5 ms·

If I had to guess it's because facebook has a larger portion of older conservative folks than other social media platforms? If you look at /r/politics on reddi

by umvi 6y ago

If I had to guess it's because facebook has a larger portion of older conservative folks than other social media platforms? If you look at /r/politics on reddit you see the opposite problem (over-representation - nearly 100% - liberal news sources) which is probably because older conservatives don't use reddit? It can't be healthy for entire social media platforms to be completely dominated by one party or the other.

maxsilver 6y ago
> If you look at /r/politics on reddit you see the opposite problem (over-representation - nearly 100% - liberal news sources) Is this actually true? I get that there's usually one or two left-leaning sources on there, but more than half of the stories on /r/politics (the top 30 stories, as of 9/24 in my browser) are from centrist / conservative-leaning news sources. The real problem seems to be that the overton window has shifted so far right that "liberal" in the US means "super-hyper-conservative, but a fraction less conservative than today's GOP talking points". MSNBC, USA Today, Politico, Washington Post, Newsweek, NY Times and more are all on the front page of /r/politics right now, represent slightly more than half of the stories in the first 30 entries, and not a single one of those sources are remotely "liberal" in any way.
- umvi 6y ago
  Let me put is this way - of the top 30 stories as of right now (24 Sep 20) on /r/politics, regardless of source: - 20 are anti-Trump articles - 6 are pro-Biden articles - 1 is anti-Police - 1 is anti-Barrett - 2 are misc. politics (covid, etc.) Compare to the most popular articles shared on facebook mentioned by GP and you can see /r/politics is the polar opposite of facebook.
  - throwaway2048 6y ago
    Anti-Trump isn't synonymous with left wing, nor is being pro-biden
  - sg47 6y ago
    Pro-human, Pro-democracy, Pro-equality. Not anti-Trump but I can see how it might appear like that. :)
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > Pro-human, Pro-democracy, Pro-equality. Not anti-Trump I can't reconcile the first three statements with the fourth.
- jdminhbg 6y ago
  Trying to redefine the political landscape according to your niche views is really pointless. Obviously the conversation is being conducted with the understanding that the US left/right/center are the reference points. There's no more point to this comment than there would be to a libertarian saying that Facebook shares are all from "statist" news sources.
  - ant6n 6y ago
    Facebook is a global platform. Within the global comparison the us Overton window is positioned very much to the right. Merkels Conservative party is left of many Democrats. Id say the Overton window has also moved to the right in the us over the last 20 years or so, openly racist and (not so) crypto-fascist attitudes weren’t so mainstream then - Facebook is probably not helping this development.
  - maxsilver 6y ago
    > Obviously the conversation is being conducted with the understanding that the US left/right/center are the reference points. Right. And by US reference points, /r/politics stories news sources are generally centrist or right-leaning. The comments and commenters may not be, but the stories and sources definitely are. Even by US standards, MSNBC, USA Today, Politico, Washington Post, Newsweek, NY Times are all centrist or right-leaning news sources. And all of those have stories on the front page of /r/politics right now.
    - umvi 6y ago
      > Even by US standards, MSNBC, USA Today, Politico, Washington Post, Newsweek, NY Times are all centrist or right-leaning news sources No, I think you are just out-of-touch with US politics. Every single one of those is left-leaning by "US standards"[0]. [0] See p.5,9: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/10/Political-Polarization-and-Media-Habits-FINAL-REPORT-7-27-15.pdf https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/...
Akronymus 6y ago
With /r/politics you get HEAVILY downvoted if you voice anything conservative or even just defending someone conservative from unjust accusations. So much so, that you can only post new comments every 10 minutes, while they keep on dogpiling you.
- ikiris 6y ago
  It's hard when people want liberal things like sources or data to back up "facts"
  - Akronymus 6y ago
    Even then, they only ever want one side to provide sources and even if you do, they often outright ignore it/say its not valid.
    - kwistzhaderach 6y ago
      Yeah lmao bring up crime statistics, gender differences etc. and Reddit goes wild
ConanRus 6y ago
No, its because Reddit is leftist too and Reddit mods are censuring content there. You may find the info online on what they did to conservative subreddits.
danudey 6y ago
You can see /r/conservative is more than a little active. Maybe the problem is that /r/politics moderators want reliable sources? I mean, if you take a look, /r/conservative isn't exactly a bastion of lucid discussion. Case in point: https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/iytx49/location_location_location/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/iytx49/locati... Implying that protesters are out there burning down houses (they aren't) and that the huge increase in size and number of forest fires lately isn't a result of climage change (it is). The real problem isn't that liberals are over-represented on /r/politics, but that most people who identify as "conservative" on Reddit and elsewhere have gone so far-right or conspiracy-theory or troll-hard that conservative outlets lately tend to be mass-producing more propaganda, right-wing content, or misinformation. If you're an actual conservative who hasn't been sucked up into this psychopath right-wing bubble, it's difficult to actually find content that isn't pandering to those who have by posting deliberately misleading or outright false articles. I feel bad for anyone who believes in legitimate conservatism, because their viewpoints and political party have been so completely co-opted by the fascist far-right and alt-right that there's not much else for them to do but vote dem or join the lunatic fringe.
- adamiscool8 6y ago
  That thread looks like reasonable discussion of an alternative viewpoint but, much like the Facebook employees, you dismiss them because you presume the superiority of your own beliefs.
- toxik 6y ago
  This is simply not true, if you try to explain the reasoning behind any "unwanted" policy or idea, you get downvoted. It doesn't matter if you advocate for it or not; you simply get shot down for making the enemy look less like a monster. The "lunatic fringe" applies equally to the other end of the spectrum, by the way.
dfxm12 6y ago
The most material difference between the two is that Reddit is based on user voting and Facebook is based on an opaque algorithm controlled by Facebook's executive board.
- xeeeeeeeeeeenu 6y ago
  >Reddit is based on user voting and heavy moderation
  - im3w1l 6y ago
    User voting makes sure one side wins and the other loses. Moderation decides which one. Facebook's like system instead creates cliques of like-minded (heh) people.
jedberg 6y ago
/r/politics used to be more balanced. Especially if you sorted by controversial. But reddit as a whole has become very unfriendly to conservative viewpoints and so it has driven the moderate conservatives either off the platform or into /r/conservative. You can post the same comment on /r/politics and /r/conservative and one will be highly upvoted and one will be mercilessly downvoted. But that is the system working as intended. The whole point of reddit is that each subreddit is a community of likeminded individuals. It was never really set up for debate of opposing viewpoints. One main way it differs from HN, which makes a huge difference, is that on HN you cannot downvote without some karma, and you can never downvote people who reply to you. It would be cool if reddit added those as options for a subreddit moderator, actually.
dang 6y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24581099 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24581099.

