4 ms·

Seriously? The prevailing biases of both, while not making them completely useless, prevent them from being a useful feedback mechanism. /r/politics sure isn't

Seriously? The prevailing biases of both, while not making them completely useless, prevent them from being a useful feedback mechanism. /r/politics sure isn't going to hold HRC accountable for an illegal email server. It's why /r/the_donald has become what it is.

llamataboot 10y ago
My general feeling about r/the_donald is that it is a perfect example of Poe's Law [1] driving a feedback cycle of continued irrational extremism. I used to think i had a pretty good eye/ear for spotting subtle sarcasm and trolling, but I honestly haven't been able to tell what is a serious post in that subreddit for months now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- Karunamon 10y ago
  I think you may be reading it the wrong way. I've been in their IRC channel a few times - there is very little trolling happening in there, lots of genuine enthusiasm. ..combined with a stated and enforced policy of zero tolerance for public dissent, mostly as a defense mechanism from the divide-and-conquer concern trolls who tend to infest political communities. They characterize it as a "24x7 Trump Rally", and that's exactly what it is. If you're more interested in the discussion than the echo chamber, there's /r/asktrumpsupporters. You'll find little of value on the main subreddit unless you actually support the guy.
blowski 10y ago
The parent asked "What's the best we have?" and I think perhaps internet forums are probably the best tool we have for holding public figures to account right now. I can definitely imagine better tools, but I don't see any that actually exist.
vectorpush 10y ago
Actually, the prevailing /r/politics groupthink overwhelmingly despises HRC. You'd be forgiven for mistaking /r/politics for a Fox News discussion board were it not for all the Bernie spam. I'm not a Clinton supporter, but I think it's funny how quickly they tossed her under the bus once they caught a whiff of the bern; it's shameless. https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=clinton&restrict_sr=on&t=year https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=clinton&restrict_...
Grishnakh 10y ago
/r/politics hates Clinton. You're thinking of /r/HillaryClinton. You won't find anything negative towards Hillary there; just try saying anything negative and see how fast you get banned. /r/politics is dominated by Bernie supporters, which isn't too surprising considering the demographics of the site. Bernie (similar to Obama in '08, but even more so) is absolutely the favorite of the under-30 crowd by a gigantic margin, so it makes sense that a site (and sub-forum) dominated by young people will be a Bernie echo chamber. Now of course, there are people who aren't Bernie fans, so they've gone and made their own subreddits like /r/HillaryClinton and /r/the_donald, but those don't have nearly the number of subscribers as /r/politics.

llamataboot 10y ago

My general feeling about r/the_donald is that it is a perfect example of Poe's Law [1] driving a feedback cycle of continued irrational extremism. I used to think i had a pretty good eye/ear for spotting subtle sarcasm and trolling, but I honestly haven't been able to tell what is a serious post in that subreddit for months now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

Karunamon 10y ago
I think you may be reading it the wrong way. I've been in their IRC channel a few times - there is very little trolling happening in there, lots of genuine enthusiasm. ..combined with a stated and enforced policy of zero tolerance for public dissent, mostly as a defense mechanism from the divide-and-conquer concern trolls who tend to infest political communities. They characterize it as a "24x7 Trump Rally", and that's exactly what it is. If you're more interested in the discussion than the echo chamber, there's /r/asktrumpsupporters. You'll find little of value on the main subreddit unless you actually support the guy.

blowski 10y ago

The parent asked "What's the best we have?" and I think perhaps internet forums are probably the best tool we have for holding public figures to account right now. I can definitely imagine better tools, but I don't see any that actually exist.

vectorpush 10y ago

Actually, the prevailing /r/politics groupthink overwhelmingly despises HRC. You'd be forgiven for mistaking /r/politics for a Fox News discussion board were it not for all the Bernie spam. I'm not a Clinton supporter, but I think it's funny how quickly they tossed her under the bus once they caught a whiff of the bern; it's shameless. https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=clinton&restrict_sr=on&t=year https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/search?q=clinton&restrict_...

Grishnakh 10y ago

/r/politics hates Clinton. You're thinking of /r/HillaryClinton. You won't find anything negative towards Hillary there; just try saying anything negative and see how fast you get banned. /r/politics is dominated by Bernie supporters, which isn't too surprising considering the demographics of the site. Bernie (similar to Obama in '08, but even more so) is absolutely the favorite of the under-30 crowd by a gigantic margin, so it makes sense that a site (and sub-forum) dominated by young people will be a Bernie echo chamber. Now of course, there are people who aren't Bernie fans, so they've gone and made their own subreddits like /r/HillaryClinton and /r/the_donald, but those don't have nearly the number of subscribers as /r/politics.