Prior to the protest reddit was in full support of the protest. Most polls on subs supported a shutdown. Now, seemingly every community cant understand why the protest was needed and they’re calling it a mod power trip. There is a 3rd possibility. This is an unfounded conspiracy but reddit themselves could be manipulating scores.
See the NFL thread if you don’t mind sending traffic
https://reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/14b11kh/were_just_here_so_we_dont_get_fined/
Many news outlets paint the protest as “mods dont like change, thats why they are protesting” which is missinformation and someone that is lazy to do some research doesnt see the importance of it
News outlet that said that
I suspect this combined with a lot of more technology inclinee users jumping ship for places like this has left a vacuum to be filled by people who oppose the blackout or otherwise don’t care.