Content warning: This article contains numerous examples of bigoted rhetoric. Users on Reddit’s “r/conspiracy” forum have repeatedly and openly posted anti-LGBTQ content for years without pushback, despite the platform’s rules prohibiting “hate based on identity or vulnerability” and anti-LGBTQ “groomer” rhetoric. Reddit has a history of taking action against other subreddits that have violated those rules. A Media Matters review of r/conspiracy since May 2020 found a widespread pattern of anti-LGBTQ hate, which includes accusing the LGBTQ community of grooming, having “mental illness,” and associating with pedophilia.
  • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneOPEnglish
    14·
    9 months ago

    Oh yeah, reddit actively tolerated The_Donald, doing everything they could to keep the sub as active as possible while “limiting” its reach to /r/all and everything else. And on top of maintaining the site traffic, Spez himself is an alt-right racist prepper who thinks he’ll be a slave owner when society collapses, and likely supported half of the shit T_D got up to… Whole site is a fucking mess all the way down to the roots.

      • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneOPEnglish
        12·
        9 months ago

        Yup.

        Huffman has calculated that, in the event of a disaster, he would seek out some form of community: “Being around other people is a good thing. I also have this somewhat egotistical view that I’m a pretty good leader. I will probably be in charge, or at least not a slave, when push comes to shove.”

        • Tammo-Korsai@kbin.social
          10·
          9 months ago

          Sounds like a terrible case of Main Character Syndrome. People don’t survive an apocalypse just because they think they’re important.

          • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneOPEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            Spez would be the first one to die as soon as the supply chain for chicken nuggets collapsed

            “Natural leader” my ass

        • harmonea@kbin.social
          101·
          9 months ago

          I gotta say, I thought your first comment was some kind of madly wild, baseless, bitter accusation stemming from heavy disillusionment with reddit and assumption that spez must surely represent the worst of us.

          The fact that you actually have a source for that madness and interpreted that source accurately is the most mindblowing thing I’ve seen in a while. That really is quite an article.

          • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneOPEnglish
            2·
            9 months ago

            You and me both chief. When I first heard it I also did a hard double take.
            The affluenza class really do live in a completely different world than us. To the point where their reality sounds like absolute absurdity to us “normal people”.

            I want to get off Mr. Bones Wild Ride.

          • empireOfLove@lemmy.oneOPEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            More of an egotistical airhead. At least dorks can sometimes be cute if they’re nice- Spez is just stupid from being fed from too many silver spoons.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlM
      4·
      9 months ago

      TD is an interesting case. If we focus solely on Reddit Inc.'s best interests (i.e. disregard moral matters), you got two factions: the “leave TD ⟨A⟩lone” and “⟨B⟩an TD”. ⟨B⟩ was protesting through lockdowns, and the admins had multiple choices on what to do:

      1. Leave TD alone, force ⟨B⟩ to end the protests.
      2. Leave TD alone, let ⟨B⟩ protest.
      3. Ban TD, let ⟨A⟩ to reorganise in smaller and less visible subs.
      4. Ban TD, suspend ⟨A⟩, tell them to never come back.

      In all those cases, Reddit would be pissing off one of the factions, but the other would trust the platform a tiny bit more. 1 and 4 would start a big mass exodus of ⟨B⟩ and ⟨A⟩ respectively; 2 would get a smaller ⟨B⟩ exodus, at the expense of advertisement; 3 would get a smaller ⟨A⟩ exodus at the expense of the overall reputation of the site.

      Instead the admins decided to quarantine TD and call it a day. It lowered the trust of both factions on the platform, ⟨A⟩ was still organising mass exodus (Communities dot Win, Ruqqus, etc.), and ⟨B⟩ stopped protesting but it was still pissed because the offending sub was still there. Long-term it was the worst thing for Reddit Inc. that the admins could do, and yet they did it.