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Reddit has censored themselves into absurdity. I literally can't read the front page without being logged in anymore because it's actually just all propaganda f
by the_doctah 3y ago
Reddit has censored themselves into absurdity. I literally can't read the front page without being logged in anymore because it's actually just all propaganda from top to bottom. At least the site was usable during this cached period, but that version of reddit is totally gone now. The fact that they used to tout free speech is hard to believe these days.
- teaearlgraycold 3y agoYeah. Absolutely loaded with Ukrainian propaganda. Granted, I want Russia to lose the war they started.
- senttoschool 3y agoReddit hive mind latches onto feel good stories but ignores logic and history. Everything is black and white, good and evil to the average Redditor. It's best to avoid Reddit front page and large subs. PS. Reddit's transparent upvote system highly encourages popular and feel good opinions at the expense of accuracy. You can write a quality post backed by peer reviewed science but still get downvoted if it doesn't fit within a sub's consensus opinion.
- conradfr 3y agoThe vote system became a lot more useless the day they removed the upvote/downvote counter.
- ed25519FUUU 3y agoPro-war propaganda is the right way to look at it. The USA profits from a protracted war in Ukraine. All of that money we send just goes right back into the military industrial complex.
- jazzyjackson 3y agoI mean, on the whole we profit more by having a cheap source of competent labor adjacent to europe, but that doesn't stop the military-industrial-congressional complex from making sales.
- valvar 3y agoEurope does. The US? Not necessarily.
- bee_rider 3y agoIf the US is happy with a protracted war, then isn’t pro-Ukraine propaganda anti-war? If we’re willing to keep supplying them indefinitely, it just becomes a matter of which country has the will/manpower to fight. Since Ukraine is fighting for their home, I guess they’ll have the willpower advantage. So, we should root for peace, achieved as soon as possibly, by the invaders leaving.
- ed25519FUUU 3y agoThere are many ways to a cease fire, and one of them is an immediate withdrawal by Russia from all occupied territories.
- bee_rider 3y agoI don’t see a ton of other ways, it seems like anything else would require Ukraine to give up something, which is a pretty hard sell in response to an unprovoked invasion. (I mean obviously it is Ukraine’s right to decide if they want to, like, sacrifice some territory in exchange for a peace treaty, but they seem to have pretty good morale and Russia didn’t respect their previous agreement not to invade, so it seems like it would be hard to start negotiating).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Giorgi 3y agoCan't blame them, hard to be on invader's side who commits war crimes every hour and be doing it since Georgia invasions.
- senttoschool 3y ago[flagged]
- Giorgi 3y agoYes, US side, NATO side and Ukraine side, war crimes that US has committed are also very bad. Even though considering "whataboutism", Russians as a nation are universally hated among their neighbors, they invaded, killed and displaced and are currently occupying lands in Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kazakhstan etc. etc. And that would be main difference, while US bombs tyrannic regiments and topples dictatorships, Russia invades and is trying to annex their neighbors. It has economy roughly of a Spain and is basically a shithole thug regiment that needs to be dissolved and fast.
- senttoschool 3y agoYikes. I hope you realize that your views are extreme. One might even call that an extremist or terrorist. "When we kill people, it's because we're good. When they kill people, it's because they're evil." Note: Not a supporter nor an expert of Russia.
- Giorgi 3y agoWrong. These are not views, these are facts. Yes, Russia is a terrorist state. As I said, war crimes are wrong no matter the "side". However there is huge difference between bombing tyrants and dictators vs raping kids in Ukraine. Note: Sure.
- Fauntleroy 3y ago[flagged]
- 3y ago
- friendzis 3y agoAs much as there is propaganda praising Russia in this conflict, there is pro-Ukraine propaganda, nothing new about it. The fact that you do see one sided propaganda is just indicative of media outlets you use filtering the propaganda they feed you. Or in other words, construct narrative "our side is good, their side is bad". Why is it so hard for some people to accept that media outlets are filtering propaganda on other divisive topics too?
- ycombinete 3y agoYeah. Even /r/CombatFootage only upvotes Ukrainian wins, unless it’s something extremely rare.
- Fauntleroy 3y agoThis is natural when most of the users of the site support one side over the other
- wolongong942 3y agoIt's more the fact that you NEVER get 2 sides on Reddit, every sub just turns into a circle jerk. Posting on Reddit is pointless unless you're just trying to validate your preexisting views.
- kitsunesoba 3y agoThe problem is that for some reason, nuance is scarce in Reddit threads. It's not usually thoughtful, multifaceted opinions that get posted, but instead short, quippy, polarized statements that intentionally or otherwise come off as combative. It's not really possible to have a productive conversation like that, regardless of the topic. Everything degrades into an endless game of oneupmanship that escalates until the opinions being represented are distorted well beyond anything espoused by most people in real-life discussions.
