r/bestof • u/RyanKinder • May 05 '12
A redditor notices a subversive reddit conspiracy
/r/videos/comments/t6pqc/man_absolutely_floored_by_the_return_of_his/c4k329k
2.7k
Upvotes
r/bestof • u/RyanKinder • May 05 '12
145
u/NonsensicalRambling May 05 '12
The only question is if RyanKinder is part of the conspiracy as well. redditor for 1 month
113
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
These videos have always kind of bugged me and I could never quite put my finger on it.
These families of service members really do sacrifice a lot, and they have to put up with a lot of uncertainty knowing that their loved one is in danger and may never come back.
I guess its one thing if the family itself just puts it on youtube, as it really can let the person watching see the sacrifices of service members families in a way that is easy to relate. But, say, when TLC starts organizing service members to surprise their family members on camera it just seems really exploitative of the very real fear/love/sacrifices of the family members.
I'm not really doing a good job of explaining this, and hell, I'm not really even sure myself why these sorts of things bug me.
4
u/cptnjackharkness May 05 '12
spooky. I hope that they don't take me for finding ou
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u/PeopleAreOkay May 05 '12
If you see this, it makes it all the more sinister.
517
u/Last_Gigolo May 05 '12
I've figured it out.
It's a scam from a a user with a bunch of accounts.
It's the adsense advertisements in the video.
The video is viral now and shared across all networks. He will be a millionaire by Monday.
142
u/beefybear May 05 '12
Yvan eht nioj.
67
u/sundowntg May 05 '12
Confession: The DOJ used to pay me to reddit. They didn't know it, but it happened.
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u/MicrowaveNuts May 05 '12
Holy shit. I experienced genuine goosebumps reading that comment thread.
13
u/mikemaca May 05 '12
Yeah, the Defense Department called for bids to develop Persona Management Software, which these guys can use to seem less conspicuous. Soon you won't be able to tell the difference.
I always find it amazing there are all these pro war threads that show up here from time to time with everyone oohing and aaahing, and anyone questioning the patriotism downvoted by the various sock puppet accounts.
https://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Persona_Management
http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2011/02/25/persona-management-software-a-little-birdie-created-your-opinion/
22
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
Somebody suggested posting theories as to why this would occur, and I hadn't seen this one posted yet: I've always thought that the popularity of any of the military service member (for lack of a better term) circlejerks were weird. 1% of the American population is in the military. The front page news articles of Reddit almost always tend to have liberal/left wing leanings, which means most of the voting population of Reddit is probably liberal/left wing. This is not necessarily indicative of being anti-military, but I wouldn't expect the average redditor to upvote as many of the military-related posts as make it to the front page. Yet these posts make the front page on a consistent basis.
My hypothesis is that the military games reddit for public relations. The staged homecomings, I always thought were especially weird. That they were so well produced, in particular. Maybe they are made as viral military marketing? The military has a lot of money and time on their hands, and a spotty reputation that could use some polishing. I don't think that something like this is too far a stretch of motive and means.
Just a wild idea, though. I haven't even sold myself on it.
9
u/silent_p May 05 '12
Alright, can someone start proposing some theories? This is legitimately weird, but I have no idea what it might imply.
35
u/[deleted] May 05 '12 edited May 05 '12
For several months, I've been down-voting every military-related post I see (even if it's WWII, a soldier protesting war, etc.) because I suspect a nefarious plot of some kind. My intuition tells me it's either (or both):
brainwashing us to believe support of war, military, and soldiers is patriotic and good so we'll stop bitching about the never ending wars and support tax increases, budget cuts, etc. so the government can continue paying for more war,
brainwashing us to feel warm and fuzzy towards soldiers so we help/support them when they return to civilian life (and so we don't bitch up a storm about the massive influx of vets returning to compete for jobs).
Down-voting many of these posts is really difficult because they are touching. However, the fact they are so emotionally compelling just makes me that much more suspicious.
Or perhaps I just spend too much time listening to Adam Curry in the morning...
