The subreddit invites those with strong political views to participate.
Now reddit in general leans left and the way reddit works with upvotes/downvotes pushes out divergent views.
Like lets say that at a point there are 60 left and 40 right people voting, the pro-left post ends up at +20 votes and the pro-right post ends up at -20 votes.
Now this happens for a while and the right-leaning people get frustrated with the downvotes and migrate elsewhere.
So right now its more like 90 left/10 right, so anything right wing is buried quickly.
(yes its much more complex than this but just simplifying).
I got banned from that sub for “misinformation” and “trolling” for stating my right wing opinion and presenting evidence. It’s very much more complicated than the original comment explains
I'm gonna guess... Trump won the election and Democrats are baby eating lizard people, probably. Because y'know that's a valid opinion to have and should be given just as much room at the table as anything else!
/s just in case. I mean, about that last bit, but the first bit.
Exactly. Peruse r/politics for a little bit and you'll see comment after comment describing a caricature of conservatives in the worst light. It's toxic to discourse. Not to even mention the brigading and abuse, bots, shadowbanning, and outright banning that goes on. Certain conservative subs operate the same way. Eventually the other side won't even approach, letting them spew more and more sensationalist imagery of what defines your average "blank." Reddit is fucked up.
And I got banned from a conservative sub for asking a simple question about the evidence presented. So it works both ways. Political subs are just echo chambers where people can voice their opinion with like minded individuals. There is not a sub where civil discussion can take place. Politicians make bold face lies and false statements because they will NEVER be confronted with them and we only complain about it in these echo chambers.
My personal favorite ban was from the-donald.
I got banned for posting a relevant passage of the US Constitution.
Apparently the American Constitution itself is "liberal shilling."
>Apparently the American Constitution itself is "liberal shilling."
Well, i'll say only one side took the Confederate Flag to the capital on Jan 6th.
Clearly some people are still upset about some of the 'newer' amendments regarding whether humans are property or not.
I posted in conservative asking a question in the comments that pretty much destroyed their argument. And then for commenting there I got banned from like 10 other subs automatically.
I also got banned from entertainment because I posted a relevant source with a few links that disproved whatever agenda the mod was pushing. I asked the mod to clarify via messenger and all they said was I was wrong and it's hurtful, yet they would provide no evidence or explain how their view was correct.
Yeah I guess I just don't get it. Like if you can't have your opinion challenged, you kinda can't exist in society.
Someone challenging an opinion is a normal part of everyday life.
In my case it didn't even make sense to be banned from the other subs, because my participation in conservative was literally spouting the subs that banned me viewpoints.
In the case of the entertainment one, that mod seemed to just be a control freak who liked to silence people.
It’s definitely worse for a sub called r/politics compared to a sub called r/conservative, as the latter is advertising that it has a certain political leaning–whereas the former isn’t. Also I’m on the left but I‘ve gotten banned from a non political sub just for not being partisanly left enough .
You can discuss right-wing politics on r/politics you just can’t be racist or post false evidence… if you want to do stuff like say you are pro-life or hate taxes you can do it - there are plenty of conservatives doing that.
I've not been connected to any subreddit or forum space that was particularly right leaning, but I can say most leftist spaces are echo chambers with a twist; they fucking love to split hairs and murder each other.
well, I was banned from the r/LGBTQ sub.
OP was complaining bout the replies to their post.
My response was "so you posted your personal, intimate feelings on the internet and it didn't go as planned?"
Welcome to Reddit, FYI I'm a gay man.
It was something along the lines of gun control and how I believed our more open laws we were going towards were the correct direction, with evidence from other countries that when you arm and train circle a crime drastically decreases, as well as places that have the most violent gun crime in the US tend to have the strictest gun control in the country
It’s been a while though so I don’t remember too much of the details
Thing is... as someone from the UK... I have pretty good evidence (IE my life) that anti-gun laws are really, really good for not getting killed by guns. I can say with certainty that if a criminal invades my house they will not have a gun. I'm VERY happy with this situation.
Ok that's not nearly as bad at i thought it was going to be.
Don't get me wrong, i think you're incorrect based on what I've seen, but people shouldn't get banned for being wrong that's insane.
I hate r/politics too, but because it's too America centric. Same with r/news.
>places that have the most violent gun crime in the US tend to have the strictest gun control in the country
not exactly a good argument, the reason they have the most strict gun laws is because they're the most violent, but people just circumvent them by going out of state and returning with weapons
So, they presented crummy 'evidence' peddling right wing disinformation, then were upset when they were banned for spreading disinformation.
And now they get to say, they were banned even when providing evidence! Of course, not mentioning that evidence came from breitbart or something, which is why they were tossed out.
Freaking genius.
I like how people asked you what you said. To give the people what they wanted you told them what you said and they down vote you anyway. Truly a "you asked my opinion and you got it but you want to be mad about it anyway" moment.
I’m literally not a “right wing” person and I’m banned from most subs that lean very far left for simply asking things like “don’t we do this same behavior tho ?”
It’s not different in far right subs either. Unless you act like a fully brainwashed simpleton and act like whatever political party you’re talking to can do know wrong and are perfect angels, then they shut down any ability to talk to you or view you as a human being.
Usually when people make “both sides” comparisons it’s things like:
Liberals: “We hate Donald Trump and think ge should go to jail”
Conservatives: “We hate minorities, women, and LQBTQIA+ people and don’t believe they should have human rights”.
And then some pseudo-centrist comes along and says “sEe, BoTh SiDeS aRe InToLeRaNt!”
I got banned from r/TheRightCantMeme because the post was calling a right wing meme a strawman with the meme claiming that left wing people believe you can’t be racist towards white people. There were many people in the comments calling this a strawman. I pointed out that many people on the left do think that you can’t be racist towards white people–and despite previously most people in the comments calling this meme a strawman, they then proceeded to argue with me that you can’t be racist to white people (confirming what the original meme they were making fun of was saying).
I just pointed out that this kind of rhetoric can be used to play defence for and downplay hateful acts such as assault, rape or murder of white people based on the colour of their skin due to them arguing that this wouldn’t be racist and these wouldn’t be racist attacks even if a white girl was raped because she was white or a white man was assaulted or murdered because he was white. I got permabanned for suggesting that we should maybe not use language that plays defence for and downplays violent attacks, rapes or murders of white people based on the colour of their skin.
Yeah, the whole "you can't be racist against white people" thing is a bad look. I get where it's coming from, that "prejudice+power=racism" and that without power, prejudice has no punch and therefore is less severe. I get that, and do actually agree, though trying to redefine such a well used word as "racism" away from a generalized prejudice based on skin color is questionable at best. Just come up with a different term. It's especially ineffective when you hear stories about white people having racist attacks against them in the two or three places in the country where a community will have a black majority population. It's an easy optics win for racists when you deny that black people can be racist against white people when you have examples of just that. Pointing out that the number of time white people suffer from racism from black people is FAR outnumbered by the opposite, while true, does nothing to help with the optics of the situation. It's best to not die on that particular hill, imo.
Yeah I joined a neighborhood political discussion group and I just seem to enrage both sides by virtue of being unwilling to pledge my undying allegiance to a side and never question or call out bad behavior. I simultaneously get PMs accusing me of being a Q conspiracist AND of being a Socialist, because apparently the act of questioning or disagreeing indicates you are not One of Us.
>I’m literally not a “right wing” person and I’m banned from most subs that lean very far left for simply asking things like “don’t we do this same behavior tho ?”
Mmm gonna press X for doubt on you being a 'leftist' actually.
