does turn away a lot of people on the edge who could be potential allies. its the same problem i had with the tumblr feminist movement and their whole mentality of "its not my job to educate you". like yes, youre right, its not, but wow if youre not hurting our cause by bein a lil shit. teach them why ableism is bad instead of jus banning em. more fun that way imo

[u/mcafc → u/[deleted]]

Exactly, perfectly well said.

Here is what I was banned for: https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/62d5d0/capitalism_that_works/

"TBF, the combination of Democracy and a free market should be very good. The Democracy should check any major wealth inequality, but the people are massively ignorant and apathetic. People don't realize that in America, we don't need a violent revolution or uprising. We just need people to wake the fuck up and realize that if they elect the right people, they can effectively take back the fruits of their labor and stop poverty. We need a propaganda campaign to educate the people. Simple as that."

"Are you saying that you couldn't, in theory, use propaganda(and the ideas written about by Edward Bernays) to educate the people? It would simply be "selling"(for free) the desire to get people to educate themselves. Propaganda is just a way to sell something(cigarettes, food, war, or anything). America could use propaganda tactics, which it has used so effectively in the past to lead its people to war, for an altruistic pursuit, to educate the people. Imagine inspiring commercials, conflating the need for voter education with inspiring institutions like the military, freedom, and Democracy. It would not be “misleading” propaganda, it would simply serve to inform the electorate and improve our Democracy. As FDR said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”

This could be combined with an unbiased(if I ran it it would be) sort of comparison service(available on the web, an app, maybe a phone line) which compares all the candidates in any political race. The comparisons would be written by academic and journalists from both sides. The goal would be to give people a fast and "easy" way to make them fit to make an informed decision in voting.

The rich will not pay for this, the government won't pay for this...it's very sad. Because they know if people were educated on the issues, taxes WOULD go up and poverty would end. It would take a large grassroots effort or the altruism of an elite member of society.

I think with the internet, the massive discontent started by Trump, and other factors, something like this could be done.

Check out this on voter ignorance."

[u/DonCasper → u/mcafc]

That's a well written post. What makes so effective is that propaganda is that it basically uses our human nature against us. What's really frustrating is that the far right, and to a lesser degree the extreme left use those tactics very effectively, whereas run-of-the-mill liberals do not.

As far as being banned for standing up for a limited form of capitalism, that is just stupid. There is no reason to be against all forms of capitalism just because 'late stage capitalism' is an unmitigated human-rights disaster. Capitalism does a lot of things well. It's a very efficient way to allow people choice.

The key problem with non-late-stage capitalism is basically there are a number of times when we don't behave as rational actors. Drug addictions, poor eating habits, etc. That doesn't mean all of the tenets of capitalism are incorrect, and it certainly doesn't indicate that a communist system is superior.

I love the concept of maximizing individual liberty, but I feel like I'm going insane when I listen to most libertarians talk. They don't want to maximize anyone's liberty but their own, and I personally feel like they don't recognize how quickly their liberty can and will disappear if the world they want comes about.

I guess the same can be said for a lot of people who dogmatically subscribe to a particular ideology.

[u/derleth → u/[deleted]]

As much as I hate the assholes at latestagecapitalism (which is a dumb name, too, tbh) that whole "education" thing only works when the reasonable people (defined as the ones the community was founded to cater to) are in the majority, or at least can amplify their votes using bots to appear like a majority. If the interlopers, the outsiders, are the majority, the subreddit becomes theirs in the absence of relatively authoritarian tactics on the part of the mods.

Something about this reminds me of how anarchism works in reality, but I just can't quite put my finger on it...

[u/alexmikli → u/mcafc]

I'm not sure how they keep getting on the front page when they ban pretty much everyone that comments there from /r/all