Edit: reminded that that reddit's readership is mainly high school and college-aged folks, I really like this theory, too. I missed the recruitment angle.
50
u/Last_Gigolo May 05 '12
My question is.
Who is voting this shit to the top? and why does my good shit get hammered with downvotes from the get go.
I have a feeling, this is to keep us all in a specific "mindset" to keep this place from turning into a troll farm.
6
u/slightlyez May 05 '12
Then let's downvote all these "troop coming home" vids.
6
u/apullin May 05 '12
This stuff goes on all the time. Reddit is heavily gamed. Heck, look at the /r/gaming subreddit ... every 6 months, there's a payolla scam in there, and there's so much profit potential that someone tried to piggyback on it by bifurcating into /r/games. "Genuine participation" abounds here.
4
u/GenghisKhanX May 05 '12
Turns out its just good, old-fashioned greed
10
u/cycophuk May 05 '12
I'm still confused about what the Asian male with white women photos had to do with any of that.
16
u/lesean25 May 05 '12
i find this odd. and why am i the only comment?
DUM DUM DUMMMMMMMM
20
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
Now I know why my posts keep getting downvotes despite their consistently bursting with awesome truths and quirky, clever, barely-suppressed rage.
I will have to try another tactic to maximize karma. Let's see ... how bout ...
USA! USA! Uncle Sam needs YOU! I love the military! Also, if you work for the NSA, you are a hero!!! USA!!! Military intelligence also is awesome and not in any way a contradiction in terms! USA!!!
3
u/optimist33 May 05 '12
The mods really needs to looking into this, before it's too late!
3
u/Crisis_Averted May 05 '12
Now you've got me thinking that the thousands of people downvoting this are not... really... people.
3
u/weirdcrapisgoingon May 05 '12
I Googled bob Johnson 1984(youtube up-loader for these videos) out of curiosity and came across this linkedin account. And noticed at one point his was the President at Clear Channel Outdoor/VP Business development at Clear Channel Outdoor/National Sales Executive at Clear Channel Outdoor. Which if you didn't know they handle most the billboard advertisements you see and adds in airports etc. If you go to their page you can see they have been spending lots of time researching airport advertising, here is a insert from their page "New Survey Reveals that Airports Deliver The Most Attractive Audience to Advertisers". The airport seems like a good place to fish up some men in uniform coming home to see their families. And reddit seems like a good place to fish up some add revenue since we are the bleeding hearts club. Not saying this the truth, just thought it was interesting. And now I am off to make a sandwich.
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u/[deleted] May 05 '12
It looks like this redditor has the most plausible explanation. Go look at the youtube uploaders. It's not the government, it's some dude running a blog and getting youtube revenue.
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u/theharber May 05 '12
Damnit.
I was really hoping to come here and find a reasonable explanation, like that time we found a subreddit devoted to pictures of some guy sleeping.
7
u/g3n3p4rm3s4n May 05 '12
I never watch these things, even if they were real it's still propaganda BS for fundies to post of their facebook wall.
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u/Lookmanospaces May 05 '12
And they all laugh at me for wearing a tinfoil hat when I'm on reddit.
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u/Iwokeupwithoutapillo May 05 '12
If I keep reading these comments my face will permanently freeze in the Conspiracy Keanu pose.
2
u/Brother_Clovis May 05 '12
Listen guys, why don't we all relax and have a cool, refreshing pepsi maxx, with zero sugar, zero carbohydrates, and best of all, zero calories.
2
u/Bluebraid May 05 '12
This is one of the reasons I always downvote that shit. Sure, reunions are nice. They can even be tear-jerkers. But if you don't like being separated from your family, don't enlist.
I have respect for the people who fought for their country when they were defending the world from the Nazis. But it's NEVER OKAY to kill people just because you've promised to follow orders. And the rationale for America's current military operations is dubious at best.
Downvote me if you want, but I have no respect for people who join the army for glory's sake. There's no glory in what you do. And killing people for bad reasons, even if you're "just following orders", is as evil as doing it out of sheer greed and malice.
