# Does anyone here hang out at Reddit? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853 "2018-01-04T15:14:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/41 "2018-01-10T15:26:51Z")
Redditors love weed, atheism, porn, net neutrality, and anything that makes college cheaper (which is why so many of them liked Bernie). They hate feminists, minority activism, SJWs, the poor, immigrants, and Muslims. They have a fascist conception of art due to their STEMlord tendencies (humanities are worthless, postmodernism is degenerate). They seem more split on war and empire, but you definitely better respect the troops (and cops). R/Politics rules because it’s basically The\_Donald for centrist liberals, except instead of Pizzagate and Qanon they maniacally obsess over Russiagate, and they love the CIA and FBI and respectable Republicans like McCain, the Bushes, and Reagan. That might be a pretty good representation of the current state of American liberalism. Gamergate and guys like Sargon of Akkad identify as liberal, or “classical liberals.” If you hang around some of those communities I mentioned in my first post you’ll see people saying they’re liberals but the Democrats went too far left or a woman with pink hair told them to check their privilege or something. Few people identify as reactionary. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/42 "2018-01-10T15:35:06Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Redditors love weed, atheism, porn, net neutrality, and anything that makes college cheaper (which is why so many of them liked Bernie). They hate feminists, minority activism, SJWs, the poor, immigrants, and Muslims. They have a fascist conception of art due to their STEMlord tendencies (humanities are worthless, postmodernism is degenerate). They seem more split on war and empire, but you definitely better respect the troops (and cops). > > … Those would be the politically-oriented subreddits, right? I’ve been enjoying the ones on cats, dogs, my fave TV shows, recipes, makeup, the town where I live, and stuff like that. I also look at breaking news. But I’ll stick to the political discussions here–known quantity. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/43 "2018-01-10T16:14:19Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Redditors love weed, atheism, porn, net neutrality, and anything that makes college cheaper (which is why so many of them liked Bernie). They hate feminists, minority activism, SJWs, the poor, immigrants, and Muslims. They have a fascist conception of art due to their STEMlord tendencies (humanities are worthless, postmodernism is degenerate). They seem more split on war and empire, but you definitely better respect the troops (and cops). > > R/Politics rules because it’s basically The\_Donald for centrist liberals, except instead of Pizzagate and Qanon they maniacally obsess over Russiagate, and they love the CIA and FBI and respectable Republicans like McCain, the Bushes, and Reagan. That might be a pretty good representation of the current state of American liberalism. > > Gamergate and guys like Sargon of Akkad identify as liberal, or “classical liberals.” If you hang around some of those communities I mentioned in my first post you’ll see people saying they’re liberals but the Democrats went too far left or a woman with pink hair told them to check their privilege or something. Few people identify as reactionary. I believe you hang out on some really strangely conservative subreddits, tbh. I mean Hell, even the **NASCAR** subreddit leans moderate (I’m not kidding - generally really far-right posts get downvoted to oblivion and people complain about how far-right the sport tends to portray itself with pre-race prayers and everything ‘troops’ and the such). The tech subreddits and soccer subreddits I’m on are very pro-immigrant, Muslim, poor, etc (you may expect that for the soccer ones though). And I believe your definition of /r/politics seemingly flies counter to what you believe reddit is like - the political subreddit is overflowing with centrist liberals. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/44 "2018-01-10T16:21:40Z")
I also will say that Conservapedia HATES reddit (they are favorable to Twitter… I guess for obvious reasons): [http://www.conservapedia.com/Reddit](http://www.conservapedia.com/Reddit) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/45 "2018-01-10T18:13:05Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > no. I abhor the threaded layout. I have an account there, and poke around every so often, but the threaded nature of the posts just throws me off, and I’ve never gotten used to it, so I only visit these days if a google search leads me to it or if I have a specific question that they have a subreddit for. My brain just can’t handle the layout. