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I've been on Reddit since at least 2007. I've not seen any swing in political views. I think it's just that the sort of people that use Reddit are the sort of p

I've been on Reddit since at least 2007. I've not seen any swing in political views. I think it's just that the sort of people that use Reddit are the sort of people who are typically more left-wing. I'm just glad we have social networks which are left-wing to bring balance to the system.

scarab92 2y ago
> I've not seen any swing in political views That’s like a frog saying the water isn’t getting warmer.
- realce 2y ago
  So what year was reddit not described as a far-left echo chamber? When was this golden age?
  - scarab92 2y ago
    In 2010 Reddit was center-left, with a high degree of variance between subreddits. Today it is a far-left echo chamber in most large subreddits. The process of change was gradual. Like all echo chambers it is a result of distillation, with marginal moderate users progressively leaving in response to seeing the shrinking frontier of acceptable discourse.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - Newlaptop 2y ago
    Early Reddit had a philosophically libertarian majority (or at least, a significant percentage) and a demographic of mostly STEM-oriented, bookish, nerdy dudes from 18-40. Ron Paul was a popular political candidate. "Socially liberal, fiscally conservative" was a common refrain, although in 2008 that usually meant supporting gay marriage and wanting legal marijuana. People were skeptical of big corporations and big government alike, but had genuine belief that technology was changing the status quo in positive ways (remember when Google was a startup and "Don't be evil" felt earnest). The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were unpopular, but a big chunk of the criticism focused on ways the PATRIOT act invaded individual privacy and the wastefulness of DHS spending. Open source software and filesharing were discussed as philosophical stances and acts of resistance against entrenched powers. Race and gender were rarely discussed as being particularly important. Writing this made me realize not just how different Reddit was, but also the issues of the time and the ways they were thought of and talked about. It's almost hard to map onto contemporary parties, policies or issues.
SoftTalker 2y ago
Balance? Which mainstream social networks are right wing?
- davidw 2y ago
  Have you ever heard of X dot com?
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    I have heard of it but don't use it. My expectation is that it's a fairly diverse group.
    - davidw 2y ago
      It's run by a white supremacist who throws Sieg Heil salutes. It's extremely right wing.
- hackyhacky 2y ago
  https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-pivoted-meta-right-rcna186687 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-pi... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-elon-musk-uses-his-x-social-media-platform-to-amplify-right-wing-views https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-elon-musk-uses-his...
- UltraSane 2y ago
  X facebook
terrabiped 2y ago
Reddit has been in a state of hysteria for the past couple of weeks. You’re right that the overall leaning hasn’t changed much, but it was never this crazy, even during Trump’s first term. It’s a nonstop barrage of nazi labels, overblown news, and comments that “hint” at more direct involvement and violence. It's so weird that I've even started to doubt whether most of those comments are from real people.
- Salgat 2y ago
  I'm not sure why you're surprised. Reddit has always been left leaning and progressive, and they were making a lot of noise about Trump his first term, especially with the Mueller investigation. Now you have a huge trade war going on, he keeps threatening the soveriegnty of multiple long time allies, a billionaire has extensive access to government data (the same one that did that nazi salute), along with ICE being ramped up all in the first couple weeks of his term. Our president also ran a crypto scam that made him billions right before his term started. He also keeps joking about running for a third term and is challenging a 150 year constitutional law on birthright citizenship with an executive order. Even you have to admit that this is a lot going on compared to anything we've seen before.
  - scarab92 2y ago
    If redditors were simply complaining about things like the attempts to stop birthright citizenship, then I would agree that it’s left leaning. What makes it far-left are the calls for violence all over the place, and the rejection of opinions from more moderate democrats. When even the hyper sensitive ADL can admit that musk did not do a Nazi salute, but your users cannot, you’ve become a far-left echo chamber.
    - Salgat 2y ago
      For some context, the ADL is a pro-israeli organization, which is why they have been praising the current administration recently.
  - terrabiped 2y ago
concordDance 2y ago
It used to be very libertarian (big on free speech, etc) but has since shifted substantially liberal, including much warmer attitudes towards the use of violence. So partly orthogonal to the main left-right axis.