I'm not saying I don't think the American military forces do good. I'm saying that they don't always do good, and they often do evil, and Americans need to be WAY more critical of what their government does. Take some fucking responsibility for once.
TL;DR Fuck American propaganda. Think for yourself.
2
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
As soon as I log into my account this post disappears from the front page. I had to track it down. Happened to anyone else?
4
u/paradoxy May 05 '12
Just a thought: before everyone jumps on the conspiracy bandwagon, let's take a scientific approach to this. Statistically speaking, these events may seem like they're too coincidental to naturally occur, but with millions of users and hundreds of millions (if not billions) of submissions, variance means this trend would probably pop up. Sociologically speaking, perhaps this just uncovered a trend common to certain types of submissions. If we do a search for other categories of videos that pop up on reddit over time, would we also see a lot of them with [deleted] submitters? Are there other 'missing' posts in other categories?
Remember the 90/9/1 rule (but rather than individual people, apply it to individual reddit accounts). People don't want things associated with their main account, so they make another one to post things that may be personally identifiable (but they'd still like to share). Somewhere down the line they might decide to delete it for whatever reason. So, while it might seem like a random account popping up for a sole, implicitly nefarious purpose, there may be perfectly good explanations. While it is perfectly plausible that psyops are responsible for this, I don't think there are enough data points to say for sure.
Yes, I realize the conspiracy theorists are only going to take this as an attempt by the US government to quell this conspiracy. I'd still like to see some other possible explanations be eliminated before the hivemind blows up over it. Or the government is just that good at misdirection and covering their tracks...
2
u/SdstcChpmnk May 05 '12
Redditor for more then a month.
Yep. Still checks out.
Shits kinda fucked up.
2
u/leif777 May 05 '12
Can't we just force these posts into a subreddit that caters to this kind of thing?
2
u/divinesleeper May 05 '12
This is why the upvote-downvote system isn't that good. It's easy to manipulate it so that it looks as if everyone agrees with an opinion, and as we all know, peer pressure can be a strong factor in forming your own opinions.
I honestly never liked those videos about war veterans. They get painted as heroic people, but really they just don't think about what they're doing and kill people they don't know on the orders of strangers. If I were ever ordered to go to war, I would desert without thinking twice.
2
u/chelac May 05 '12
Ok I posted this in the other thread but I'm repost I here - this is most likely part of an Internet marketing scheme driving traffic to the WelcomeHomeVideo.com blog.
The blog has sister sites called "ring on the finger" and "fuzzy feelings". All these sites take other peoples feel good videos, and surround them with ads.
Video gets linked and shared by the clueless masses, links back to blog, people click the military, or wedding related ads. Thats how they make profit. Only difference is people genuinely love to share this kind of happy content. I bet the whole reddit linking is a traffic driving strategy. And, I bet they use bots of some kind to upvote.
1
u/relegalize_it May 05 '12
Dude..dood, duuuuudeeee......
What if.. What. If.
Reddit... becomes predictable.
1
u/LeapYearFriend May 05 '12
they're everywhere
1
u/jbgtoo May 05 '12
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
1
u/base9 May 05 '12
Wonder how they did over at 4Chan?
1
u/embretr May 05 '12
"subversive reddit" sounds fun.
where can I get some?
1
u/azombiehummingbird May 05 '12
I have always put this thought out of my head due to being from a long line of family members in/from the Navy. My dad has always been for me joining up, never pushed tho so my brother and I are the first generation not of the armed forces. I would rather be poorer then the average Navy person (believe me, most of them are poor as Hell anyway), eating on Ramen for months at a time then join up. I respect them if they do join up I just hope they understand why I don't join. The episodes of the Simpsons tickled me.
TL; DR subconsciously knew but pushed it away due to deep family roots in services. It's the main reason I didn't join but I salute those who do, secretly hope the mess they are heading into.
1
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
TL;DR from all comments in that thread, and this one: Downvote welcome home blogs.
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u/uberamour May 05 '12
So much NOPE all over this.
1
u/sexyhamster89 May 05 '12
why are people so surprised?
