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Up until 2016ish, discussions on reddit used to be very balanced politically. You could find the top voted comment leaning extreme left, and the second top vote

Up until 2016ish, discussions on reddit used to be very balanced politically. You could find the top voted comment leaning extreme left, and the second top voted comment leaning to the right. Now you all the top comments are left and any right leaning comment is highly down voted to the negatives. Either the country suddenly shifted far left or reddit is getting highly moderated to make it look like that.

nannal 3y ago
It's a shame there's no discernible external reason, or series of events, that would push young people towards left leaning ideologies. Furthermore it's extraordinarily strange this began back in 2016.
- account42 3y ago
  Yes, almost like one "side" got spooked and really embraced the idea of censorship to manufacture consent around that time.
  - nannal 3y ago
    That must be the answer, conspiracy.
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    Everyone likes censorship. I've never met anyone who didn't like it. People only complain about it when their side is losing. Eg, on reddit /r/conservative is one of the most censored subreddits, and they're not even subtle about it. They regularly have "flaired users only" threads that are explicitly not open to anyone but the mod-approved people, but you'll see the regulars venture to the outside and whine about free speech and "safe spaces" anyway. The few actually true unrestricted places quickly degenerate into something like Voat, that was such a cess-pool that even TheDonald couldn't take it. They made a huge deal about Reddit being too restrictive and moving to voat, then quietly crawled back because just like /r/conservative they were very used to having a conversation on their terms. Even in places like Voat I suspect the way most people work in an unmoderated space is that the toxicity kind of naturally filters the content to what they prefer.
hnbad 3y ago
> Either the country suddenly shifted far left I don't see an increase in direct democracy, a move away from government support of corporations towards worker coops, massive tax hikes for billionaires, any plans to build a nationwide public transit highspeed rail network or any serious consideration of public universal free healthcare, education, housing and food so I'm not sure what you mean by "far left". If you consider acceptance of LGBTQ people and acknowledgement of the long-lasting multi-generational effects of discriminatory laws and chattel slavery "far left" then yes, the broad public in the US seems to be "far left" and has been for decades (though until certain talking heads started calling everything "Marxist" again, the usual term for these ideas was "progressive"). Arguably it has been more of a back-and-forth if you consider how much hatred for muslims and Arabs (or any brown person mistaken for either) flared up post-9/11. We also saw a steady increase in LGBTQ rights and support until it was turned into a "culture war" issue a few years ago, though public opinion doesn't seem to have followed the urgency apparently felt by certain politicians and pundits. > or reddit is getting highly moderated to make it look like that. I'm wondering about the use of passive voice as it would suggest someone else (not reddit) is making this decision, presumably with some kind of ulterior motive. Who would that be and more importantly why do you think they would make this decision?

nannal 3y ago

It's a shame there's no discernible external reason, or series of events, that would push young people towards left leaning ideologies. Furthermore it's extraordinarily strange this began back in 2016.

account42 3y ago
Yes, almost like one "side" got spooked and really embraced the idea of censorship to manufacture consent around that time.
- nannal 3y ago
  That must be the answer, conspiracy.
- dale_glass 3y ago
  Everyone likes censorship. I've never met anyone who didn't like it. People only complain about it when their side is losing. Eg, on reddit /r/conservative is one of the most censored subreddits, and they're not even subtle about it. They regularly have "flaired users only" threads that are explicitly not open to anyone but the mod-approved people, but you'll see the regulars venture to the outside and whine about free speech and "safe spaces" anyway. The few actually true unrestricted places quickly degenerate into something like Voat, that was such a cess-pool that even TheDonald couldn't take it. They made a huge deal about Reddit being too restrictive and moving to voat, then quietly crawled back because just like /r/conservative they were very used to having a conversation on their terms. Even in places like Voat I suspect the way most people work in an unmoderated space is that the toxicity kind of naturally filters the content to what they prefer.

hnbad 3y ago

> Either the country suddenly shifted far left I don't see an increase in direct democracy, a move away from government support of corporations towards worker coops, massive tax hikes for billionaires, any plans to build a nationwide public transit highspeed rail network or any serious consideration of public universal free healthcare, education, housing and food so I'm not sure what you mean by "far left". If you consider acceptance of LGBTQ people and acknowledgement of the long-lasting multi-generational effects of discriminatory laws and chattel slavery "far left" then yes, the broad public in the US seems to be "far left" and has been for decades (though until certain talking heads started calling everything "Marxist" again, the usual term for these ideas was "progressive"). Arguably it has been more of a back-and-forth if you consider how much hatred for muslims and Arabs (or any brown person mistaken for either) flared up post-9/11. We also saw a steady increase in LGBTQ rights and support until it was turned into a "culture war" issue a few years ago, though public opinion doesn't seem to have followed the urgency apparently felt by certain politicians and pundits. > or reddit is getting highly moderated to make it look like that. I'm wondering about the use of passive voice as it would suggest someone else (not reddit) is making this decision, presumably with some kind of ulterior motive. Who would that be and more importantly why do you think they would make this decision?