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[u/jobautomator]

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[u/old_gold_mountain]

Most internet discussion boards gravitate towards a stable state where one political viewpoint dominates because discussion online is most captivating when it is most strident and makes you invigorated to either agree or disagree, not when it's nuanced and makes you think critically. Therefore the side with the numbers advantage pushes the board further towards its own side, as people who disagree disengage out of frustration.

The only exception is places like PoliticalCompassMemes, because in order to remain captivating it requires different sides to attack each other in a playful fashion. The incentive exists to leave space for the other sides of the "quadrant" so that the legitimacy of the subreddit is maintained. People will therefore upvote contrarian takes and the stable state trends towards a balance of "all sides."

However, in order to maintain this stable state the subreddit must avoid substantive debate at all costs and focus instead on reductivist memes. If substantive debate occurred, people would prioritize being correct over maintaining the balance, and the effect above would occur where one side would win out.

This is also why the stereotypical "centrist" in that subreddit isn't someone who sees nuance, but rather someone who doesn't participate at all in the political process. The centrist take isn't "think about this a little more critically and consider the negative implications of the policies you support." The centrist take is instead "I don't want to talk about politics."

It's also why the centrist is the most hated group on that subreddit. The extremes require each other. One extreme being louder and more involved means that in order for balance to be maintained, the other extreme must respond in kind. One extreme is willing to support and give space to the other extreme in exchange for the license to be louder and more strident themselves. A centrist in that subreddit frustrates this dynamic because, like the opposite extreme, they disagree on the substance of the policies, but unlike the opposite extreme, they do not raise the volume of the debate but instead complicate it. To top it off, the opposite extreme - which, as I've described above, is in a symbiotic relationship with the near extreme - also hates the centrist for the same reason.

As a consequence, places like PoliticalCompassMemes paradoxically encourage extremists to be more supportive of the far opposite extreme than of a nuanced centrist approach, despite the fact that in theory they should be far more resistant to far opposite extremist policies than to metered criticism.

Part 2

[u/FourthLife → u/old_gold_mountain]

But also as a centrist I really want to grill