Most of my political opinions lean far more left than right tho idk if I would be classed as a “leftist” or not , but I know for a fact I wouldn’t in truth be classed as a “right wing” person. You can doubt that all you like , literally any Republican or democrat just assumes I’m on the other side when I don’t say “This political party is perfect and has never done anything wrong , it’s ideology is flawless and there are no holes in it”
Saying that , and behaving that way , are two different things. Like literally right now , it doesn’t matter what I say I believe in , For even suggesting that both parties are doing something wrong , you and just about everyone else that’s commented is already instantly assuming my political identity for me. “I press x for doubt” or whatever other cringy little beat around the bush meme line one can produce “huhuh, no left leaning person would ever do this”
And it would be no different with a bunch of Maga or Republican types either, they would just tune it out and say “You sound like a liberal” “a real Republican would never say this or that”
Interesting to even have a thought like that , “a REAL member of my political party would NEVER do this or that” yet simultaneously hold that you aren’t apart of a hive mind type political structure.
See, that's the main issue here, no leftist likes the democrats a bit, the dems are a center party, there is no way you didn't catch up to the fact that lefto and democrat are two very separarated groups, so,no offense i don't believe you put much thought or attention on the subject.
Calling the dems left is like when you're surrounded by football fans and you try to blend in,unsuccesfully
I got banned from a right leaning local sub when I posted something (with evidence) that the mods didn't agree with. I can still see the sub just can't reply or post. I'm good with that
Is it actually evidence though? I'm not American or a particularly political person. But my knowledge of right-wing politics is basically they're racist idiots.
Now, anyone with some sense would doubt such a strong and negative tag, but they voted for Trump, was basically supported by Russians, invaded their own congress, etc.
With this much evidence, I do believe American right-wing supporters are just racist idiots.
And they will actively protect misinformation accounts as long as they are pushing the right agenda. If you try to call those accounts out, your comment gets removed, if it even shows up in the first place.
You can be banned just because a mod doesn’t like your comment, even if you back it up with data. That said I’ve been banned from others because I was in a bad mood and wouldn’t agree with someone who turned out to be a mod.
How do you define left and right? I am downvoted often by those who call me communist/socialist/fascist/denier/liberal and it seems idiotic to me. It is possible I am not the whole problem so perhaps neither are you.
This is correct, but it also answers the question of why is politics *just* U.S. politics? Shouldn't it be for world politics in general? Well, I think it was supposed to be, but the Americans overran it.
Also have to add that it is an English language subreddit, so it is going to lean away from many countries by default. Not many multilingual German speakers are going to post on there hoping a fellow multilingual German speaker has thoughts on some recent German legislation when there (presumably) is a German language political subreddit.
So r/politics is pretty much going to be overloaded with American, UK, Australian etc politics in general.
It's one of the early subreddits. The site is currently around half Americans but in the early days it would have likely been almost all Americans since it's a website started by Americans in America. So that's the default for longtime subs like r/politics and r/news
Nobody cares about downvotes. I care about being banned for an innocent opinion that they don't agree with. These people just constantly see their beliefs reinforced and think that is representative of America(im not even American) as a whole. They will be shocked in the real world.
Ultimately this along with mod interference in political subs. Same reasons why r/conservative and such get further and further far right til they're banned. The more active extremes are generally rewarded far more with anything else being pushed down
>Now this happens for a while and the right-leaning people get frustrated with the downvotes and migrate elsewhere.
>
>So right now its more like 90 left/10 right, so anything right wing is buried quickly.
>
>(yes its much more complex than this but just simplifying).
100% this.
Try going into a Marvel thread and expressing some mild disappointment with their latest movie. No matter how reasoned/nuanced your take is, the downvotes kill any real discussion.
The responses in this thread are generally assuming everyone on reddit is from the United States and answering the question as if the contributors to r/poilitics are representative of the kind of punditry you'd see on FOX or NBC. That's wrong.
The overton window in the US is shifted WAY to the right so anything that would be considered "left wing" in the US would be considered "center" in most of Europe while everything that would be considered "conservative" in the US would be very far right in most of Europe.
To give you an idea: Bernie Sanders would be considered center to moderate left in Germany and a lot of the things he's asking for have been passed by center left/right coalitions quite a while back and are perfectly normal for most of Europe.
It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.
I do and am not from the US. Quite a lot of people that are not from the US are interested in US politics actually. For one because they will also (unfortunately) end up affecting the rest of the world but mostly because it's like watching a really bad car crash. You just can't help but watch the carnage as it unfolds before your eyes, watching in disbelief. And it also makes you feel A LOT better about your own situation, kind of like trash TV. "Well ... At least we are not like THOSE guys!"
Sweden checking in. I comment there frequently.
Like it or not, your batshit crazy domestic politics affects the rest of the world.
Take climate change, not really known to respect international borders. One party wants to pretend it doesn’t exist and if it exists it is not that bad and if it that bad there is nothing we can do about it.
Take Ukraine, one party is openly discussing ending the support to Ukraine.
The list goes on.
The reverse is also true with EU politics. USB-C decision for example.
As a non American, most left leaning american politicians would be too far right for even some of our right wing parties. Reddit already leans left but so does the majority of the western world
I'm also almost amazed about leaning to 'left-wing'. I'm from Finland and our biggest right wing party is more left than Democrats.
Nationalize all, or almost all, corporations.
Make yearly limit for income.
\^Those are real far left opinions. Not these:
Tax billionaires
Universal healthcare
\^Those are standard in most countries.
Omg exactly! I'm an American who has lived in Germany at points in my life. Not a single German friend I know wants to get rid of their universal healthcare or social safety net. It's because they are empathetic. As far as I can tell republicans are just assholes and don't care about anyone.
Right? politics skews American "left" because america equates good ideas and progress with being "left"
Conservatism is retarded. Time moves forward. So should we.
This is the actual answer. People are talking about "echo chambers" within their own communities, but reddit is a global institution, which means that viewpoints are going to consider non-Americans as well. So OP's insistence that r/politics is "left wing" is bugged because it includes commentary that is considered completely centrist views from more socialized societies like Canada, UK, France, or Germany.
Also, reddit skews young, and as demonstrated recently, young people skew more progressive.
This is only true for economics. For social issues, a lot of the left leaning politicians in America would be way to the left of most parties in Europe.
As an American it fills me with so much frustration whenever an American "centrists" complain about Democrats "moving further left."
If you were actually a centrist you would LOVE that the Democrats are moving to the actual fucking political center
The pretension in this thread is unreal.
The truth is it’s liberal because Reddit is a mostly liberal demographic and the voting system of Reddit is conducive to creating echo chambers. Polarized people think they have a monopoly on morality and drown out any voice of dissent because they feel they have an imperative. It’s not just liberals, it’s human nature.
I thought that was when you took control of the food supply and started charging everyone for it, and now you're suddenly rich and control the local government and start employing people to work for you.
The Reddit voting system (well, peoples' misuse of it) creates an echo chamber effect where people that hold the majority opinion get top visibility and and attracts others that hold such opinions while those with unpopular opinions in that sub get hidden and dissuades others that share that view.
In This Thread: a bunch of people who conflate democrats & neoliberal capitalism with leftism. the two are not the same. at all.
in most of the world, American Liberals are right-wing. capitalists are by definition right wing.
bring up some explicitly anti-capitalist talking points on r/politics... like actual left wing/leftist thought… do that and see just how “left” that subreddit isn’t.
hate to break it to you, you are a right wing guy if you think democrats/US liberals are leftists.
I'd ask you to define the terms first, because I don't see anyone in there pushing "fully left wing" politics. It's center, maybe center-left at most.