- lumb63 3y agoMy girlfriend browses Reddit often so I’ve had the chance to see how a self-proclaimed heavy user interacts with the platform. After seeing that, it makes sense to me why the platform is how it is when compared to isolated forums or discussion boards. Reddit has two types of users, more or less: browsers and posters. The browsers will probably never post anything, or will post so rarely that it does not warrant mentioning. The regular posters will dominate the discussion in a given subreddit, and probably eventually moderate it, so there is a very strong in-group effect. The only way as an outsider to penetrate that in-group is to make well-liked, popular quips which pander to the moderators and browsers. On the contrary, a forum or discussion board typically has two classes of users, in my experience: active posters who contribute to discussions they want to, and lurkers, who are usually new, and are absorbing from current posters. There is an implicit assumption that users have probably been watching the forum for a while to get a lay of the land before posting and have read through a good amount of the site’s content, and when they post, they are accepted since they are aware of the conversation and can build on it. The culture of lurking and the desire of viewers to discuss topics with others is what keeps forums strong, IMO. In their place, Reddit has casual browsers who happen to see content and upvote it (effectively deciding democratically what others will see). When a large portion of users who have no intention to engage with others can dictate what their fellow members are most likely to see, it quickly degenerates to a “who can make the coolest comment” club.
- jimbob45 3y agoOn the other hand, there are entire communities that would entirely disappear if Reddit died tomorrow. Stuff like Marathon (the game) and ergonomic mechanical keyboards just don’t have enough of a presence online to be able to direct everyone toward a new gathering point. Fuck Reddit though. It’s all propaganda and censorship at this point. Both US political parties too - r/conservative has rules just as abusive as r/politics.
- snordgren 3y agoI hadn't thought about that before, but that might be one contributing reason why online communities are moving into discord chats instead. A subreddit or forum has its most toxic posts visible until they are deleted. A discord chat almost moderates itself because anything older than a few days is a pain to retrieve, and doesn't show up on Google.
- Mouthfeel 3y ago[dead]
- throw_m239339 3y ago> On the other hand, there are entire communities that would entirely disappear if Reddit died tomorrow. I don't believe that. These communities can exist outside reddit. Plenty of communities that were banned by reddit live on with their own website and thrive.
- rainbowzootsuit 3y agoI've gotten back into Myth 2 recently. I was surprised by the number of mods/plugins available that are of high quality having mostly played the OEM maps back in the day. And there are still people actively playing online. Good times.
- ed25519FUUU 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- simlevesque 3y ago> I mean, Ghislaine Maxwell was the head moderator of /r/news. Based on what? Beside some greentexts.
- NovaDudely 3y agoI think it based on the u/MaxwellHill account going dead at the same time Maxwell was arrested. Personally, if it was me and I was tired of the moderating role - I would use the name coincidence to create an absurd conspiracy and have an absolute laugh about it all! Sort of Andy Kaufman kind of thing.
- commoner 3y ago> I mean, Ghislaine Maxwell was the head moderator of /r/news. The conspiracy theory claimed that Ghislaine Maxwell was a moderator of /r/worldnews, and the evidence supporting this is extremely weak. > The “evidence” shared by conspiracy theorists is that the user in question, u/MaxwellHill, has the word “Maxwell” in their name. The conspiracy theory's architects claim that gaps in the user’s posting history are tied to what they believe to be significant events in Ghislaine Maxwell’s life that apparently would have precluded her from posting links to articles about climate change, insects, Bitcoin, and a host of other various general news, as the account has dutifully done since 2006. They also have glommed onto a 2011 Gizmodo article in which MaxwellHill mentioned they were "busy with a potential business venture." https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3zbaj/incoherent-conspiracy-suggests-ghislaine-maxwell-is-a-powerful-redditor https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3zbaj/incoherent-conspiracy... > However, despite multiple Reddit users quickly jumping in on the investigation event to the point of conducting a stylometric analysis, it appears that maxwellhill isn't actually Maxwell. Already on the same day as the thread went viral, [edit to add: after the real Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested] /r/worldnews moderator hasharin posted screenshots of maxwellhill commenting in the subreddit's backroom and a chat between them. https://knowyourmeme.com/news/reddit-power-user-suspected-of-being-ghislane-maxwell https://knowyourmeme.com/news/reddit-power-user-suspected-of...
- threeseed 3y agoReddit has never touted free speech. They were just lax about moderation until things got out of control and the company was at risk of being kicked off the app stores and being held complicit in some of the illegal conduct that was happening on the site.
- the_doctah 3y agoCitations needed
- mvdtnz 3y agoThat's simply not true. In 2012 Reddit's co-founder called Reddit "a bastion of free speech" in this Forbes article. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/02/reddit-co-founder-alexis-ohanians-rosy-outlook-on-the-future-of-politics/?sh=87f1a8855501 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/02/reddit-c...
- yellow_postit 3y agoSo the same arc Twitter is on. Claim “free speech*” and heavily take action when you realize your viable business model is advertising and that means some level of brand safety.
