Bingo! And it’s mostly people just smelling their own farts and banning anyone that even goes “wait…but…” . It’s modern day censorship and it’s incredibly dangerous. I made a post about it in 2021 and it blew the fuck to like 14k upvotes…and then was taken down by Reddit. Shocker.Who watches the Watchmen?
Edit: and it’s worth pointing out that a lot of current AI is getting a ton of their “factual” information from Reddit posts. So let that marinate.
And it’s only online that people seem to act that way. You have a conversation in real life, or listen to a podcast with reasonable takes, or a comedian that jokes about it…and everyone in the crowd laughs at the absurdity of it. Like no one in the crowd is who they’re talking about? Then who is it? It’s a lot of them., but they’re now exhibiting the same tribal mentality they do online but in kind of an opposite way. And it’s like “Doesn’t anyone notice this???” https://giphy.com/gifs/AbPWwqSgMejM4
What's really fascinating about the 'political cesspool' commenters on Reddit is they're nowhere to be found when a sub is operating as designed by Reddit Admin, ie as a left wing echochamber. These types of comments only show up on right wing subreddits or posts where right wing comments are present. It's very interesting because it indicates that to the average Redditor, "business as usual" so to speak is for every third comment to be somehow comparing whatever the worst aspect is of the topic to Trump, and half the other comments are about how Communism/Socialism would solve this issue / Capitalism caused this and every other problem. Almost like it's some kind of tactic or something, kind of like how any post that makes a point in favor of the right wing in whatever culture war topic, the top comment will almost certainly be that dumbass meme "Oh no culture war for me, only class war, thanks" or whatever - like the left wing didn't 100% completely start the culture war a decade ago and literally every topic that's spun off it is 100% a result of their bullshit.
How do you ban all things political though? The problem is every thing gets politicized these days. Like a comment on a weather subreddit of “climate change is fueling the strongest El Niño ever” would be considered political because half the country thinks climate change is a liberal hoax.
Gay marriage wasn’t political, then it was a bit, then it was a lot, then it really wasn’t much for a few years, and now some are trying to make it an issue again.
Trans people weren’t political until they suddenly were. Kneeling wasn’t political, and then it was the biggest issue in the world, until nobody cared again.
If it’s an issue that can wedge people apart, bad faith actors will come for it and make it political. If it doesn’t work as well as they’d hoped, or once the hatred dies down, they’ll move on to the next issue.
It's almost like it's stupid to try and control whether or not other people talk about politics. It is other people, and it's not their job to cater to my conversational preferences. It's not their job to protect my feelings online.
Reddit's a public forum, some people just want to talk (and read others talking) about football or women's basketball or that cool pic someone took, not politics.
hell that's why there are subreddits for different topics so everyone can find their own interests instead of having to shoehorn it into discussions on other topics.
Arguably social media made the world worse and the only way to fix it is to either remove it in it's entierty or restrict it to keep bad actors out of an otherwise normal discussion
Man I completely forgot about the Kaepernick kneeling movement. So many people tried to make a case that he was blackballed from the league when he was barely worthy of a backup role.
It’s always voting grifts. The right plays that way because they’ve mastered single issue voters. They left eats itself before it can unit in any way like that
I can't think of a single topic that hasn't had something brought into the political sphere. If it's something, someone somewhere has a problem with it and blames (insert presidential administration between 1920-present here) for it. I'm tired, yall.
The thing about politics is that it is as all-encompassing as people's opinions. Even the classical libertarian perspective that politics and the government should stay out of most things is itself making issues political.
As much as I would love sports to be about nothing but the game, that was probably never realistic. The Munich Olympics, Jackie Robinson, NFL players kneeling during the anthem, and thousands of other examples show that sports has never been immune from politics. My opinion that sports should be mostly free of politics is itself a political opinion when other people think sports are a great way to bring attention to their political causes - or indeed, that silence from players is a moral failure on their part. I feel just as entitled to position as they do, so we as a society go around and around over the inevitable politics. C'est la vie
I guess it's understandable how conversations about healthcare, the economy, or social issues wind up turning political.
But I was in a thread where people were arguing about which pokemon is the most sexually attractive, and some goober brought Trump into the conversation by asserting that if it weren't for conservative moral degeneration in our nations culture, then noone would be trying to slide into pokemon to begin with.
'People didn't really try to fuck pokemon before Trump normalized it'.
He's right though, I'd add that having such an ugly president also probably contributes to people's newfound attraction to Pokemon. There was nothing sexual about Gotta 'Catch' Them All! when Obama was President.
They have converted several of my hobbies into political fights. And tourists have demanded modification of the lore etc, and partially succeeded.
Why? I just want to nit have shifting politics and division at the very least there. But no.