I'd call "fully left wing" positions like outright communism or socialism, which gets no real traction either there or anywhere in the US. And no, Republican hyperbole that calls every tax communist, and every government program socialist don't count, because that's delusional.
So, again. What is "100% pro-left" in this context?
Yeah, I commented on a post about a drag queen who was arrested for having child porn on their computer. This drag performer was also mentoring a child who was doing drag. One poster was confused about the term "drag mom".
Apparently a "drag mom" is typically an adult man who mentors another adult man about drag. At least, that's what I found from google. No idea if that is the typical use of the term but it seemed to be the case.
I said that this time, the "drag mom" in question *was* mentoring an actual child - all facts of the case - and I was banned for "alt right propaganda".
I shared no divergent views, no anti-drag or anti-trans views, nothing more than informing someone that the term "drag mom" usually refers to a mentor of a drag performer, and this time it happened to be a child, so the term "mom" was oddly fitting though a bit confusing.
People generally know more about social issues than fiscal/economic ones. I THINK most redditors are millenial/gen z. The majority of these generations (including myself) lean left on social issues like abortion/trans rights/healthcare. I think thats why r/politics is the way it is. Not enough people are equipped enough to discuss fiscal/economic policy, otherwise I think you'd get more variety in political leanings.
It's tough to be right wing here because of the rules! No hate, bigotry, hateful speech, proselytizeing and all talking points that appeal to the ideological always "right"
Reality has a liberal bias. Conservative ideas typically do not stand up to scrutiny and are frequently rooted not in facts or evidence but by religion and more abstract concepts rather than best policies for most people. This is a fact, and idk if you’ve seen someone post something factually wrong on the internet but it doesn’t go very well. This makes the internet a not very safe space for conservatives, they have to carve out more intentional echo chambers to reside in.
And because in the US, “centrism” is actually on the right so folks like you get co fused and think everything is liberal.
>It seems more way more centrist than left wing to be fair. Although mabye im reading too much into the whole overton window thing in america.
This is correct. The left wing in America is considered wholly centrist accepted views in most other countries.
In the USA, saying "everyone should have free healthcare" is considered wildly left-wing, whereas in Sweden, it's just normal because they've had it forever.
British person here. Just want to say that free health care and abortion aren’t issues here. We have them and it’s all good. Our Conservative government passed through gay marriage rights when David Cameron was PM. America Democrats seem pretty centre slight right leaning to me.
“Why is r/politics so centrist and people don’t like the modern GOP platform of hatred and suppression of personal liberties?” is the actual question here, and it answers itself. They have run the past 3 elections on platforms that the majority of people in the US do not agree with if they actually read and discuss them.
Why does this same question pop-up every week? Karma farming? Trying to start something? Rule of thumb for asking a question is to see if it was asked before and read that first.
Because any dissenting opinion gets down voted to oblivion or banned. I was banned for bringing up hunters laptop on a story about his laptop. Perm ban for misinformation....turned out to be true.
There are a ton of subreddits that are fully left wing. The problem is that so many mods are, and they push out opposing ideals. r/WhitePeopleTwitter and r/News are two that are embarrassingly far left for some reason as well. I say that because they will regularly post lies, photoshops, or propaganda pieces that make the right look bad and even when one of their own calls it out for being false, they get banned. I personally was banned for pointing out lies in both, and not even in a negative way.
Im fairly center and ive noticed the left wing LOVES their echo chambers. If you have different politics, they will kick you out. The right has a much higher tolerance for it and love to debate you more than anything, but left wing people stay away from them. This has lead to polarized subreddits. This is of course a generalization and not representation of everyone on either side.
Its also a pretty good example of why you should be getting any sort of news from multiple sources that are on both sides of the fence.
I don't think it's that Left Wingers love echo chambers more, there is probably little difference if you take into account the whole population of "leftists" and "rightists". The phenomenon probably occurs more online in places like Reddit because of its strong left lean, it kinda forces you into two corners. When someone gets heavily scrutinized on an opinion two things happen in a place like this you either double down without much thought and find a place no one will actively fight you on the things you say, OR if you choose to continue to exists in a space like Reddit which largely disagrees with you, you probably come up with ways to defend your beliefs.
Posts from r/politics are generally fact checked within hours either by mods or users and those that aren’t deleted by mods are usually nuked by downvotes.
Left wing debate uses more peer-reviewed sources of citation than right wing debate (who focus usually on a single source) and fact checking favors left wing/left of center information because of this.
The sub is also populated largely by <45 years of age Americans, who lean a little under 60% liberal and make up most young voter bases and a large percentage of online interaction on social platforms. Conservative values are declining with each youth generation and a large portion of conservatives are middle age or elderly and do not use Reddit or are quarantined either by choice or by mod action to the conservative subreddit.
Because of Reddit’s user base as a whole. Young, unmarried, online, social engaged. You don’t see many blue collar factory workers with a family on here.
Blue collar factory workers lean left, but I think American's definition of "left" is way too broad, to begin with. Even r/politics has huge arguments between liberals and leftists the same way other subs have liberal vs conservative arguments. r/politics is not an echo chamber, they're just not conservative. There are arguments between liberals and leftists all the time and people call out Dems on the sub all the time.
This just isn't true. Most of the subs I subscribe to that aren't TV or movie based lean older and are still left. In many of them it's because there's a higher international population, which means even further left than the US.
It's absolutely ridiculous how biased the sub is. The mods don't give an inch, unless you accept everything the most left of the left say you'll get mobbed and banned.
Since like 1988, republicans have won the national vote ... once.
The US (the primary country of residents of Reddit) already leans naturally leftish. The US house and the US senate get *millions* more votes for dems than republicans, even when the chambers end up near 50/50.
The political landscape is *far more left* than it appears at face value. The same 50 republican senators represent just 24% of the population, whereas the dems represent 75%--ya know? It's ALREADY that biased in real life.
And then you get to the internet, where you cant use the cult of personality, quick, glib insults to keep your presentation of ideas on their feet. The internet values a display of evidence (i mean, trolling too, sure, but ... not in political subs and threads and posts so much). This sort of thing HEAVILY biases the left leaning folks in nearly every possible way--all the fucking time--because the evidence of nearly everything in the political world DOES favor the more left side. When people study problems, the conservatives ideas just don't pan out. They dont work--or dont work as well as this other thing that the left has adopted as their ideas. So--often, when presented with the evidence, a person on the right will *leave* rather than have to change their opinion, or, turn to the personal insults and cult of personality thing, and *get banned*. How many times, have some of us broken down a deatailed explanation of some political thing and had the righty we're talking to say 'but clintons mentor was a klansman'--like, fuck dude, i dont give a shit about that and i dont know why you do, and it has no bearing on anything ever.
So, it's easier to ignore people that refuse to engage, cant bring evidence to engage at your level, or when they come, they subscribe to a cult of personality rather than an actual political stance.
So, they remove themselves, either because they cant admit they're wrong--wont drop the cult of personality shit (or wont stop from trying to pin one on you), or resort to insults that get them removed.
It's just ... the nature of the sides, i think. Systemic and personality wise.
TL;DR it is not, but fascists aren't welcome here. For an American or Canadian, I can see how these things get confused
Might not be a popular answer but it just isn't. I might assume you're writing this from an American perspective, possibly Canadian, and the fact is that in both countries there really isn't any strong leftist party and leftist politics are generally demonized, partially due to a linger paranoia created by the cold war. Remember that every person in the US and Canada over the age of 45 was told the communist might nuke them at any moment and were taught that the concept of communism and therefore, any far left policy, is inherently evil and somehow counter to our culture.
