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Except /r/conservative never claimed to be unbiased. After people started brigading and posting threats (examples are occasionally shown by moderators) they had

Except /r/conservative never claimed to be unbiased. After people started brigading and posting threats (examples are occasionally shown by moderators) they had to tighten up their moderation. In contrast, /r/politics claims to be about general politics but most content to the right of AOC/Bernie gets downvoted or deleted.

endymi0n 6y ago
> most content to the right of AOC/Bernie gets downvoted or deleted As Reddit has a user base that comes from the US less than 50%, this might have to do with the fact that the Overton window shifted so far to the right there that the opinions of AOC or Bernie would count as center-right pretty much everywhere else in the western world, with the Republicans being off the charts lunatic extremist right.
- logicchains 6y ago
  Are you aware that the US recently passed laws allowing the government to sterilize and mutilate the genitals of children who feel like a different gender, even if the parents don't consent? I'm pretty confident most of the world would consider that leftism more extreme than anything the right has done recently.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago
    Do you have a source? I’m pretty sure that children just get puberty blockers, which neither sterilizes nor mutilates.
- nec4b 6y ago
  I don't know of any European country that would consider AOC or Bernie center right and not populist (class clown) left.
- soundnote 6y ago
  AOC/Bernie economic policy may count as centrist by European standards simply because the US is as a baseline much more right-leaning/libertarian and the big econ-left project is to establish a welfare state, which already exists in Europe. (There are rightwing arguments for a welfare state type of solution, but those are contignent on other things being true first, ie. something more ethnostate-y) But that's not the only relevant dimension of policy: Culture matters, and they are not remotely rightwing on culture. The direction they want to move the country in matters, and they definitely don't want to move the country rightward either.
throwaway189262 6y ago
Right leaning content is downvoted because the US population leans left. The centrist view, the average American, would be considered a leftist by conservatives. This is why they think they're getting brigaded everywhere. They are. Their beliefs are unpopular. The only reason the US Republican party is viable while being so far right is structural voting advantages. That's why they've lost the popular vote almost every time for 30+ years. That's why 50% of senators are Republican when only ~43% of the populations votes R. On the internet where these artificial advantages aren't present it's much more obvious that Republican policy is broadly unpopular, and conservative opinion is the minority. Or more accurately, the moderate left is actually the center, and the average Republican is substantially far right.
- bmarquez 6y ago
  Your comment would make sense if Reddit and r/politics is an accurate description of the US population. But I'll have to disagree, since the comment above me suggests that there are a significant number of non-American Reddit users who lean more left than the average American, skewing the upvoting patterns. I'd argue that there are a different set of "artificial advantages" on the internet, such as that. And when I browsed r/politics during the 2016 and 2020 election seasons, it was clear that Bernie Sanders was the favored candidate by Redditors. However, more moderate politicians like Clinton and Biden actually won the nominations. And the popular vote count is a reflection of the Electoral College process...if elections were actually decided on the popular vote, campaign strategies would be focused more on cities than rural areas shifting the results.
  - throwaway189262 6y ago
    Redditors lean farther left than the average american. The average internet user is also left of the average american because they trend younger. But it's also undeniable that the average American leans left. That's why Republicans lose the popular vote in both chambers of congress and the presidency nearly every election. Their positions are unpopular, that's why they get down voted on "mainstream" sites where the user base is large enough to revert to the mean. And campaign focus outside of urban cores would mean that the average American is even farther left than they appear to be. Biden is farther right than the average Democrat because he needed to be to win. The structural advantages to Conservatives means the Democratic party needs to run centrist candidates. In comparison, the same advantages mean the Republican party can still win with extreme right wing candidates. For example, Trump was the first president that never hit 50% approval rating but it was still high enough for him to win and do okay during his second campaign.
Miner49er 6y ago
Pretty much anything to the left of AOC/Bernie gets downvoted or deleted from /r/politics too. It's basically a sub for the Democratic party.
- soundnote 6y ago
  I lean right and genuinely enjoy reading stupidpol.

endymi0n 6y ago

> most content to the right of AOC/Bernie gets downvoted or deleted As Reddit has a user base that comes from the US less than 50%, this might have to do with the fact that the Overton window shifted so far to the right there that the opinions of AOC or Bernie would count as center-right pretty much everywhere else in the western world, with the Republicans being off the charts lunatic extremist right.

logicchains 6y ago
Are you aware that the US recently passed laws allowing the government to sterilize and mutilate the genitals of children who feel like a different gender, even if the parents don't consent? I'm pretty confident most of the world would consider that leftism more extreme than anything the right has done recently.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- SamoyedFurFluff 6y ago
  Do you have a source? I’m pretty sure that children just get puberty blockers, which neither sterilizes nor mutilates.
nec4b 6y ago
I don't know of any European country that would consider AOC or Bernie center right and not populist (class clown) left.
soundnote 6y ago
AOC/Bernie economic policy may count as centrist by European standards simply because the US is as a baseline much more right-leaning/libertarian and the big econ-left project is to establish a welfare state, which already exists in Europe. (There are rightwing arguments for a welfare state type of solution, but those are contignent on other things being true first, ie. something more ethnostate-y) But that's not the only relevant dimension of policy: Culture matters, and they are not remotely rightwing on culture. The direction they want to move the country in matters, and they definitely don't want to move the country rightward either.

throwaway189262 6y ago

Right leaning content is downvoted because the US population leans left. The centrist view, the average American, would be considered a leftist by conservatives. This is why they think they're getting brigaded everywhere. They are. Their beliefs are unpopular. The only reason the US Republican party is viable while being so far right is structural voting advantages. That's why they've lost the popular vote almost every time for 30+ years. That's why 50% of senators are Republican when only ~43% of the populations votes R. On the internet where these artificial advantages aren't present it's much more obvious that Republican policy is broadly unpopular, and conservative opinion is the minority. Or more accurately, the moderate left is actually the center, and the average Republican is substantially far right.

bmarquez 6y ago
Your comment would make sense if Reddit and r/politics is an accurate description of the US population. But I'll have to disagree, since the comment above me suggests that there are a significant number of non-American Reddit users who lean more left than the average American, skewing the upvoting patterns. I'd argue that there are a different set of "artificial advantages" on the internet, such as that. And when I browsed r/politics during the 2016 and 2020 election seasons, it was clear that Bernie Sanders was the favored candidate by Redditors. However, more moderate politicians like Clinton and Biden actually won the nominations. And the popular vote count is a reflection of the Electoral College process...if elections were actually decided on the popular vote, campaign strategies would be focused more on cities than rural areas shifting the results.
- throwaway189262 6y ago
  Redditors lean farther left than the average american. The average internet user is also left of the average american because they trend younger. But it's also undeniable that the average American leans left. That's why Republicans lose the popular vote in both chambers of congress and the presidency nearly every election. Their positions are unpopular, that's why they get down voted on "mainstream" sites where the user base is large enough to revert to the mean. And campaign focus outside of urban cores would mean that the average American is even farther left than they appear to be. Biden is farther right than the average Democrat because he needed to be to win. The structural advantages to Conservatives means the Democratic party needs to run centrist candidates. In comparison, the same advantages mean the Republican party can still win with extreme right wing candidates. For example, Trump was the first president that never hit 50% approval rating but it was still high enough for him to win and do okay during his second campaign.

Miner49er 6y ago

Pretty much anything to the left of AOC/Bernie gets downvoted or deleted from /r/politics too. It's basically a sub for the Democratic party.

soundnote 6y ago
I lean right and genuinely enjoy reading stupidpol.