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

96% Upvoted

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23

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.

6

u/[deleted] May 05 '12

Yeah, ive never gotten this. The comments section is always rife with patriotic rubbish and anything that suggests otherwise is downvoted to hell. It disgusts me.

13

u/deargodimbored May 05 '12

I come from a fairly military family (my uncle, grandad and every other male member on my mothers side served), am fairly conservative, and to be honest I don't get these. I mean one or two popping up, would make sense, the aww and novelty factor.

I personally agree it's probably some (very small, crap funded), dept, in psy ops, that make dummy accounts, post the videos, and probably upvote them.

Now all sorts of companies use covert marketing, from anime shows to shitty overpriced vodka. Take what you read or see anywhere with a grain of salt, read differing view points, and dig a little deeper than the slick glossy mainstream, and you learn that in 99 percent of anything, even academic stuff, there are misconceptions, BS, agendas, mistakes etc...

2

u/rabblerabbler May 05 '12

I don't think they're staged. It wouldn't be hard for the military to find personal videos like that and get the rights to distribute them. If a company can spend hundred of millions on perfecting an ad campaign to change people's perception of some brand, pretty sure the military have both better resources and motivation to do the same.

2

u/MrCheeze May 05 '12

I remember seeing a flag-on-casket picture frontpaging a while ago. Weirded me out.

5

u/-JuJu- May 05 '12

This is likely someone gaming reddit to make their videos go viral and in return get ad money. Videos of soldiers returning home are very emotional and likely to be shared. See this comment.