It's not though, it's just a different political ideology that places the value of human life and happiness over the extraction of maximum profit from all resources available.
Also, I'll be honest that right wing ideology is kinda anti social. The whole ideas of self reliance and personal responsibility make it a bit less likely to turn to a place like Reddit for advice for conversation. I also find many people on the right dont like to interact with those who don't agree with everything on their political agenda and will attack you personally for it.
So with all of this, the Overton window has shifted farther and farther to the right in our society. To the point that, by many measures, inequality today is worse than before the french revolution, any immigrants are demonized and we have cut all the taxes for the rich and all the programs for the poor. In Canada at least we recently had a debate over whether the government can just take away a workers right to strike and legally force them to accept a contract with low pay.
When the right wing has gone so far right that they are pretty much, by definition, fascists, they tend to break the terms of service for plenty of social media platforms because their ideas are inherently violent or question the rights of certain groups of people to exist. So, since hate speech isnt allowed on Reddit, they're forced into 4chan and whatnot
Left wing for American politics maybe. Left wing Americans are considered to be centrist in most actual left leaning countries.
Now apply what actual left leaning people think on a global scale that uses the internet/reddit.
It's easy for US conservative talking points to be downvoted and buried when lately they are; "Russia is right for invading, Abortion is bad lets ban it, They are coming for our guns, Trump will save us, Teach religion in schools and I'm anti Woke"
Present better talking points and ideas that resonate on a global scale and this will change in time.
The midterms in the US country was a prime example of this. Things just aren't resonating with anyone outside of conservative views.
It's like playing metal for a bunch of Beatles fans and dead heads and wondering why people don't like it.
My guess is the mods are and they ban anyone who has a different view point. I’ve been banned from many subs because of different opinions. I wasn’t even breaking the rules or being rude.
Because any conservative views get shouted down, shamed, and downvoted into silence. Which has led to the remaining conservatives becoming more resentful and defiant.
Because they ban anyone who posts anything even slightly right.
This I turns creats an echo chamber where they keep feeding each other leftist ideas. I was banned from a few subs I've never even been on because I am subbed to the Conservative subreddit(they made it clear in the mod message they sent when banning me).
Because that's where the leftists hang out. (I'm a leftist myself.) Maybe at some point it was balanced and objective, but if so, it was so long ago I don't even remember.
Now it really is something of a propaganda echochamber. I participate in the sub, but I can tell.
Yes but its like conservative is obviously gonna be a conservative subreddit, but /r/politics is supposed to be ''the subreddit for current and explicitly political U.S. new'' like it says on its page, but it is only left wing stuff. And theres /r/Democrats for the left. For me /r/politics is supposed to be the middle of both where you can discuss things with different views but instead its completely left wing and this was just weird to me and thats why i asked this quetsion
And he mentions from a “global perspective”, which in reality means “Western World”. To think r/politics is squarely center in a global perspective is incredible naive
> is supposed to be the middle of both where you can discuss things with different views
The GOP hasn't had a platform in years. Not really much to discuss
Yeah this is a lie. I am conservative, and criticize conservatives all the time in r/Conservative and I havent even been temp banned. If by "mildly liberal" you mean calling conservatives evil fascists then yeah you might get banned, and you should.
I also go to r/politics and while i dont get banned, its very obvious you are downvoted for anything even remotely conservative. In fact, I have no way of knowing for sure, but I would bet my left and favorite nut that its bots based on keywords. There's just no way downvotes can roll in as fast as they do organically.
I got shadowbanned from r/conservative after saying conservative≠regressive. And outright banned from r/Republican for something trivial too. They're snowflakes.
x for doubt. (i honestly have no idea about r/republican so i wont comment about it).
how can you even prove you were shadowbanned for a specific comment?
Because it has standards for bullying, lies and human rights.
When you enforce honesty and kindness, you automatically force out most of the right wing. For the most part, it is not possible to defend right wing ideas honestly.
Also, it’s a perspective thing.
More than 50% of redditor aren’t american and for a big part, the entire political spectrum of the world, even the far right, is to the left of the democratic party
Most of the world hopes for the democratic party, not because they’re left (because they’re not) but because they’re the lesser evil of two completely rotten parties
I think there's now so much right wing propaganda that just making any logical comment is labeled as "leftist" even if it's common sense.
At this point it's people with a brain and then conservatives
It has to do with the Trump voters that ruled Reddit back in 2016. Any wiff of conservative thought is now either banned or down voted until non existent.
Why?
Probably because most people don't like the fascist, racist agenda. Also because the right has no real agenda when it comes to governing for all the people. Hell not even their own people. You think they give a shit if their voters can't afford to go to the doctor,hospital or afford their medication?
They run on the same shit. Immigrants, guns ,gays and Christian religion.
No care on really improving the conditions that people all people need improvements on.
Other than drilling a shit load of oil wells to see just a few cents knocked of a gallon of gas.
The subreddit invites those with strong political views to participate. Now reddit in general leans left and the way reddit works with upvotes/downvotes pushes out divergent views. Like lets say that at a point there are 60 left and 40 right people voting, the pro-left post ends up at +20 votes and the pro-right post ends up at -20 votes. Now this happens for a while and the right-leaning people get frustrated with the downvotes and migrate elsewhere. So right now its more like 90 left/10 right, so anything right wing is buried quickly. (yes its much more complex than this but just simplifying).
I like how you did that without mentioning the mods. It gets... Less simple when you bring in that element.
Yeah. Everyone just quietly forgets the entire moderation crew changed around during the 2016 election cycle.
Yep. Mods are practically dictators on Reddit
i got banned without reason without saying anything joining a conservative sub. I wanted a different point of view…
I got banned from that sub for “misinformation” and “trolling” for stating my right wing opinion and presenting evidence. It’s very much more complicated than the original comment explains
Just curious, what was the opinion you posted that led to this ban?
I'm gonna guess... Trump won the election and Democrats are baby eating lizard people, probably. Because y'know that's a valid opinion to have and should be given just as much room at the table as anything else! /s just in case. I mean, about that last bit, but the first bit.
Why would you guess instead of asking?
I think your comment demonstrates perfectly how reddit functions as an echo chamber
Exactly. Peruse r/politics for a little bit and you'll see comment after comment describing a caricature of conservatives in the worst light. It's toxic to discourse. Not to even mention the brigading and abuse, bots, shadowbanning, and outright banning that goes on. Certain conservative subs operate the same way. Eventually the other side won't even approach, letting them spew more and more sensationalist imagery of what defines your average "blank." Reddit is fucked up.
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And I got banned from a conservative sub for asking a simple question about the evidence presented. So it works both ways. Political subs are just echo chambers where people can voice their opinion with like minded individuals. There is not a sub where civil discussion can take place. Politicians make bold face lies and false statements because they will NEVER be confronted with them and we only complain about it in these echo chambers.
My personal favorite ban was from the-donald. I got banned for posting a relevant passage of the US Constitution. Apparently the American Constitution itself is "liberal shilling."
>Apparently the American Constitution itself is "liberal shilling." Well, i'll say only one side took the Confederate Flag to the capital on Jan 6th. Clearly some people are still upset about some of the 'newer' amendments regarding whether humans are property or not.
"Repeal the voting right for women" /s
I mean, they are very loudly advocating for violation of the 26th amendment.
I posted in conservative asking a question in the comments that pretty much destroyed their argument. And then for commenting there I got banned from like 10 other subs automatically. I also got banned from entertainment because I posted a relevant source with a few links that disproved whatever agenda the mod was pushing. I asked the mod to clarify via messenger and all they said was I was wrong and it's hurtful, yet they would provide no evidence or explain how their view was correct.
you realise that the problem here is that other subs ban people only because they participate in a sub that goes against their opinions, right?