- thebigwinning 3y agoAlmost no subs used to be banned Even those with depraved stuff like subs dedicated to racism (not just allowing it) were simply quarantined.
- Zamicol 3y agoI'd love to see more systematic documentation of Reddit's censorship, since they have so much power over the opinions of so many. There is https://www.reveddit.com https://www.reveddit.com who has done a lot of work for anti-censorship.
- rhaksw 3y agoI'm the author. Thanks for the mention below! A friend brought this post to my attention. I also have a substack now [1]. My talk from last year [2] did spur some discussion on HN [3], but it was too long for most to sit through. To be clear, I'm anti-secretive censorship, not anti-moderation per se. But yes, secretive censorship is everywhere! The long and short of it is that we are all equally guilty and equally capable of pulling ourselves out of this. It's not "just" the government as your article from The Intercept implies. The famous statements about "tyranny of the majority" came from Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, but you can hear for example Jordan Peterson making roughly the same point [4]: > "People think that when you're in a totalitarian state, the reason that the state is totalitarian is because everyone is the victim of top-down pressure from tyrants. And that's not how it works at all. A state becomes totalitarian when every single person is lying about absolutely everything all the time." And shadow removals occur in many online spaces, not just Reddit. They don't get rid of spam, they promote it. Bots easily code around it and real users are left stuck in the mud. "Trolls" don't learn because they aren't facing consequences. The thing to keep in mind is the future. If we all do this to each other in perpetuity, we're doomed. Fortunately, we humans are smart and can perceive a better outcome. The more people who understand that this does happen, the more who will decide not to do it because they don't want it done to them, and it looks bad when it's revealed. [1] https://removed.substack.com/p/the-beginnings-of-shadowbans-and https://removed.substack.com/p/the-beginnings-of-shadowbans-... [2] https://shadowmoderation.com/2022-10-transparent-moderation/ https://shadowmoderation.com/2022-10-transparent-moderation/ [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33475391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33475391 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QOvu6d5AM&t=4835s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1QOvu6d5AM&t=4835s
- trompetenaccoun 3y ago
- shitlord 3y agoCheck out https://old.reddit.com/r/RedditMinusMods https://old.reddit.com/r/RedditMinusMods. It's dead now, but the number of popular posts removed for arbitrary reasons is insane. According to the graph on the front page, something went wrong in mid-2017, because that's when the number of post removals suddenly accelerated.
- wincy 3y agoThat was when they decided the 2016 election could never be allowed to happen again, and “liberal” folks decided free speech (rather hilariously in a dark way) was a “danger to democracy”. They then proceeded to call anyone who disagreed with this sentiment a “Russian bot”. I remember getting banned from certain subreddits just because I was guilty of the crime of posting in r/TheDonald (not even voicing support!)
- grepfru_it 3y ago-300 vote comment in r/TheDonald correcting an absurd point 5 minutes later: You have been banned from posting in $RANDOMSUB because of your association with hate-speech subreddits.
- technick 3y agoOh yea I've experienced that before by posting on r/subredditdrama. I was then banned from a relationship sub, a eli5 sub and another sub. Ironically I was posting to correct some bad information that was shared, but it didn't matter.
- swarnie 3y agoThe modern equivalent of this is GreenAndPleasent. I usually christen a new account by speed running a ban there first, little tradition...
- nomat 3y agothe mods abused the sticky functionality to get posts pushed to the front page for a long time. other subreddits were tired of t_d users brigading. they spread misinformation on purpose. Engage in good faith in online spaces or get banned. hn is useful because it is tightly moderated. the auto-ban of users that post in no-no subreddits was a reaction to the continued lack of action on reddit's part.
- downWidOutaFite 3y ago[flagged]
- throwaway2990 3y agoUnsure if this comment is satire or not?
- jazzyjackson 3y agoI think they're serious but they have a particular definition of "left" which includes anti-work and late-stage capitalism. When you think the left isn't left enough, everyone else is to your right.
- TeMPOraL 3y agoI think you got your hands reversed - most popular/widespread media platforms, both traditional and social, seems entirely controlled by left-leaning interests.
- Mouthfeel 3y ago[dead]
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoWhat jazzyjackson below said prompted the realization that the GP is indeed talking about leftism, as opposed to liberalism (conventionally seen as a center-right political philosophy). Most popular and widespread media companies are bastions of liberal thought, not leftist thought. And can be as intolerant of leftists as they are conservatives.
- NovaDudely 3y agoI think both side are right and wrong. The media simply plays almost all sides while convincing everyone that they are the ones being oppressed.
- downWidOutaFite 3y ago
- cantSpellSober 3y agoThis back in my day comment about reddit gets copy/pasted a lot, but what do you mean by "this cached period"? The data is from 2005 to 2022.
- the_doctah 3y agoI misread as 2012
- tmaly 3y agoMastodon is the open source Twitter alternative. What is the open source Reddit alternative?