by umvi 6y ago

maxsilver 6y ago

> If you look at /r/politics on reddit you see the opposite problem (over-representation - nearly 100% - liberal news sources) Is this actually true? I get that there's usually one or two left-leaning sources on there, but more than half of the stories on /r/politics (the top 30 stories, as of 9/24 in my browser) are from centrist / conservative-leaning news sources. The real problem seems to be that the overton window has shifted so far right that "liberal" in the US means "super-hyper-conservative, but a fraction less conservative than today's GOP talking points". MSNBC, USA Today, Politico, Washington Post, Newsweek, NY Times and more are all on the front page of /r/politics right now, represent slightly more than half of the stories in the first 30 entries, and not a single one of those sources are remotely "liberal" in any way.

umvi 6y ago
Let me put is this way - of the top 30 stories as of right now (24 Sep 20) on /r/politics, regardless of source: - 20 are anti-Trump articles - 6 are pro-Biden articles - 1 is anti-Police - 1 is anti-Barrett - 2 are misc. politics (covid, etc.) Compare to the most popular articles shared on facebook mentioned by GP and you can see /r/politics is the polar opposite of facebook.
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  Anti-Trump isn't synonymous with left wing, nor is being pro-biden
- sg47 6y ago
  Pro-human, Pro-democracy, Pro-equality. Not anti-Trump but I can see how it might appear like that. :)
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Pro-human, Pro-democracy, Pro-equality. Not anti-Trump I can't reconcile the first three statements with the fourth.
jdminhbg 6y ago
Trying to redefine the political landscape according to your niche views is really pointless. Obviously the conversation is being conducted with the understanding that the US left/right/center are the reference points. There's no more point to this comment than there would be to a libertarian saying that Facebook shares are all from "statist" news sources.
- ant6n 6y ago
  Facebook is a global platform. Within the global comparison the us Overton window is positioned very much to the right. Merkels Conservative party is left of many Democrats. Id say the Overton window has also moved to the right in the us over the last 20 years or so, openly racist and (not so) crypto-fascist attitudes weren’t so mainstream then - Facebook is probably not helping this development.
- maxsilver 6y ago
  > Obviously the conversation is being conducted with the understanding that the US left/right/center are the reference points. Right. And by US reference points, /r/politics stories news sources are generally centrist or right-leaning. The comments and commenters may not be, but the stories and sources definitely are. Even by US standards, MSNBC, USA Today, Politico, Washington Post, Newsweek, NY Times are all centrist or right-leaning news sources. And all of those have stories on the front page of /r/politics right now.
  - umvi 6y ago
    > Even by US standards, MSNBC, USA Today, Politico, Washington Post, Newsweek, NY Times are all centrist or right-leaning news sources No, I think you are just out-of-touch with US politics. Every single one of those is left-leaning by "US standards"[0]. [0] See p.5,9: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/10/Political-Polarization-and-Media-Habits-FINAL-REPORT-7-27-15.pdf https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/...