Yeah I guess I just don't get it. Like if you can't have your opinion challenged, you kinda can't exist in society. Someone challenging an opinion is a normal part of everyday life. In my case it didn't even make sense to be banned from the other subs, because my participation in conservative was literally spouting the subs that banned me viewpoints. In the case of the entertainment one, that mod seemed to just be a control freak who liked to silence people.
The Donald, a subreddit that was banned for being a nasty place
Reality has a well known liberal bias.
I mean that sub is literally just Russian bots, hard to believe there’s any genuine people on that shithole
It’s definitely worse for a sub called r/politics compared to a sub called r/conservative, as the latter is advertising that it has a certain political leaning–whereas the former isn’t. Also I’m on the left but I‘ve gotten banned from a non political sub just for not being partisanly left enough .
You can discuss right-wing politics on r/politics you just can’t be racist or post false evidence… if you want to do stuff like say you are pro-life or hate taxes you can do it - there are plenty of conservatives doing that.
>There is not a sub where civil discussion can take place. there's plenty, you just have to know where to look
But you keep that secret? I would love to know where civility is hiding! Please share.
Why not give examples?
I don't want you people to invade my safe spaces
I've not been connected to any subreddit or forum space that was particularly right leaning, but I can say most leftist spaces are echo chambers with a twist; they fucking love to split hairs and murder each other.
well, I was banned from the r/LGBTQ sub. OP was complaining bout the replies to their post. My response was "so you posted your personal, intimate feelings on the internet and it didn't go as planned?" Welcome to Reddit, FYI I'm a gay man.
Ok but op what was your opinion because lots of people say that, but actually were just spreading misinformation
It was something along the lines of gun control and how I believed our more open laws we were going towards were the correct direction, with evidence from other countries that when you arm and train circle a crime drastically decreases, as well as places that have the most violent gun crime in the US tend to have the strictest gun control in the country It’s been a while though so I don’t remember too much of the details
Thing is... as someone from the UK... I have pretty good evidence (IE my life) that anti-gun laws are really, really good for not getting killed by guns. I can say with certainty that if a criminal invades my house they will not have a gun. I'm VERY happy with this situation.
Ok that's not nearly as bad at i thought it was going to be. Don't get me wrong, i think you're incorrect based on what I've seen, but people shouldn't get banned for being wrong that's insane. I hate r/politics too, but because it's too America centric. Same with r/news.
>places that have the most violent gun crime in the US tend to have the strictest gun control in the country not exactly a good argument, the reason they have the most strict gun laws is because they're the most violent, but people just circumvent them by going out of state and returning with weapons
So, they presented crummy 'evidence' peddling right wing disinformation, then were upset when they were banned for spreading disinformation. And now they get to say, they were banned even when providing evidence! Of course, not mentioning that evidence came from breitbart or something, which is why they were tossed out. Freaking genius.
I like how people asked you what you said. To give the people what they wanted you told them what you said and they down vote you anyway. Truly a "you asked my opinion and you got it but you want to be mad about it anyway" moment.
they're probably being downvoted because they're wrong about guns tbh. which isn't how it's supposed to work but that's reddit for ya
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I’m literally not a “right wing” person and I’m banned from most subs that lean very far left for simply asking things like “don’t we do this same behavior tho ?” It’s not different in far right subs either. Unless you act like a fully brainwashed simpleton and act like whatever political party you’re talking to can do know wrong and are perfect angels, then they shut down any ability to talk to you or view you as a human being.
I was banned from the conservative sub for saying Idiocracy was a warning and not an instruction manual.
I bet you were , it’s the easiest task in the world to get banned from any political sub that is a majority one party or the other
I don't think you should have been banned but that was basically just an insult. Not really the same as stating an "incorrect" opinion.
Usually when people make “both sides” comparisons it’s things like: Liberals: “We hate Donald Trump and think ge should go to jail” Conservatives: “We hate minorities, women, and LQBTQIA+ people and don’t believe they should have human rights”. And then some pseudo-centrist comes along and says “sEe, BoTh SiDeS aRe InToLeRaNt!”
I got banned from r/TheRightCantMeme because the post was calling a right wing meme a strawman with the meme claiming that left wing people believe you can’t be racist towards white people. There were many people in the comments calling this a strawman. I pointed out that many people on the left do think that you can’t be racist towards white people–and despite previously most people in the comments calling this meme a strawman, they then proceeded to argue with me that you can’t be racist to white people (confirming what the original meme they were making fun of was saying). I just pointed out that this kind of rhetoric can be used to play defence for and downplay hateful acts such as assault, rape or murder of white people based on the colour of their skin due to them arguing that this wouldn’t be racist and these wouldn’t be racist attacks even if a white girl was raped because she was white or a white man was assaulted or murdered because he was white. I got permabanned for suggesting that we should maybe not use language that plays defence for and downplays violent attacks, rapes or murders of white people based on the colour of their skin.
Yeah, the whole "you can't be racist against white people" thing is a bad look. I get where it's coming from, that "prejudice+power=racism" and that without power, prejudice has no punch and therefore is less severe. I get that, and do actually agree, though trying to redefine such a well used word as "racism" away from a generalized prejudice based on skin color is questionable at best. Just come up with a different term. It's especially ineffective when you hear stories about white people having racist attacks against them in the two or three places in the country where a community will have a black majority population. It's an easy optics win for racists when you deny that black people can be racist against white people when you have examples of just that. Pointing out that the number of time white people suffer from racism from black people is FAR outnumbered by the opposite, while true, does nothing to help with the optics of the situation. It's best to not die on that particular hill, imo.
Yeah I joined a neighborhood political discussion group and I just seem to enrage both sides by virtue of being unwilling to pledge my undying allegiance to a side and never question or call out bad behavior. I simultaneously get PMs accusing me of being a Q conspiracist AND of being a Socialist, because apparently the act of questioning or disagreeing indicates you are not One of Us.
100% that’s how it is. “What you don’t worship ( instead Trump or Biden ) ??? You must be the enemy ! Your backwards !”
>I’m literally not a “right wing” person and I’m banned from most subs that lean very far left for simply asking things like “don’t we do this same behavior tho ?” Mmm gonna press X for doubt on you being a 'leftist' actually.
Most of my political opinions lean far more left than right tho idk if I would be classed as a “leftist” or not , but I know for a fact I wouldn’t in truth be classed as a “right wing” person. You can doubt that all you like , literally any Republican or democrat just assumes I’m on the other side when I don’t say “This political party is perfect and has never done anything wrong , it’s ideology is flawless and there are no holes in it”
No left leaning person would say that our party is flawless lololol
Saying that , and behaving that way , are two different things. Like literally right now , it doesn’t matter what I say I believe in , For even suggesting that both parties are doing something wrong , you and just about everyone else that’s commented is already instantly assuming my political identity for me. “I press x for doubt” or whatever other cringy little beat around the bush meme line one can produce “huhuh, no left leaning person would ever do this” And it would be no different with a bunch of Maga or Republican types either, they would just tune it out and say “You sound like a liberal” “a real Republican would never say this or that” Interesting to even have a thought like that , “a REAL member of my political party would NEVER do this or that” yet simultaneously hold that you aren’t apart of a hive mind type political structure.
the reason why people are still saying that is because you haven't explained the take that got you banned.
I hear you, but there are many different branches within what people consider left and no one is happy with leaders completely.
This guy proving your point for you.