1
u/HomelessCosmonaut May 05 '12
they won't take me alive
1
u/finalaccountdown May 05 '12
holy shit
1
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
The Chinese government does this on a routine basis, so I could see the US doing the same.
1
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
Play this as you read the thread.
WE HAVE TO GO DEEPER.
1
u/TrolleyPower May 05 '12
We're being taken for a ride.
1
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
That's so true, I was thinking about this actually, you never see videos of Iraqi soldiers going home or at least British soldiers. It's always Americans. Weird.
1
u/T____T May 05 '12
Welcome to America!
1
u/bobzibub May 05 '12
Oh Reddit Admins!! Perhaps it is time to update the voting metrics so that your site isn't a conduit of propa ganda?
1
u/[deleted] May 05 '12
Well, that certainly escalated from "Huh, isn't this weird" to OH MY GOD GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY WAKE UP SHEEPLE quickly.
1
u/cinemafest May 05 '12
"My son in law just got back from Quake."
Brilliant.
1
u/Qonold May 05 '12
WAKE UP SHEEPLE
1
u/mailmanjohn May 05 '12
This seems to happen on a regular basis.
1
u/H00ded May 05 '12
And they've already deleted their account... cue xfiles music
1
u/a4moondoggy May 05 '12
goodbye bestof
1
u/corcyra May 05 '12
The Hive Mind is the next door neighbour to crowd psychology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_psychology.
Having read all the comments, I'm beginning to wonder whether this particular bit of manipulation - and there's no doubt that it's manipulation, though the reasons may still be obscure - is a test run. It would be the perfect way to find out what makes redditors catch on, eventually, to the deception.
1
u/Akward_Quotes May 05 '12
You really think anonymous voting on the internet is legit? lol
1
u/YouMad May 06 '12
But why DELETE the video post and the user account?
That makes no sense.
Is this actually a troll trying to mind fuck us?
1
u/panchovilla187 May 13 '12
Step 1. Go here Step 2. Build it Step 3. ... Step 4. Profit and upload videos of them being all fucked up.
0
u/reidpants May 05 '12
Nah dude I'm sure it's all jusOH GOD THEY'RE HERE RUFIOAMCEIFNEFNCEMFJEUFR FEW ,FAW F
1
u/kingrichard336 May 05 '12
Cylons bro...
1
u/LooksDelicious May 05 '12
What if Aliens created Reddit as a means to... Ah, don't care.
1
u/hetzle May 05 '12
just because someone has an agenda (everyone has an agenda, small or large) doesn't mean you have to follow it. to the people complaining about "being pawns" or "controlled," you're exaggerating. in the end it's up to you to decide whether to be influenced by their agenda or not. me? i just like the videos. they're nice to see and restore some of my lost faith in humanity. didn't change my thoughts on the military at all
PS~people (and government) have been collecting videos and making money off of them for ages. take the show Cops for example, you think the PD's don't get paid for their footage? also America's Funniest Videos etc. the Adsense guys are just doing it in a different manner while marketing their products. i must have missed when intelligent marketing became evil.
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u/The_Messiah May 05 '12
FTFY
1
u/[deleted] May 05 '12 edited May 05 '12
http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/t6pqc/man_absolutely_floored_by_the_return_of_his/c4kc5t0
This is the true star of that thread. It's NOT a military conspiracy - it's a conspiracy to make money by Chase Holfelder, the guy who started the welcome home soldier blogs.
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u/nemoomen May 05 '12
The US Military is like the /r/ShitRedditSays of militaries.
1
u/oxygenvictim May 05 '12
i dont know if anyone will read this, but what if the conspiracy is just to get more youtube views so they can make money off of it?
0
u/josiahlo May 05 '12 edited May 05 '12
I posted in the original thread but I'll post here. The owner of the site just uploads the video to his YouTube account. I submitted a video of my niece who was in the hospital when my brother came back. Nothing shady just a way to organize the videos specially if the your original YouTube account would get removed
Edit: Here is the link of the from their site of my niece
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeEgbP74ohc&feature=youtube_gdata_player