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/46 "2018-01-10T19:10:32Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Redditors love weed, atheism, porn, net neutrality, and anything that makes college cheaper (which is why so many of them liked Bernie). They hate feminists, minority activism, SJWs, the poor, immigrants, and Muslims. They have a fascist conception of art due to their STEMlord tendencies (humanities are worthless, postmodernism is degenerate). They seem more split on war and empire, but you definitely better respect the troops (and cops). I think you’re right about weed, porn, and net neutrality but politically I think your view of Reddit is tinted through the subreddits you subscribe to. Generalizing Reddit is like generalizing Gmail, there are tons of subscribers and tons of viewpoints. Check out: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/esist/](https://www.reddit.com/r/esist/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/) ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/47 "2018-01-10T19:50:27Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > I have used Reddit heavily for years, but since the primary season and election I’ve fallen away from it because it started to become painfully obvious that the content of Reddit is being manipulated by special interests. This article talks about how easy it is to game Reddit: [Reddit For Sale: How We Made Viral Fake News For $200](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2016/12/14/how-we-bought-reddit-for-200/) I am absolutely convinced that many different groups are doing this on the site, just from how the tone of the site abruptly changed during the election (the news and politics subreddits went from being mostly pro-Bernie early on to very abruptly becoming nothing but anti-Trump stuff and down voting anything critical of Clinton down to hell). > > It seems to have calmed down now, but for a while after the election, it was amazing how completely relentless the spamming of anti-Trump rhetoric there was. You could be browsing a subreddit that has absolutely nothing to do with politics and the most upvoted post at the top of the subreddit would be about Trump. It seemed like every day, there was another new anti-Trump subreddit rocketing to the “front page” of the site. These brand new anti-Trump subreddits often had very few subscribers yet somehow had tons of up votes (which were most likely paid for) It was so impossible to escape it to the point that it became incredibly annoying. Reddit used to be a great site to find interesting conversation and uniquely qualified individuals, but sadly it seems like now it is heading down the road of being exploited for propaganda purposes by corporations and the government. I definitely do not look at it the same way now. Wow, I really wanted to upvote this post. I spend most of my internet time on Reddit and I agree with your observations. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/48 "2018-01-10T23:17:19Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > I believe you hang out on some really strangely conservative subreddits, tbh. I mean Hell, even the **NASCAR** subreddit leans moderate (I’m not kidding - generally really far-right posts get downvoted to oblivion and people complain about how far-right the sport tends to portray itself with pre-race prayers and everything ‘troops’ and the such). I hang out in /r/libertarian, and libertarian posts are downvoted all the time. I’m not sure that up- and downvotes count for much on any particular sub. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/49 "2018-01-11T03:22:17Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > I have used Reddit heavily for years, but since the primary season and election I’ve fallen away from it because it started to become painfully obvious that the content of Reddit is being manipulated by special interests. This article talks about how easy it is to game Reddit: [Reddit For Sale: How We Made Viral Fake News For $200](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2016/12/14/how-we-bought-reddit-for-200/) I am absolutely convinced that many different groups are doing this on the site, just from how the tone of the site abruptly changed during the election (the news and politics subreddits went from being mostly pro-Bernie early on to very abruptly becoming nothing but anti-Trump stuff and down voting anything critical of Clinton down to hell). > > It seems to have calmed down now, but for a while after the election, it was amazing how completely relentless the spamming of anti-Trump rhetoric there was. You could be browsing a subreddit that has absolutely nothing to do with politics and the most upvoted post at the top of the subreddit would be about Trump. It seemed like every day, there was another new anti-Trump subreddit rocketing to the “front page” of the site. These brand new anti-Trump subreddits often had very few subscribers yet somehow had tons of up votes (which were most likely paid for) It was so impossible to escape it to the point that it became incredibly annoying. Reddit used to be a great site to find interesting conversation and uniquely qualified individuals, but sadly it seems like now it is heading down the road of being exploited for propaganda purposes by corporations and the government. I definitely do not look at it the same way now. I agree that it went from mostly pro-Bernie stuff to more anti-Trump stuff. It wasn’t even limited to political subreddits. But that’s entirely expected. The crossover happened after Bernie had clearly lost. So of course those people are going to switch to Clinton. And, since they are reluctant supporters, most of those people are going to gravitate towards anti-Trump stuff, though some will say pro-Clinton stuff, or at least upvote it when it appears. Then there was also the /r/The\_Donald subreddit which was brigading the site. They were getting larger and larger, as Trump became more popular, and it was leaking all over the site. And