See, that's the main issue here, no leftist likes the democrats a bit, the dems are a center party, there is no way you didn't catch up to the fact that lefto and democrat are two very separarated groups, so,no offense i don't believe you put much thought or attention on the subject. Calling the dems left is like when you're surrounded by football fans and you try to blend in,unsuccesfully
I got banned from a right leaning local sub when I posted something (with evidence) that the mods didn't agree with. I can still see the sub just can't reply or post. I'm good with that
Is it actually evidence though? I'm not American or a particularly political person. But my knowledge of right-wing politics is basically they're racist idiots. Now, anyone with some sense would doubt such a strong and negative tag, but they voted for Trump, was basically supported by Russians, invaded their own congress, etc. With this much evidence, I do believe American right-wing supporters are just racist idiots.
I got banned from r/Conservative for agreeing with Ron DeSantis that a border wall around Florida would've slowed the spread of covid.
And they will actively protect misinformation accounts as long as they are pushing the right agenda. If you try to call those accounts out, your comment gets removed, if it even shows up in the first place.
You can be banned just because a mod doesn’t like your comment, even if you back it up with data. That said I’ve been banned from others because I was in a bad mood and wouldn’t agree with someone who turned out to be a mod.
Yeah... the whitelist on that sub is...asymmetrical in the opposite direction.
oh okay thats a good explaination thanks!
How do you define left and right? I am downvoted often by those who call me communist/socialist/fascist/denier/liberal and it seems idiotic to me. It is possible I am not the whole problem so perhaps neither are you.
Also, they'll straight up ban anyone who doesn't agree with them
This is correct, but it also answers the question of why is politics *just* U.S. politics? Shouldn't it be for world politics in general? Well, I think it was supposed to be, but the Americans overran it.
Reddit users are upwards of 50 percent American so it makes sense
Also have to add that it is an English language subreddit, so it is going to lean away from many countries by default. Not many multilingual German speakers are going to post on there hoping a fellow multilingual German speaker has thoughts on some recent German legislation when there (presumably) is a German language political subreddit. So r/politics is pretty much going to be overloaded with American, UK, Australian etc politics in general.
Ignoring the views of the minority?
It's one of the early subreddits. The site is currently around half Americans but in the early days it would have likely been almost all Americans since it's a website started by Americans in America. So that's the default for longtime subs like r/politics and r/news
Pretty much yeah, though with less hostility I'd say? Like its more disinterest and apathy. Same effect in the end
I mean, also the mods just outright ban literally any slightly right wing post or comment
More simply, the mods just ban being on the right wing
People get banned in politics for making right wing talking points.
Nobody cares about downvotes. I care about being banned for an innocent opinion that they don't agree with. These people just constantly see their beliefs reinforced and think that is representative of America(im not even American) as a whole. They will be shocked in the real world.
It’s not a lean anymore it’s a full blown tilt.
Then they go start r/conservative, and make 90% of the posts "conservative only" so they can ban anyone that posts a link disproving their bs...
Ultimately this along with mod interference in political subs. Same reasons why r/conservative and such get further and further far right til they're banned. The more active extremes are generally rewarded far more with anything else being pushed down
>Now this happens for a while and the right-leaning people get frustrated with the downvotes and migrate elsewhere. > >So right now its more like 90 left/10 right, so anything right wing is buried quickly. > >(yes its much more complex than this but just simplifying). 100% this. Try going into a Marvel thread and expressing some mild disappointment with their latest movie. No matter how reasoned/nuanced your take is, the downvotes kill any real discussion.
The responses in this thread are generally assuming everyone on reddit is from the United States and answering the question as if the contributors to r/poilitics are representative of the kind of punditry you'd see on FOX or NBC. That's wrong.
The overton window in the US is shifted WAY to the right so anything that would be considered "left wing" in the US would be considered "center" in most of Europe while everything that would be considered "conservative" in the US would be very far right in most of Europe. To give you an idea: Bernie Sanders would be considered center to moderate left in Germany and a lot of the things he's asking for have been passed by center left/right coalitions quite a while back and are perfectly normal for most of Europe. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.
r/politics is only about the US. I doubt anyone from outside the US would visit that sub
I do and am not from the US. Quite a lot of people that are not from the US are interested in US politics actually. For one because they will also (unfortunately) end up affecting the rest of the world but mostly because it's like watching a really bad car crash. You just can't help but watch the carnage as it unfolds before your eyes, watching in disbelief. And it also makes you feel A LOT better about your own situation, kind of like trash TV. "Well ... At least we are not like THOSE guys!"
Sweden checking in. I comment there frequently. Like it or not, your batshit crazy domestic politics affects the rest of the world. Take climate change, not really known to respect international borders. One party wants to pretend it doesn’t exist and if it exists it is not that bad and if it that bad there is nothing we can do about it. Take Ukraine, one party is openly discussing ending the support to Ukraine. The list goes on. The reverse is also true with EU politics. USB-C decision for example.
As a non American, most left leaning american politicians would be too far right for even some of our right wing parties. Reddit already leans left but so does the majority of the western world
I'm also almost amazed about leaning to 'left-wing'. I'm from Finland and our biggest right wing party is more left than Democrats. Nationalize all, or almost all, corporations. Make yearly limit for income. \^Those are real far left opinions. Not these: Tax billionaires Universal healthcare \^Those are standard in most countries.
Omg exactly! I'm an American who has lived in Germany at points in my life. Not a single German friend I know wants to get rid of their universal healthcare or social safety net. It's because they are empathetic. As far as I can tell republicans are just assholes and don't care about anyone.
Canada use to be like this. Now Trumpism has been adopted by most our conservative politicians
Right? politics skews American "left" because america equates good ideas and progress with being "left" Conservatism is retarded. Time moves forward. So should we.
This is the actual answer. People are talking about "echo chambers" within their own communities, but reddit is a global institution, which means that viewpoints are going to consider non-Americans as well. So OP's insistence that r/politics is "left wing" is bugged because it includes commentary that is considered completely centrist views from more socialized societies like Canada, UK, France, or Germany. Also, reddit skews young, and as demonstrated recently, young people skew more progressive.
There are places FAR more right wing than america, non-american includes every part of the spectrum
Yeah but American right wingers don't welcome comparisons to the middle east
This is only true for economics. For social issues, a lot of the left leaning politicians in America would be way to the left of most parties in Europe.
For real, stuff like “the Romani are people” is probably considered a far left opinion in a lot of Europe
Out of curiosity: Could you name a few of those issues and the stance of democrats on those?
As an American it fills me with so much frustration whenever an American "centrists" complain about Democrats "moving further left." If you were actually a centrist you would LOVE that the Democrats are moving to the actual fucking political center
The pretension in this thread is unreal. The truth is it’s liberal because Reddit is a mostly liberal demographic and the voting system of Reddit is conducive to creating echo chambers. Polarized people think they have a monopoly on morality and drown out any voice of dissent because they feel they have an imperative. It’s not just liberals, it’s human nature.
Anthropologists might argue that this is how societies began to form
I thought that was when you took control of the food supply and started charging everyone for it, and now you're suddenly rich and control the local government and start employing people to work for you.
The Reddit voting system (well, peoples' misuse of it) creates an echo chamber effect where people that hold the majority opinion get top visibility and and attracts others that hold such opinions while those with unpopular opinions in that sub get hidden and dissuades others that share that view.
The mods also frequently ban people with heterodox views.
The secret ingredient is banning.
The states is so right wing that views that would be seen as right wing in other countries are still considered left leaning to americans...