Akronymus 6y ago

With /r/politics you get HEAVILY downvoted if you voice anything conservative or even just defending someone conservative from unjust accusations. So much so, that you can only post new comments every 10 minutes, while they keep on dogpiling you.

ikiris 6y ago
It's hard when people want liberal things like sources or data to back up "facts"
- Akronymus 6y ago
  Even then, they only ever want one side to provide sources and even if you do, they often outright ignore it/say its not valid.
  - kwistzhaderach 6y ago
    Yeah lmao bring up crime statistics, gender differences etc. and Reddit goes wild

ConanRus 6y ago

No, its because Reddit is leftist too and Reddit mods are censuring content there. You may find the info online on what they did to conservative subreddits.

danudey 6y ago

You can see /r/conservative is more than a little active. Maybe the problem is that /r/politics moderators want reliable sources? I mean, if you take a look, /r/conservative isn't exactly a bastion of lucid discussion. Case in point: https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/iytx49/location_location_location/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/iytx49/locati... Implying that protesters are out there burning down houses (they aren't) and that the huge increase in size and number of forest fires lately isn't a result of climage change (it is). The real problem isn't that liberals are over-represented on /r/politics, but that most people who identify as "conservative" on Reddit and elsewhere have gone so far-right or conspiracy-theory or troll-hard that conservative outlets lately tend to be mass-producing more propaganda, right-wing content, or misinformation. If you're an actual conservative who hasn't been sucked up into this psychopath right-wing bubble, it's difficult to actually find content that isn't pandering to those who have by posting deliberately misleading or outright false articles. I feel bad for anyone who believes in legitimate conservatism, because their viewpoints and political party have been so completely co-opted by the fascist far-right and alt-right that there's not much else for them to do but vote dem or join the lunatic fringe.

adamiscool8 6y ago
That thread looks like reasonable discussion of an alternative viewpoint but, much like the Facebook employees, you dismiss them because you presume the superiority of your own beliefs.
toxik 6y ago
This is simply not true, if you try to explain the reasoning behind any "unwanted" policy or idea, you get downvoted. It doesn't matter if you advocate for it or not; you simply get shot down for making the enemy look less like a monster. The "lunatic fringe" applies equally to the other end of the spectrum, by the way.

dfxm12 6y ago

The most material difference between the two is that Reddit is based on user voting and Facebook is based on an opaque algorithm controlled by Facebook's executive board.

xeeeeeeeeeeenu 6y ago
>Reddit is based on user voting and heavy moderation
- im3w1l 6y ago
  User voting makes sure one side wins and the other loses. Moderation decides which one. Facebook's like system instead creates cliques of like-minded (heh) people.

jedberg 6y ago

/r/politics used to be more balanced. Especially if you sorted by controversial. But reddit as a whole has become very unfriendly to conservative viewpoints and so it has driven the moderate conservatives either off the platform or into /r/conservative. You can post the same comment on /r/politics and /r/conservative and one will be highly upvoted and one will be mercilessly downvoted. But that is the system working as intended. The whole point of reddit is that each subreddit is a community of likeminded individuals. It was never really set up for debate of opposing viewpoints. One main way it differs from HN, which makes a huge difference, is that on HN you cannot downvote without some karma, and you can never downvote people who reply to you. It would be cool if reddit added those as options for a subreddit moderator, actually.

dang 6y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24581099 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24581099.