Echo chambers like these incubate hatefulness, provide positive feedback to individuals who embrace the hate at the core of these subreddits, and set up strawma

Echo chambers like these incubate hatefulness, provide positive feedback to individuals who embrace the hate at the core of these subreddits, and set up strawman representations of "enemy groups" to immunize members against rational discussion. I used to identify as an "anarcho capitalist" and it was largely because I discovered r/Anarcho_Capitalism. People praised me for arguing against left anarchism, socialism, communism, or anything besides poverty-is-a-moral-failing style capitalism. Eventually, the community embraced overt racism and I tried to find another community to replace r/Anarcho_Capitalism, but I could not find one. About 3 years after leaving that echo chamber, I went back and read through my comments in that sub and I was mortified by the twisted logic I used to justify starving the impoverished of government benefits and services. My story is anecdotal, but I can't believe that it's a rare occurrence, because that's basically the mechanism that underpins all fringe organizations based on a shared false worldview. You need people to constantly validate and reinforce that false worldview, or reality will smash that worldview. Barring a subreddit may push a fraction of the active subredditors to another platform if one exists, but the marginally attached subredditors will just fail to follow and the hold that echo chamber had will fade as the echos grow fade to silence, and they won't catch anywhere near as many new people.