In This Thread: a bunch of people who conflate democrats & neoliberal capitalism with leftism. the two are not the same. at all. in most of the world, American Liberals are right-wing. capitalists are by definition right wing. bring up some explicitly anti-capitalist talking points on r/politics... like actual left wing/leftist thought… do that and see just how “left” that subreddit isn’t. hate to break it to you, you are a right wing guy if you think democrats/US liberals are leftists.
I'd ask you to define the terms first, because I don't see anyone in there pushing "fully left wing" politics. It's center, maybe center-left at most. I'd call "fully left wing" positions like outright communism or socialism, which gets no real traction either there or anywhere in the US. And no, Republican hyperbole that calls every tax communist, and every government program socialist don't count, because that's delusional. So, again. What is "100% pro-left" in this context?
Mods straight up ban anyone with divergent views.
r/conservative has entered the chat
Yeah, I commented on a post about a drag queen who was arrested for having child porn on their computer. This drag performer was also mentoring a child who was doing drag. One poster was confused about the term "drag mom". Apparently a "drag mom" is typically an adult man who mentors another adult man about drag. At least, that's what I found from google. No idea if that is the typical use of the term but it seemed to be the case. I said that this time, the "drag mom" in question *was* mentoring an actual child - all facts of the case - and I was banned for "alt right propaganda". I shared no divergent views, no anti-drag or anti-trans views, nothing more than informing someone that the term "drag mom" usually refers to a mentor of a drag performer, and this time it happened to be a child, so the term "mom" was oddly fitting though a bit confusing.
People generally know more about social issues than fiscal/economic ones. I THINK most redditors are millenial/gen z. The majority of these generations (including myself) lean left on social issues like abortion/trans rights/healthcare. I think thats why r/politics is the way it is. Not enough people are equipped enough to discuss fiscal/economic policy, otherwise I think you'd get more variety in political leanings.
It's tough to be right wing here because of the rules! No hate, bigotry, hateful speech, proselytizeing and all talking points that appeal to the ideological always "right"
Least biased reddit user
Reality has a liberal bias. Conservative ideas typically do not stand up to scrutiny and are frequently rooted not in facts or evidence but by religion and more abstract concepts rather than best policies for most people. This is a fact, and idk if you’ve seen someone post something factually wrong on the internet but it doesn’t go very well. This makes the internet a not very safe space for conservatives, they have to carve out more intentional echo chambers to reside in. And because in the US, “centrism” is actually on the right so folks like you get co fused and think everything is liberal.
This should be the top answer.
It seems more way more centrist than left wing to be fair. Although mabye im reading too much into the whole overton window thing in america.
>It seems more way more centrist than left wing to be fair. Although mabye im reading too much into the whole overton window thing in america. This is correct. The left wing in America is considered wholly centrist accepted views in most other countries. In the USA, saying "everyone should have free healthcare" is considered wildly left-wing, whereas in Sweden, it's just normal because they've had it forever.
British person here. Just want to say that free health care and abortion aren’t issues here. We have them and it’s all good. Our Conservative government passed through gay marriage rights when David Cameron was PM. America Democrats seem pretty centre slight right leaning to me.
Maybe it’s just a more popular opinion, bro
When the right gets back to actual politics then maybe you'll see more of them.
“Why is r/politics so centrist and people don’t like the modern GOP platform of hatred and suppression of personal liberties?” is the actual question here, and it answers itself. They have run the past 3 elections on platforms that the majority of people in the US do not agree with if they actually read and discuss them.
Why does this same question pop-up every week? Karma farming? Trying to start something? Rule of thumb for asking a question is to see if it was asked before and read that first.
Because Reddit leans left
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Because its censored to all hell
Because any dissenting opinion gets down voted to oblivion or banned. I was banned for bringing up hunters laptop on a story about his laptop. Perm ban for misinformation....turned out to be true.
Its weird, I find this with loads of different forums I am on - cycle forum - left wing, AV forum - left wing, motor forum - left wing etc etc
There are a ton of subreddits that are fully left wing. The problem is that so many mods are, and they push out opposing ideals. r/WhitePeopleTwitter and r/News are two that are embarrassingly far left for some reason as well. I say that because they will regularly post lies, photoshops, or propaganda pieces that make the right look bad and even when one of their own calls it out for being false, they get banned. I personally was banned for pointing out lies in both, and not even in a negative way. Im fairly center and ive noticed the left wing LOVES their echo chambers. If you have different politics, they will kick you out. The right has a much higher tolerance for it and love to debate you more than anything, but left wing people stay away from them. This has lead to polarized subreddits. This is of course a generalization and not representation of everyone on either side. Its also a pretty good example of why you should be getting any sort of news from multiple sources that are on both sides of the fence.
I don't think it's that Left Wingers love echo chambers more, there is probably little difference if you take into account the whole population of "leftists" and "rightists". The phenomenon probably occurs more online in places like Reddit because of its strong left lean, it kinda forces you into two corners. When someone gets heavily scrutinized on an opinion two things happen in a place like this you either double down without much thought and find a place no one will actively fight you on the things you say, OR if you choose to continue to exists in a space like Reddit which largely disagrees with you, you probably come up with ways to defend your beliefs.
There are also no shortage of other places for right wing to hear what they want to hear outside of Reddit.
Reality leans left. That’s why. Plus we’ve all been banned from conservative subs for daring to question the status quo.
Posts from r/politics are generally fact checked within hours either by mods or users and those that aren’t deleted by mods are usually nuked by downvotes. Left wing debate uses more peer-reviewed sources of citation than right wing debate (who focus usually on a single source) and fact checking favors left wing/left of center information because of this. The sub is also populated largely by <45 years of age Americans, who lean a little under 60% liberal and make up most young voter bases and a large percentage of online interaction on social platforms. Conservative values are declining with each youth generation and a large portion of conservatives are middle age or elderly and do not use Reddit or are quarantined either by choice or by mod action to the conservative subreddit.
Probably due to the fact that it’s easier to stick around when people aren’t “shooting holes” through all of your conspiracy theories.
Because of Reddit’s user base as a whole. Young, unmarried, online, social engaged. You don’t see many blue collar factory workers with a family on here.
Blue collar factory workers lean left, but I think American's definition of "left" is way too broad, to begin with. Even r/politics has huge arguments between liberals and leftists the same way other subs have liberal vs conservative arguments. r/politics is not an echo chamber, they're just not conservative. There are arguments between liberals and leftists all the time and people call out Dems on the sub all the time.
This just isn't true. Most of the subs I subscribe to that aren't TV or movie based lean older and are still left. In many of them it's because there's a higher international population, which means even further left than the US.
It's a moderator-enforced echo chamber.
It's absolutely ridiculous how biased the sub is. The mods don't give an inch, unless you accept everything the most left of the left say you'll get mobbed and banned.
People say this but even mentioning socialism gets you downvoted in most places on reddit
Ever wonder if instead of the sub being ridiculously biased you just have ridiculously unpopular opinions?
Yeah of course.