Even me cycling and driving means I have to be deeply political.
That's what happens when half of the country abandons fact-based reality and chooses to live in fanfic. Any fact in the world, no matter how mundane or uncontroversial or incontrovertible, can become "political" if the nutters refuse to believe it without the approval of their political masters.
This comment is the problem. If you want to look at everything as political thats on you. Stop making that everyone problem and then just handwaving it away like that's just the reality
You are completing missing the point. My point was you can make a comment that isn’t political in meaning and it will get interpreted as political by others.
Someone else made a good comparison - you can complain about the price of groceries and someone will accuse you of bitching about Trump and not giving him credit (even if you never mentioned Trump or implied it was his fault).
Specific carveouts could be made. Weather sub allows climate change but not immigration, even if due to climate change, because it's not directly a climate issue.
Everything gets politicized on Reddit. I can go months without anything being political in my real life interactions with people. This is pretty much just a propaganda site anymore
Don’t disagree Reddit and social media in general is a bubble when it comes to politics but I promise you it’s more prevalent in every day life than you think, especially in the last 20 years.
Seriously though, I wish more people treated reddit threads like conversations between humans instead of battles of wits. I'm guilty of it, too, sometimes far too often. But if you're chatting with friends or family, no one expects you to be 100% right all the time. It's about the conversation and socialization, not a contest to see who is the biggest know-it-all with the most perfect political opinions (at the time of speaking).
Reddit has created a nice little echo chamber, the content of this post is undeniable proof of that.
The feedback from any posts or comments on this site lacks any integrity whatsoever. No diversity of thought, from the crowd that thinks they understand tolerance.
Reddit has become a total joke, so just treat it as such.
Honestly, even as a minority. It gets exhausting. You sometimes just want to forget about the awful stuff and enjoy yourself.
I can't tell you how often I've arrived at a party, and once people realize where I'm from, they start asking about my experiences, how shit must suck, how the odds are stacked against us blah, blah, blah.
I appreciate it, but damn, sometimes I just want to drink and talk music, sports or movies.
I'm half-brown and a variation of that happens to me occasionally. "Do you feel that you're heard?" Part of me accepts it as coming from a naive but well-intentioned place. Part of me also knows it's people rushing to tokenize, infantilize and be the first to win social points with everyone claiming to "care so much" about "my experience", and all that. Of course, it's all performative bluster.
Part of me knows the very fact they assume I'm a victim based solely on skin color and ethnic traits is effectively a declaration that I'm an outsider and not their equal. So in the "old days" they might have assumed I was a thief, untrustworthy, dangerous, etc. Now I'm just pitiable, like some kind of rescue puppy. Hurray for progress.
When people find out I'm quite successful and don't need their pity or charity, some are disappointed. Some pivot to quizzing me on "oh, so what are you doing for the brown community?" I dunno, what are you doing for the white community?
Some have basically implied I didn't understand my own oppression. That all this stuff is internalized. Well, thank goodness I have the kindly progressives to explain my life to me better than I know it myself. Good thing I have them to do the thinking for me.
None of this stuff started happening until around 15 years ago. Before that people just treated me like a person. I do believe the world will grow out of this phase and go back to seeing people more as individuals but I wish it wasn't taking so long.
It's not really possible to not care about politics. To not care about politics would be to not care about anything.
And before you bring up nihilism, you should know that nihilism is fundamentally impossible. Values are physiological. We have no choice but to care about things like food and water, which are inherently political. No one has ever actually successfully been a nihilist. It's just edgy redditors larping.
That's not an indication that they don't care about politics. Voting is a complex decision that is influenced by a million factors. It's far more indicative of a lack of trust in the system and a lack of belief in their ability to actually impact it than anything else.
Ask those people if they care about the tangible effects of politics, things like where their food and water comes from, whether their nation is at war or not, whether or not their society is segregated, etc. and they all care.
Not voting can be seen as a vote for the status quo, I suppose. The status quo doesn’t change much based on red and blue party lines, day to day life remains unchanged for the vast majority.
Politics bans also cause as many headaches because people argue over what is political and what’s not.
If the Arsenal subreddit posts a video of Mamadani sitting down with our greatest modern player Thierry Henry is that inherently political? Even though he’s only talking to Henry as a fan himself?
Is mentioning our former beloved manager Wenger and his new suggested as a FIFA consultant political because of FIFAs recently political moves with the US?
And it becomes even more difficult when it comes to the women’s game due to homosexuality being more prevalent and it being a political target. But even then, what about when the players themselves decide to make political statements?
It's crazy how many random subs just become r/politics. Like why and how did r/ithinkyoushouldleave become r/politics? Seems like every sub that doesn't outright intentionally ban all politics it becomes sub #56,189 that exists to bitch about Republicans.
