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Well, the fact of the matter is, most Reddit communities are dominated by male voices. So the "social politics" often aren't artificial incursions into the disc

Well, the fact of the matter is, most Reddit communities are dominated by male voices. So the "social politics" often aren't artificial incursions into the discussion, but underrepresented groups just trying to be part of the conversation. For example, there was recently some controversy about the portrayal of a female character in Metal Gear Solid V. It's not good when a woman says "I don't like how this character was portrayed" and everyone else pipes in with "lol SJW feminist". It's just a shitty, shitty atmosphere. In contrast, I've found that in communities with a more equal gender split, benefit of the doubt is far more freely given, and some great discussions about potentially touchy topics happen as a result. Anyway, I've found that the people who use shorthand insults like "SJW" are typically part of the entrenched majority group of their subculture — and want nothing more than to keep those pesky "outsiders" away from their clubhouse. (Despite the fact that those outsiders had, in fact, been there all along.)

Karunamon 11y ago
Personally, I'd love to know what communities those are. I've yet to find any one that would take that comment you just used as an example (or its converse) and allow anyone else to disagree with it freely. (And when I say freely, I mean without namecalling, without mass downvotes, without banning dissent, without any of the other community-forcing-its-will-on-the-minority-opinion garbage that follows those discussions 99% of the time in my experience) "I don't like how this character was portrayed" is a fine criticism on its own, but behind that is the shadow of "..so what should be done about it?". Absolutely nothing of value lays down that path. Put another way: Talk of frame rates leads to discussions about optimization. Talks of nonsensical writing leads to discussions of something else they could have done. Talks about portrayal of a "minority" character go straight into "the developers are *ist". Why does "being part of the conversation" always seem to wind up in "I don't like this, the devs are assholes, it should be changed?"

Karunamon 11y ago

Personally, I'd love to know what communities those are. I've yet to find any one that would take that comment you just used as an example (or its converse) and allow anyone else to disagree with it freely. (And when I say freely, I mean without namecalling, without mass downvotes, without banning dissent, without any of the other community-forcing-its-will-on-the-minority-opinion garbage that follows those discussions 99% of the time in my experience) "I don't like how this character was portrayed" is a fine criticism on its own, but behind that is the shadow of "..so what should be done about it?". Absolutely nothing of value lays down that path. Put another way: Talk of frame rates leads to discussions about optimization. Talks of nonsensical writing leads to discussions of something else they could have done. Talks about portrayal of a "minority" character go straight into "the developers are *ist". Why does "being part of the conversation" always seem to wind up in "I don't like this, the devs are assholes, it should be changed?"