scarab92 2y ago

> I've not seen any swing in political views That’s like a frog saying the water isn’t getting warmer.

realce 2y ago
So what year was reddit not described as a far-left echo chamber? When was this golden age?
- scarab92 2y ago
  In 2010 Reddit was center-left, with a high degree of variance between subreddits. Today it is a far-left echo chamber in most large subreddits. The process of change was gradual. Like all echo chambers it is a result of distillation, with marginal moderate users progressively leaving in response to seeing the shrinking frontier of acceptable discourse.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- Newlaptop 2y ago
  Early Reddit had a philosophically libertarian majority (or at least, a significant percentage) and a demographic of mostly STEM-oriented, bookish, nerdy dudes from 18-40. Ron Paul was a popular political candidate. "Socially liberal, fiscally conservative" was a common refrain, although in 2008 that usually meant supporting gay marriage and wanting legal marijuana. People were skeptical of big corporations and big government alike, but had genuine belief that technology was changing the status quo in positive ways (remember when Google was a startup and "Don't be evil" felt earnest). The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were unpopular, but a big chunk of the criticism focused on ways the PATRIOT act invaded individual privacy and the wastefulness of DHS spending. Open source software and filesharing were discussed as philosophical stances and acts of resistance against entrenched powers. Race and gender were rarely discussed as being particularly important. Writing this made me realize not just how different Reddit was, but also the issues of the time and the ways they were thought of and talked about. It's almost hard to map onto contemporary parties, policies or issues.

SoftTalker 2y ago

Balance? Which mainstream social networks are right wing?

davidw 2y ago
Have you ever heard of X dot com?
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  I have heard of it but don't use it. My expectation is that it's a fairly diverse group.
  - davidw 2y ago
    It's run by a white supremacist who throws Sieg Heil salutes. It's extremely right wing.
hackyhacky 2y ago
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-pivoted-meta-right-rcna186687 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-pi... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-elon-musk-uses-his-x-social-media-platform-to-amplify-right-wing-views https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/how-elon-musk-uses-his...
UltraSane 2y ago
X facebook

terrabiped 2y ago

Reddit has been in a state of hysteria for the past couple of weeks. You’re right that the overall leaning hasn’t changed much, but it was never this crazy, even during Trump’s first term. It’s a nonstop barrage of nazi labels, overblown news, and comments that “hint” at more direct involvement and violence. It's so weird that I've even started to doubt whether most of those comments are from real people.

Salgat 2y ago
I'm not sure why you're surprised. Reddit has always been left leaning and progressive, and they were making a lot of noise about Trump his first term, especially with the Mueller investigation. Now you have a huge trade war going on, he keeps threatening the soveriegnty of multiple long time allies, a billionaire has extensive access to government data (the same one that did that nazi salute), along with ICE being ramped up all in the first couple weeks of his term. Our president also ran a crypto scam that made him billions right before his term started. He also keeps joking about running for a third term and is challenging a 150 year constitutional law on birthright citizenship with an executive order. Even you have to admit that this is a lot going on compared to anything we've seen before.
- scarab92 2y ago
  If redditors were simply complaining about things like the attempts to stop birthright citizenship, then I would agree that it’s left leaning. What makes it far-left are the calls for violence all over the place, and the rejection of opinions from more moderate democrats. When even the hyper sensitive ADL can admit that musk did not do a Nazi salute, but your users cannot, you’ve become a far-left echo chamber.
  - Salgat 2y ago
    For some context, the ADL is a pro-israeli organization, which is why they have been praising the current administration recently.
- terrabiped 2y ago

concordDance 2y ago

It used to be very libertarian (big on free speech, etc) but has since shifted substantially liberal, including much warmer attitudes towards the use of violence. So partly orthogonal to the main left-right axis.