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I see plenty of conservatism all over Reddit and all of those other places you mentioned. It happens in boring threads on boring articles that aren't politicall

I see plenty of conservatism all over Reddit and all of those other places you mentioned. It happens in boring threads on boring articles that aren't politically charged. What causes the downvotes is the way the ideas are presented. If you write your comment like you're a writer for the Rush Limbaugh Show, you're going to be downvoted. There is plenty of room to discuss conservative ideas without resorting to the rhetoric that Fox News and talk radio have been pumping out since 2008. I can't tell you how many times i've seen someone make a really good point about, say, the connection between rent control and the housing shortage but in the middle they go off on a tirade about the 'welfare state' and 'handouts' which causes their entire post to get downvoted into oblivion. I will give you that socially conservative ideas are frequently completely off limits to discussion, and I think thats unfortunate.

travmatt 9y ago
I'm also old enough to remember /r/chimpire and other explicitly racist right wing subreddits who had massive support, well before the rise /r/the_donald. Hell, I even remember discussing the organized stormfront propaganda raids. To me, crying about the lack of conservatism is just code for "people don't follow my ideologies exactly, therefore I'm being oppressed." I follow plenty of subreddits where there is plenty of conservative thought.
- devmunchies 9y ago
  > people don't follow my ideologies exactly, therefore I'm being oppressed Thats a nasty little remark. Keep it civil.
  - WJW 9y ago
    Why is that uncivil? A lot of online discussion seems to be exactly this.
    - travmatt 9y ago
      It's especially funny considering the argument of the person calling for me to censor my thoughts is the same person crying that conservatives are forced to censor their thoughts.
    - hitekker 9y ago
      I would imagine the comment was more to convey "don't hurt my feelings" than to encourage civility, which is a more difficult concept. For ideologues, good means rational means civil means moral means <insert political ideology>. Once all words boil down to <ideology> or <not ideology>, a person can't express or precisely articulate ideas, which manifests in incoherent language.
- LyndsySimon 9y ago
  > To me, crying about the lack of conservatism is just code [...] For some, sure. But there are those of us who are not conservatives who share the view that conservatives have been subject to ubiquitous censorship. I'm an anarchist, and honestly share about as much with the left as the right ideologically. The behavior of the left today sickens me, though. Even after the election of Trump - who himself is not traditionally "conservative" - has not seemed to have changed the way the left sees the right. The right is not a racist, homophobic, misogynist minority. They are a majority (albeit a slim one), and their views are both less extreme and far more commonly held than seems to be believed by the left.

travmatt 9y ago

I'm also old enough to remember /r/chimpire and other explicitly racist right wing subreddits who had massive support, well before the rise /r/the_donald. Hell, I even remember discussing the organized stormfront propaganda raids. To me, crying about the lack of conservatism is just code for "people don't follow my ideologies exactly, therefore I'm being oppressed." I follow plenty of subreddits where there is plenty of conservative thought.

devmunchies 9y ago
> people don't follow my ideologies exactly, therefore I'm being oppressed Thats a nasty little remark. Keep it civil.
- WJW 9y ago
  Why is that uncivil? A lot of online discussion seems to be exactly this.
  - travmatt 9y ago
    It's especially funny considering the argument of the person calling for me to censor my thoughts is the same person crying that conservatives are forced to censor their thoughts.
  - hitekker 9y ago
    I would imagine the comment was more to convey "don't hurt my feelings" than to encourage civility, which is a more difficult concept. For ideologues, good means rational means civil means moral means <insert political ideology>. Once all words boil down to <ideology> or <not ideology>, a person can't express or precisely articulate ideas, which manifests in incoherent language.
LyndsySimon 9y ago
> To me, crying about the lack of conservatism is just code [...] For some, sure. But there are those of us who are not conservatives who share the view that conservatives have been subject to ubiquitous censorship. I'm an anarchist, and honestly share about as much with the left as the right ideologically. The behavior of the left today sickens me, though. Even after the election of Trump - who himself is not traditionally "conservative" - has not seemed to have changed the way the left sees the right. The right is not a racist, homophobic, misogynist minority. They are a majority (albeit a slim one), and their views are both less extreme and far more commonly held than seems to be believed by the left.