Probably because Republicans have hurt a lot of different groups of people, and they're upset, and so they vent in the places they frequent.... seems pretty human if you ask me.
Considering Republicans are basically the world-renowned champions at airing their grievances to anyone who hasn't told them to shut up yet (and is bitching of censorship about those who have) this is rich for them to be upset about
Na if anything some subs are actively going the opposite way. Just last year /r/videos repealed a rule that banned political videos. Something that the mods unilaterally decided without input from the community.
Try being non American and seeing American politics being brought into absolutely everything.
It reached a peak when ‘that’s nice but what about the Epstein files?’ Infected pretty much every post multiple times in what felt like every subreddit a while back.
I run a large community not on Reddit and banned political talk. Some people got really upset but damn, you can talk about politics in a million different forms. I’d like one space where I can just… not.
Even crafts like sewing, politics are everywhere now. I just want to learn how to make a damn shirt.
And not everyone is American. I can’t imagine being from another country on a US-centric website. If it is awful for me it has to be 20x for them.
Gee that’s so weird. Can’t imagine why a Texan candidate running in Texas to be voted by for Texans would be posted to [r/Texas](r/Texas). There’s gotta be better places to post that right? Why the heck would Texans care about that!?!?
It’s more that every single post across all Texas and all city subreddits are constantly glazing him. Seriously look at /r/fortworth or /r/Dallas any city subreddits will be 80% about Talarico good and Paxton/Drumpf are Nazis
It’s actually insane that I can’t go to any sports, car, or humor page without some kind of political discourse opening up when a post is shared that remotely alludes to it. This sub is easily the best at keeping it at least neutral
The problem becomes when the people the sub is about make political statements. Like if the Steelers quarterback calls Dr. Fauci a coward for pleading the 5th in what was clearly a farce to try and trap him, yet remains silent about his pedophile-in-chief buddy doing the same 4 times as much during legitimate questioning. That is now tied into the Steelers and should be discussed on their sub.
The wnba sub was sick of culture war bullshit, banned some keywords that have been used to inflame said bullshit, and now are being pretty relentlessly mocked for it.
Politics isn't just democrat and republican shit politics is a pretty constant thing in life and you can't ignore how literally everything is political.
Life is politics. Every single aspect. You might as well ban critical thinking. Banning political discussion just means you're allowing those who are smart enough to phrase things in a way that makes them sound non-political to control inherently political discussions.
How do you define politics? Cuz trans people keep finding their existence apparently being political. Do they get to talk? Or not? What about other queer people?
Over a decade ago most spaces pretty much had a soft ban on politics. And all it led to was 2016. I don't think banning it outright results in anything good.
It’s mainly about raising voter enthusiasm and morale. If people think “oh, there’s no point”, then nobody turns out. If people think “we can make a difference but need people out there to vote”, then they’re more likely to show up.
In the 2020 Georgia Senate Race, David Perdue finished with 49.7% of the vote to Jon Osdoff’s 47.9%. Since no candidate got 50% of the vote, the election went to a runoff. This was during Trumps whole “The Election was rigged” and “Voter Fraud” rants, making many Republicans feel that voting didn’t matter since the results were already decided. In the end Ossoff won the runoff with 200k fewer votes than Perdue initially had won.
There is also an aspect of tribalism where people want to be on the “winning team”, and so people vote for the candidate they think is going to win… not the candidate they want to win. They’d rather just be a part of the majority
You know, this whole thread is a shit show and a half, but I would like to offer myself up as an anecdotal example of someone who “changed their vote” based off of individuals who engaged in compassionate & understanding discourse with me on Reddit and directed me to reputable news sources that offer the ability to see nonpartisan reporting as well as far right/far left coverage and the differences between how events and such are presented.
I was a staunchly conservative freshly 18 voter in 2016 and I voted for DJT because of how empowered I felt as I was then a white, Christian young Republican who desired to get a college degree then go straight into the role of stay at home mom and housewife to some well to do decent man. And it sounded pretty sweet to have a “great” America again. I don’t know why I fell for that rhetoric other than I am a (former) pastor’s kid, I grew up attending a private Christian school until my junior year, and my entire family are all conservative Republicans.
Needless to say they all did a piss poor job of raising a well rounded and informed young woman who would yearn for anything beyond* (edited typo) a Disney-esque fairytale ending where I’m a breed mare for a husband who can’t stand me. Sad in hindsight.