there’s nothing Reddit hates more than brigading. Then there’s just how much closer Trump was getting. He was even ahead by poll predictions at these points. People who hadn’t made up their mind are more likely to do so as things get closer. It’s just how elections work. Finally, there’s the fact that Reddit is still that way. I hardly ever encounter pro-Trump Redditors, and, when I do, they tend to be downvoted. Calls to ban /r/The\_Donald along with the other toxic subreddits that were already removed get upvoted into the thousands. But Clinton’s campaign is over, and there’s little reason for companies to keep on pushing this anymore. It makes sense, since the majority of the country is anti-Trump: see his favorability poll numbers. Especially in the demographics that use Reddit: Trump support skews older. There are some ad-like posts that I think may be astroturfed (mostly in /r/videos). And I acknowledge it’s not that hard to get a Reddit post to take off. But citing the change from pro-Trump to anti-Bernie is about the weakest proof you could come possibly come up with. It’s entirely what I would expect. It even happened here, to a lesser degree: pro-Bernie posts dropped while anti-Trump posts were taking over so much people wanted a separate forum for them. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/50 "2018-01-12T17:27:06Z")
Thought I would mention something that it took me a little while to figure out about using reddit: When you see an interesting thread title with a thumbnail picture, if you hover around just below the lower-right corner of the picture, an icon of the forward-pointing triangle will appear. If you click on this, it will open the picture (or video) in **the same window you’re in** so you stay on the page. If instead you click on the thread title, it will open the thread in a new separate window. I recently discovered that this even works with jokes. One of my favorite things about reddit is the “Ask Science” subreddit. I see many, many very good questions, much like the good questions we get here. Another thing I really love is the occasional thread where people ask for others’ best stories about (whatever.) Eerie happenings. Teachers’ stories. How you met your spouse. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/51 "2018-01-26T23:15:55Z")
Something must be going on at Reddit. After allowing Shareblue to spam the Politics subreddit for months, the mods suddenly announced they have banned ShareBlue from the politics subreddit. It’s not really clear why, because it was openly understood that they were doing this for months. Those who are interested can dig into the copious drama this has caused starting here: > **[r/SubredditDrama - /r/Politics has banned all ShareBlue links, drama spills...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/7szl6d/rpolitics_has_banned_all_shareblue_links_drama/)** > > 2,069 votes and 1,071 comments so far on Reddit ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/52 "2018-01-26T23:31:31Z")
I hang out on Reddit sometimes. Like most happy Redditors, I have particular subreddits that I frequent. I ignore pretty much everything else. Among my favorite subreddits are: [ol] [li]Today I Learned (interesting stuff to learn that you might not come across otherwise): [https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/[/li][li]Wikipedia](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/%5B/li%5D%5Bli%5DWikipedia) (more interesting stuff to learn that you might not come across otherwise. In this particular subreddit, all entries have links to their associated Wikipedia articles): [https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/[/li][li]Science](https://www.reddit.com/r/wikipedia/%5B/li%5D%5Bli%5DScience) (interesting recent findings in scientific journals): [https://www.reddit.com/r/science/[/li][li]Answers](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/%5B/li%5D%5Bli%5DAnswers) (off-the-wall questions and interesting answers. It’s a lot like The Straight Dope, except it’s crowdsourced): [https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/[/li][/ol]](https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/%5B/li%5D%5B/ol%5D) I’m also a fan of subreddits for some of the TV shows I watch. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/53 "2018-01-26T23:35:41Z")
I like the subreddits where people post pictures and videos of cute puppies and kittens. Especially the one called “tucked in kitties,” which shows, you guessed it, cats tucked into various beds. I’m a simple woman. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853/54 "2018-01-27T12:41:17Z")
I hang out at a lot of the culinary-related subreddits as well as a few dog-related ones. What I’m finding out, especially with the former, is how culturally diverse the participants are. Somebody asks a question, and the answers tend to be quite dependent as to where one lives. I love learning cultural tidbits and such. I’ve never had that much exposure anywhere else online. I’m also amazed at the depth and breadth of some of the posters there. It reminds me of General Questions or the old Dope books back in the Usenet era. For me, it’s not so much a place to hang out to be social as it is an information-about-nearly-everything flea market. It’s easy to pick and choose what interests you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-here-hang-out-at-reddit/805853.md?page=2)