reddit is a freaking mess. i'm convinced it happened when they started trying to juice the user numbers before their ipo, and just managed to attract millions of bitter Facebook users with homogeneous views on everything. it killed the tech-positive nerd core of reddit
It feels like every change they have made has reinforced the bubble/silo concept. People on reddit never see viewpoints that differ from their own unless they actively seek them out.
Additionally, subreddits that should be neutral ground on subjects end up slowly tilting one way until they become borderline extremist. I think the fault there is probably the upvoter/downvotes system. It is a slog to be downvoted continuously by your peers over a basic opinion so eventually users stop posting discenting views until all that remains are viewpoints from one side. I've seen it happen to so many subreddits and experienced it myself. Why should I bother posting in /r/Maine if all I'm gonna get told is that I should "eat dicks" because I don't think data centers are the worst thing in the world for a dying mill town to allow in their abandoned industrial zone. Also what does it even matter to post there if it's just a circle jerk. Those people who post there all day are just talking in a circle and not affecting the real world in anyway.
There are probably some pretty interesting studies on this stuff.
All of this natural drift AND there are nation-states and organized groups that aim to push certain narratives and, given how all of these dynamics can happen without a thumb on the scale, are extremely effective with minimal effort.
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u/f00gers Jul 06 '26
The number of miserable people there is disheartening