Local subreddits r/nova, r/Virginia, r/VirginiaPolitics against conservatives and free speech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reddit is very left-leaning in general. I remember seeing one of those political compass memes that was like “My state’s politics in reality” with a dot in the center of the compass, and “my state’s subreddit” which was way to the left. It’s a known phenomenon - my personal opinion as a long time Reddit user is that since the site relies so much on unpaid volunteer moderators, these people are largely younger and under-employed and thus more likely to be very far left and dogmatic on the political spectrum.

I think the best thing you can do is ignore/downvote all the extreme content - just don’t let it get traction at all.

Reddit is left-leaning because the demographics are younger, and younger people vote D. Facebook is clearly right-leaning at this point because many younger people have abandoned it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am active on Reddit and a moderate conservative.
I would like to participate in civil discussion in our local subreddits, but it's seems to me that those reddits are VERY unwelcome to any opinion that can be considered "conservative".
Of course I have never made any post that can be considered as "hateful" etc.
In best case you just get attacked, painted as a "Trumpist" and downvoted to oblivion.
In the worst case you are banned by mods (I got banned from r/nova because the mods thought I am a "troll")

Since Reddit is a major platform for (political) discussion, how does this relate to free speech rights?

The beauty of Reddit is that you an start your on subreddit. Why not try that instead of complaining?

Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://m.xkcd.com/1357/

Continues to be relevant.

Amen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

Well, it is MAGAs vs. sane people so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick a side.

If you voted for T in 2020, you’re part of the problem. It’s not enough to say you aren’t a Trumper but you actually need to condemn their behavior and fight to excise the crazies. If you don’t, you’ll never regain your party from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

That's not actually my experience in real life. Social media is not the same and actual human interaction. And again, not wanting to listen to you doesn't mean that people are "picking sides" and marching in lockstep or whatever. They just think that whatever YOU are saying is wrong or offensive or stupid. They might be right, they might be wrong.

Also, there are some things you have to take a side on. I don't happen to think there is any reasonable discussion to be had about J6, for example, and I'm not really interested in talking to people on "the other side" of that issue. And I'm 100 percent okay with that. The tolerance paradox isn't a big gotcha for liberals -- it's okay not to tolerate white supremacists, for example. Indeed, it may be necessary NOT to "tolerate" them in the sense of acting like what they say is just fine, reasonable discourse, or genuinely subject to debate in order to maintain democracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

Well, it is MAGAs vs. sane people so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick a side.

If you voted for T in 2020, you’re part of the problem. It’s not enough to say you aren’t a Trumper but you actually need to condemn their behavior and fight to excise the crazies. If you don’t, you’ll never regain your party from them.

Your reasoning is exactly why this country is so polarized. If you want to belong to the "sane" people, you will have to be part the leftist mob. No middle ground exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:r/nova is mostly people crapping on Maryland drivers. What did you post that got you banned?

I can't find the exact post, but it was about reopening schools back during the pandemic. My argument was just that Virginia should leave schools open and give parents the choice for either in-person or virtual learning, and ban indoor dining instead. Apparently my opinion was troll-ish and got me banned (after having collected a ton of downvotes ofc).

Anonymous wrote:
Even leaving aside the private platform thing the only thing here that could possibly have implications for free speech is banning you. Otherwise, you're just complaining about other people's speech; you're free to voice your opinions, they're free to call you a Trumper. That's free speech in action.

Well the thing is that if you continuously post stuff that people don't "like" in a sub, you collect a huge downvote total and mods ban you because of negative sub contribution.
For example, in r/Virginia and r/VirginiaPolitics you will see that all posts blame Youngkin (not a single one in support of him). If you start posting there in support of him you will get banned sooner or later 100%
Also see above

This is kind of funny if that's what got you banned because I am very left wing and at the time would have considered open schools, ban indoor dining a radical left wing opinion! It prioritizes kids and the operation of a key government service over private businesses and adult preferences to spend their money.

That said, no, free speech does not guarantee you a platform AND continuous unrestricted access to the largest audience regardless of whether they want to listen to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:r/nova is mostly people crapping on Maryland drivers. What did you post that got you banned?

I can't find the exact post, but it was about reopening schools back during the pandemic. My argument was just that Virginia should leave schools open and give parents the choice for either in-person or virtual learning, and ban indoor dining instead. Apparently my opinion was troll-ish and got me banned (after having collected a ton of downvotes ofc).

