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I remember the weekly rotating "Covid in Russia" threads in /r/worldnews where people were cheering for more Russian deaths. Voicing objections didn't get you j

by Garvi 3y ago

I remember the weekly rotating "Covid in Russia" threads in /r/worldnews where people were cheering for more Russian deaths. Voicing objections didn't get you just shadowbanned, to maintain the illusion that everyone agrees that Russians need to die, it got you permabanned on multiple of the biggest subreddits. For voicing objections to this vile practice, my 8 year old account got permabanned from /r/worldnews, /r/movies, /r/pictures and another one I don't recall. All my slavic friends working internationally are now trying to hide accents because people might think they were Russian and have them lose their contracts or mistreating them. I have since broken off friendships with people proudly proclaiming they were redditors. In history "books" 200 years from now, such websites will be treated as the 21st centuries version of the hitler youth. If you're tolerating such behaviour or denying it's existence, you're supporting racism. I'm wondering what I'll get here. Censorship or debate?

Aachen 3y ago
I can't decide how to feel about this. It's unrelated to the reddit access issue and very hard to believe (the "I got banned for saying it's bad to wish for covid to kill random citizens and multiple subreddits conspire against me" part, not the hiding accents part). At the same time, it sounds bad and I somehow don't expect malice from your side, just misunderstanding somewhere. So idk, I understand that it's hard to prove that this happened and that your version is the full story. I decided to just not vote on this post, but if you're wondering why people are voting this down (at least that's my expectation), I really don't think any one of them are of the opinion that random russians must die or something. Rather, I expect people find it either off topic or implausible or both.
- Garvi 3y ago
  Those threads were at the top of /r/worldnews for months. Each week the old one would be deleted and a new one posted. Everyone has seen them. Why are people pretending they weren't there? Because no one is going to admit they supported this or were the ones that looked the other way. Not even to themselves - they're the heroes of their own story. I understand the situation and why I'm downvoted - I wouldn't have posted it if I cared about HN points. I would feel worse if I hadn't made this post.
  - Aachen 3y ago
    I'm not pretending. I simply haven't seen them. I'm not subscribed to "worldnews"
    - Garvi 3y ago
      I believe you. And good for you. Now take that thought that made you unsubscribe from their default sub one step further and reevaluate if it's worth supporting such a company in any form.
- _djo_ 3y ago
  Indeed. My recollection of similar threads at the time was not a celebration of Russian deaths, but a mockery of official Russian statistics that were claiming an implausibly low number of hospitalised and dead.
  - Garvi 3y ago
    How I wish all those threads weren't all systematically deleted after one week, so we could delve into them right now, but they were, for some reason. And here's my anonymous word against yours. The celebration of Russian deaths started out as morbid innuendos. Example: "Oof, i really really hope not more Russians die, wink-wink. lmao". As time went on the comments became more open and more vile. No objecting voice was left in the threads, as they were cleaned by the free mods into a perfect echo chamber. A fake testament to how alone you are in opposing such thinking.

by Garvi 3y ago

Aachen 3y ago

I can't decide how to feel about this. It's unrelated to the reddit access issue and very hard to believe (the "I got banned for saying it's bad to wish for covid to kill random citizens and multiple subreddits conspire against me" part, not the hiding accents part). At the same time, it sounds bad and I somehow don't expect malice from your side, just misunderstanding somewhere. So idk, I understand that it's hard to prove that this happened and that your version is the full story. I decided to just not vote on this post, but if you're wondering why people are voting this down (at least that's my expectation), I really don't think any one of them are of the opinion that random russians must die or something. Rather, I expect people find it either off topic or implausible or both.

Garvi 3y ago
Those threads were at the top of /r/worldnews for months. Each week the old one would be deleted and a new one posted. Everyone has seen them. Why are people pretending they weren't there? Because no one is going to admit they supported this or were the ones that looked the other way. Not even to themselves - they're the heroes of their own story. I understand the situation and why I'm downvoted - I wouldn't have posted it if I cared about HN points. I would feel worse if I hadn't made this post.
- Aachen 3y ago
  I'm not pretending. I simply haven't seen them. I'm not subscribed to "worldnews"
  - Garvi 3y ago
    I believe you. And good for you. Now take that thought that made you unsubscribe from their default sub one step further and reevaluate if it's worth supporting such a company in any form.
_djo_ 3y ago
Indeed. My recollection of similar threads at the time was not a celebration of Russian deaths, but a mockery of official Russian statistics that were claiming an implausibly low number of hospitalised and dead.
- Garvi 3y ago
  How I wish all those threads weren't all systematically deleted after one week, so we could delve into them right now, but they were, for some reason. And here's my anonymous word against yours. The celebration of Russian deaths started out as morbid innuendos. Example: "Oof, i really really hope not more Russians die, wink-wink. lmao". As time went on the comments became more open and more vile. No objecting voice was left in the threads, as they were cleaned by the free mods into a perfect echo chamber. A fake testament to how alone you are in opposing such thinking.