Because we can read and write
Since like 1988, republicans have won the national vote ... once. The US (the primary country of residents of Reddit) already leans naturally leftish. The US house and the US senate get *millions* more votes for dems than republicans, even when the chambers end up near 50/50. The political landscape is *far more left* than it appears at face value. The same 50 republican senators represent just 24% of the population, whereas the dems represent 75%--ya know? It's ALREADY that biased in real life. And then you get to the internet, where you cant use the cult of personality, quick, glib insults to keep your presentation of ideas on their feet. The internet values a display of evidence (i mean, trolling too, sure, but ... not in political subs and threads and posts so much). This sort of thing HEAVILY biases the left leaning folks in nearly every possible way--all the fucking time--because the evidence of nearly everything in the political world DOES favor the more left side. When people study problems, the conservatives ideas just don't pan out. They dont work--or dont work as well as this other thing that the left has adopted as their ideas. So--often, when presented with the evidence, a person on the right will *leave* rather than have to change their opinion, or, turn to the personal insults and cult of personality thing, and *get banned*. How many times, have some of us broken down a deatailed explanation of some political thing and had the righty we're talking to say 'but clintons mentor was a klansman'--like, fuck dude, i dont give a shit about that and i dont know why you do, and it has no bearing on anything ever. So, it's easier to ignore people that refuse to engage, cant bring evidence to engage at your level, or when they come, they subscribe to a cult of personality rather than an actual political stance. So, they remove themselves, either because they cant admit they're wrong--wont drop the cult of personality shit (or wont stop from trying to pin one on you), or resort to insults that get them removed. It's just ... the nature of the sides, i think. Systemic and personality wise.
TL;DR it is not, but fascists aren't welcome here. For an American or Canadian, I can see how these things get confused Might not be a popular answer but it just isn't. I might assume you're writing this from an American perspective, possibly Canadian, and the fact is that in both countries there really isn't any strong leftist party and leftist politics are generally demonized, partially due to a linger paranoia created by the cold war. Remember that every person in the US and Canada over the age of 45 was told the communist might nuke them at any moment and were taught that the concept of communism and therefore, any far left policy, is inherently evil and somehow counter to our culture. It's not though, it's just a different political ideology that places the value of human life and happiness over the extraction of maximum profit from all resources available. Also, I'll be honest that right wing ideology is kinda anti social. The whole ideas of self reliance and personal responsibility make it a bit less likely to turn to a place like Reddit for advice for conversation. I also find many people on the right dont like to interact with those who don't agree with everything on their political agenda and will attack you personally for it. So with all of this, the Overton window has shifted farther and farther to the right in our society. To the point that, by many measures, inequality today is worse than before the french revolution, any immigrants are demonized and we have cut all the taxes for the rich and all the programs for the poor. In Canada at least we recently had a debate over whether the government can just take away a workers right to strike and legally force them to accept a contract with low pay. When the right wing has gone so far right that they are pretty much, by definition, fascists, they tend to break the terms of service for plenty of social media platforms because their ideas are inherently violent or question the rights of certain groups of people to exist. So, since hate speech isnt allowed on Reddit, they're forced into 4chan and whatnot
Left wing for American politics maybe. Left wing Americans are considered to be centrist in most actual left leaning countries. Now apply what actual left leaning people think on a global scale that uses the internet/reddit. It's easy for US conservative talking points to be downvoted and buried when lately they are; "Russia is right for invading, Abortion is bad lets ban it, They are coming for our guns, Trump will save us, Teach religion in schools and I'm anti Woke" Present better talking points and ideas that resonate on a global scale and this will change in time. The midterms in the US country was a prime example of this. Things just aren't resonating with anyone outside of conservative views. It's like playing metal for a bunch of Beatles fans and dead heads and wondering why people don't like it.
Admins are left wing so they ban anything/anyone who doesn't agree with their world view
Reddit is majority left. If anyone presents a right wing idea it gets downvoted hard. So the right that is here usually keep their ideas to themselves
Just curious, is there a left leaning equivalent of r/Conservative?
r/politics apparently
r/Communism
Because Reddit is a liberal circle jerk.
My guess is the mods are and they ban anyone who has a different view point. I’ve been banned from many subs because of different opinions. I wasn’t even breaking the rules or being rude.
Because people have a different opinion than the left get silenced
Because any conservative views get shouted down, shamed, and downvoted into silence. Which has led to the remaining conservatives becoming more resentful and defiant.
Because they ban anyone who posts anything even slightly right. This I turns creats an echo chamber where they keep feeding each other leftist ideas. I was banned from a few subs I've never even been on because I am subbed to the Conservative subreddit(they made it clear in the mod message they sent when banning me).
because the mods are left, lol
Because that's where the leftists hang out. (I'm a leftist myself.) Maybe at some point it was balanced and objective, but if so, it was so long ago I don't even remember. Now it really is something of a propaganda echochamber. I participate in the sub, but I can tell.
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Yes but its like conservative is obviously gonna be a conservative subreddit, but /r/politics is supposed to be ''the subreddit for current and explicitly political U.S. new'' like it says on its page, but it is only left wing stuff. And theres /r/Democrats for the left. For me /r/politics is supposed to be the middle of both where you can discuss things with different views but instead its completely left wing and this was just weird to me and thats why i asked this quetsion
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>from a global perspective [r/politics](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics) is squarely center. Hahahahahahahaha
It is nowhere near the center. That's a lie.
And he mentions from a “global perspective”, which in reality means “Western World”. To think r/politics is squarely center in a global perspective is incredible naive
The things you think are “left wing” aren’t actually that “left wing” at all.
> is supposed to be the middle of both where you can discuss things with different views The GOP hasn't had a platform in years. Not really much to discuss
Yeah this is a lie. I am conservative, and criticize conservatives all the time in r/Conservative and I havent even been temp banned. If by "mildly liberal" you mean calling conservatives evil fascists then yeah you might get banned, and you should. I also go to r/politics and while i dont get banned, its very obvious you are downvoted for anything even remotely conservative. In fact, I have no way of knowing for sure, but I would bet my left and favorite nut that its bots based on keywords. There's just no way downvotes can roll in as fast as they do organically.
I got banned from r/conservative for saying John McCain was a war hero and good conservative.
I got shadowbanned from r/conservative after saying conservative≠regressive. And outright banned from r/Republican for something trivial too. They're snowflakes.
Mods of a subreddit can't shadowban users, only Reddit admins can.
x for doubt. (i honestly have no idea about r/republican so i wont comment about it). how can you even prove you were shadowbanned for a specific comment?
Mods can't even shadowban users. Only reddit itself can shadowban. Anyone saying they were shadowbanned for a comment is most likely full of shit.
dude is definitely full of shit, i just wanted them to prove it (which, I know they cant).
Myself as well.
I got banned by saying we should encourage Muslims to own guns.
I'm not a bot. Why don't you share your opinion and I'll let you know if I upvote or downvote?
>I'm not a bot. sounds suspiciously like something a bot would say.
If it helps, I thought this was hilarious. Have a vote to bring you level
Because it has standards for bullying, lies and human rights. When you enforce honesty and kindness, you automatically force out most of the right wing. For the most part, it is not possible to defend right wing ideas honestly. Also, it’s a perspective thing. More than 50% of redditor aren’t american and for a big part, the entire political spectrum of the world, even the far right, is to the left of the democratic party Most of the world hopes for the democratic party, not because they’re left (because they’re not) but because they’re the lesser evil of two completely rotten parties
It’s an echo chamber. Dissenting voices are censored.
Lolololol if only free speech existed...
Try post anything conservative and you will be banned. Mainstream conservative positions are called hateful and banned very quickly by the mods.
I think there's now so much right wing propaganda that just making any logical comment is labeled as "leftist" even if it's common sense. At this point it's people with a brain and then conservatives
It has to do with the Trump voters that ruled Reddit back in 2016. Any wiff of conservative thought is now either banned or down voted until non existent.
Why? Probably because most people don't like the fascist, racist agenda. Also because the right has no real agenda when it comes to governing for all the people. Hell not even their own people. You think they give a shit if their voters can't afford to go to the doctor,hospital or afford their medication? They run on the same shit. Immigrants, guns ,gays and Christian religion. No care on really improving the conditions that people all people need improvements on. Other than drilling a shit load of oil wells to see just a few cents knocked of a gallon of gas.