Now I am actively involved in campaigning for candidates who stand behind what they say (I’m in Georgia and your mention of Ossoff initially caught my attention, I readily back that man) and I do my very best to be as kind as possible when infiltrating these former circles of mine to enlighten them. I don’t know how I affiliate politically at this point; but I do know I firmly believe every person in this country deserves clean water, fresh air, safe housing, reliable transportation, fair and livable wages that don’t only cover the basic needs but provide a meaningful & worthwhile life, and to be seen as a human, inherently deserving of respect and dignity. I will be in the streets blowing a trumpet and kicking my heels when the members of this current administration are in the ground, and I hope that this generation will be the one to realize it was never a left versus right issue, but rather a top versus bottom (😏🙂↔️) one, and we destroy it all. No more wealth hoarding, no more treating corporations better than the individual American, and no more idol worship of these charlatans. America was intended for the people, by the people and those at the helm do not constitute as people in the slightest.
I’ve admittedly lost my trains of thought here and am just rambling, but I guess I just wanted to share my bit and that it’s not all for naught when speaking politically on Reddit. I was changed and I still thank the 3 individuals who inspired that change to this day. Life is political and until every human is treated as such, it will remain that way. (Also fuck globalization.)
People don’t suddenly change their mind about politics when they see some prick rattling on about it saturating lobbies.
It just makes you double down and be even more in determined
Every sub is a liberal cesspool echo chamber. That’s why her name is forbidden over there. The Nazi dictator mods. They’re everything they claim to hate
As a European kwho is not prepared to deep dive into the wnba sub, what is their political affiliation? As Cunningham is white she would be the ideal poster child for the right. But she's also Reddits darling, which is often left leaning.
No they aren't, America. Wnba being covered and mocked by fox news and used in culture war nonsense is akin to what's happened to the ufc, though not nearly as bad
The thing is, it’s political for like 1/3 of people on Internet. Not everyone is in the US. "Election year" is only true in the US, and they are like f-ing Olympics, being every 2 years. And between those 2 years, everything stays political. Based on US politics. So the fact i have to have everywhere debates about the reality of climate change or lgbtq+ rights, although those things are settled debates where i live, it’s exausting.
Many such cases on reddit. An innocent hobby forum? Now political and destroyed. A small hometown subreddit? Political and destroyed. Your niche recreational activity? Yep, you guessed it: political and destroyed.
That was a rare instance where the mods suspended that rule. Also Biden is allowed to be discussed in the context of being Obama’s vp rather than his own presidency.
It’s one of my fav subs and I wasn’t even super interested in the subject when I joined, but damn, I always have good time reading and conversing there.
She's a 9/2/1 player, she's not even good. She's just popular because some people see her as a mascot for their transphobia and others just like jerking their dicks to her. I swear if she didn't have blonde hair or had less cosmetic surgery we wouldn't be talking about her nearly as much
The problem is a lot of people like the WNBA for political reasons not because they enjoy sports. I was talking to someone a couple of weeks ago who isn't a sports fan but is enjoying going to PWHL games because they are gay and it's a very gay environment. Which is cool glad they found something they enjoy. But if you start having hockey fans getting involved it's likely to cause problems since they want the team/games to be very different things.
Pretty sure its just astroturfing nazis in there. After the 4th post about trans people in which slurs were being upvoted, I had to mute it. Best not to give them engagement. Any unmoderared online space always turns into nazis.
I looked at the WNBA sub occasionally over the last 8 years or so. It was always almost entirely about basketball. The new WNBA gossip subreddit I occasionally see seems to be mostly people that are racist and/or transphobic that want to complain about things people are doing in the league with respect to social issues and most of the users on that sub very clearly do not follow the league.
Dog do you know how many countries including our own are trying to sway the elections coming up? You realize so many countries benefit from what the US is going through and some very rich people in power here too. They're paying botfarms or just have government run ones every fucking where right now.
I mean from looking at the mod post about this it seems that is what the goal of the ban is. Her being mentioned in the sports aspect is allowed. culture war bullshit however is not.
Out of all the W subs the official wnba one has always been the closest to ok. They're doing what's needed to be done with the influx of MAGAt bozos and trolls.
It is tough for the wnba on Reddit right now. The official one is the only one I've seen whose mods seem to give a damn. Sure it's drastic to ban Cunningham (edit: they actually didn't do that) but like I said... it's chaos in all the W subs now. There's full-on hate threads dedicated to individual players, full-on objectification of women (I saw "she gets me soo fuckin' hard" the other day), trans bashing, racism, bigotry... it's a buffet of hate from bad acting users/bots/trolls
Right, it's the only sub that actually talks about the W. Literally every other discussion only features Clark or Cunningham, and it's qwhite clear why.
Gossips has a daily Angel Reese-bashing thread and it's simply atrocious. I'm sure she'll get an entire hate thread dedicated to her missed layups tonight. But I won't be there to witness it. I've muted those shithole subs
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