Anonymous wrote:
Even leaving aside the private platform thing the only thing here that could possibly have implications for free speech is banning you. Otherwise, you're just complaining about other people's speech; you're free to voice your opinions, they're free to call you a Trumper. That's free speech in action.

Well the thing is that if you continuously post stuff that people don't "like" in a sub, you collect a huge downvote total and mods ban you because of negative sub contribution.
For example, in r/Virginia and r/VirginiaPolitics you will see that all posts blame Youngkin (not a single one in support of him). If you start posting there in support of him you will get banned sooner or later 100%
Also see above

This is kind of funny if that's what got you banned because I am very left wing and at the time would have considered open schools, ban indoor dining a radical left wing opinion! It prioritizes kids and the operation of a key government service over private businesses and adult preferences to spend their money.

That said, no, free speech does not guarantee you a platform AND continuous unrestricted access to the largest audience regardless of whether they want to listen to you.

OP here. The fact that you are left wing does not mean that you agree with the left's agenda across its spectrum.
Same applies to right wingers ofc. I am conservative, but I do not agree with many topics in the agenda of the Republican party (e.g. guns or environmental policy)

At that time, supporting open schools was considered very right-wing opinion. When suggesting banning indoor dining (effectively shutting down most restaurants), everyone thought about the servers who would be left without a job. Teacher's jobs were secured anyway, so all it was about is to blame the kids about being "spreaders of disease" (even though imo, indoor dining without masks was a much more dangerous thing to do).

[Anonymous]

Reddit has a younger demographic, I'm 50 and on the "old" end of the spectrum there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

Well, it is MAGAs vs. sane people so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick a side.

If you voted for T in 2020, you’re part of the problem. It’s not enough to say you aren’t a Trumper but you actually need to condemn their behavior and fight to excise the crazies. If you don’t, you’ll never regain your party from them.

Your reasoning is exactly why this country is so polarized. If you want to belong to the "sane" people, you will have to be part the leftist mob. No middle ground exists.

No, you don’t have to be part of the “leftist mob” (hysterical much?). You just have to denounce Trump, MAGAs, 1/6, and all of the other insanity. A few of my hardcore R friends do this and are not “leftist” at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

Well, it is MAGAs vs. sane people so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick a side.

If you voted for T in 2020, you’re part of the problem. It’s not enough to say you aren’t a Trumper but you actually need to condemn their behavior and fight to excise the crazies. If you don’t, you’ll never regain your party from them.

Your reasoning is exactly why this country is so polarized. If you want to belong to the "sane" people, you will have to be part the leftist mob. No middle ground exists.

Ha, yes my teen kids and I are over here, part of the leftist "mob". Get me a pitchfork! Give me a universal basic income! Abolish property rights! Mandatory gay marriages for EVERYONE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Reddit is overwhelmingly left wing in posters and content. I read the politics forum a ton and see how liberal all the commenters are. However, when I do read the conservative subreddit I note how insane a lot of them are. They deny trump is bad for taking home too secret files.

I am a moderate myself, whatever that means, but I can also recognize that Reddit skews liberal progressive, probably just because it’s full of mostly sub 40 years old posters.

I think Reddit is just an indication how much polarized our country has become. There is no place for reasonable discussion. You are either with "us" or "them", and by picking sides you must embrace everything that side you chose believes, and to the extreme.

Well, it is MAGAs vs. sane people so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick a side.

If you voted for T in 2020, you’re part of the problem. It’s not enough to say you aren’t a Trumper but you actually need to condemn their behavior and fight to excise the crazies. If you don’t, you’ll never regain your party from them.

Your reasoning is exactly why this country is so polarized. If you want to belong to the "sane" people, you will have to be part the leftist mob. No middle ground exists.

My god, your lack of self awareness and critical thinking are astounding. No, actually your reasoning is why this country is so polarized, because in your worldview, anybody who thinks that you should hold Republican politicians accountable for their actions is a part of the "leftist mob."

Jeez.

[Anonymous]

God I love boomers whining about being downvoted on Reddit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always got the impression that Reddit was a bunch of young 20 something’s in the local forums. Are you really up in arms that a bunch of 24 year olds don’t like your opinions?

This is exactly correct.