"For political views" is what they want you to think, but it was actually for threatening, harassing, and abusive behaviour, and for the mods of the sub in question not dealing with the problem.
Anyone pushing the "political views" story knows that, of course.
The_donald was removed because it supposedly called for violence against the police. This was not true at all, but is still a regular occurrence on subreddits like news and politics, without mods ever blocking such posts and comments.
You should also take a look at the leakrd conversations by mods and admins scheming to frame them.
No matter your political beliefs, you should be alarmed by this.
It was a common occurrence to see things like pictures of muslim women wearing headwear and a title of “It’s a diaper for their shit brains!”. There is casual racism, hatred towards minorities, and to top it all off, participants seemed to believe that there was nothing wrong with any of this, like you see above.
I was a near daily T_D reader up until the resent mod debacle forced everyone to .win. In it's prime, it was a useful way to see what the 'other' perspective was for whatever was on the front page of reddit.
Unfortunately, reddit seems to have disabled searching in The_Donald, so I can't poke around for what you describe. I'm not saying what you describe didn't ever happen, I'm sure it did, but calling it "common" is a strange exaggeration.
There was __plenty__ to dislike about T_D. No need to invent extra stuff.
>Unfortunately, reddit seems to have disabled searching in The_Donald, so I can't poke around for what you describe.
Do you really use reddit search? Because it is a steaming pile of uselessness. You can still visit or subscribe to /r/the_donald, so I don't know if you're making this up or if you just don't know how to use reddit.
the_donald was quarantined, not removed, because mods failed to remove active calls for violence against individuals, who happened to be police.
- Are there subreddits where people call for violence against police in general? Yes, and mods tend to remove it when reported but it generally exists.
- Are there subreddits where people call for violence against individuals? No, because admins step in pretty fast if mods do not remove it quickly.
People know it because it's the standard lie repeatedly told to people to justify censorship. Lets be honest here, it was the_donald which was harrassed and abused because some authoritarian types wanted it off reddit. If threatening, harassing and abusive behavior is grounds for quarantine then many other subs like politics, news, worldnews, atheism, [many others] deserve censorship.
Also, considering you aren't american, why are you so supportive of censoring political speech in the US?
> it was the_donald which was harrassed and abused because some authoritarian types wanted it off reddit
By googling around I can easily find that members of the_donald created a list of thousands of addresses and phone numbers of people who are anti-trump. Or is that 'fake news'? The thing that actually got the_donald quaranteened (not even banned!) were calls to violence..
> Hopefully all State Police in Oregon refuse, hes serious. No problems shooting a cop trying to strip rights from Citizens. If he calls for help I'd come.
How can you defend that? Are you just disregarding all that because you have to be victim somehow?
When did those other subs call for 'shooting cops'??
> Also, considering you aren't american, why are you so supportive of censoring political speech in the US?
The US political landscape has a direct effect on the rest of the world. If your political speech consists of racism, sexism, and calls to violence then I personally believe we should absolutely censor that.
> By googling around I can easily find that members of the_donald created a list of thousands of addresses and phone numbers of people who are anti-trump. Or is that 'fake news'? The thing that actually got the_donald quaranteened (not even banned!) were calls to violence..
Honestly, everything you wrote is "fake news" or one-sided nonsense. It's the same nonsense parroted by the exact people I described. Every sub I listed has had members call for violence. Especially against the right, "nazis", cops, "bigots", "sexists", "racists", "trump supporters", republicans, etc. Considering you are virtue signaling against "racism,sexism", I'm betting you called for violence many times on reddit. How right am I?
> Are you just disregarding all that because you have to be victim somehow?
How am I a victim? I wasn't subbed to the_donald, didn't support trump, didn't vote for trump, etc. But this year I might because people like you are dangerous. Though I suppose in a sense we are all victims because speech got restricted but I personally was not victimized. Thanks for caring though.
> The US political landscape has a direct effect on the rest of the world.
Are you russian? Because I was told for many years that foreign interference was destabilizing the american political system. Funny how you support foreign interference and the destabilization of the US.
> If your political speech consists of racism, sexism, and calls to violence then I personally believe we should absolutely censor that.
Racism and sexism are protected political speech whether you like it or not. Otherwise, people like you wouldn't be allowed to use sexist terms like "toxic masculinity". But I'll defend your right to use those silly words because I believe in free speech.
"The problem is, you cannot have it both ways: either free speech is paramount, because it changes things in the real world, or allspeech is meaningless because it has no effect."
Wonderful little strawman with a dash of false dichotomy. The argument for free speech really derives from constitutional rights not on its effectiveness. Just like your right to life and liberty doesn't derive from how valuable others deem your life/liberty.
> You cannot build a large-scale, significant communications system without moderation ...
More strawman. Nobody is against moderation. I'm against censorship. I'm for sub moderation but also allow users to view the censored content if they choose so. Frankly, I'm more in support of allowing users to moderate more and mods moderating less. Let the community drive the sub rather than mods ruling the sub.
> any more than you can create a large-scale city without sanitation and public health systems, or a global rapid transportation network without commensurate epidemiological detection, management, and controls.
Okay, I'll try to enlighten you a bit. The question is what qualifies as "feces, garbage, disease". Would you be okay with /r/politics being banned? What about lgbt subs? What about atheism subs? What about feminist subs? What about /r/twoxchromosome since that is "transphobic"?
We'll try a categorical imperative. You have the right to ban subs but that right extends to everyone else. Would you support that? I doubt that. I'd bet you'd hypocritically scream "free speech" if the toxic subs you support were banned. How about let everyone enjoy the toxic shit of their choice as long as it is legal?
The Donald broke rule after rule for years. Similar rule-breaking caused other subs to be shut down. But The Donald was treated with kid gloves. Given only reprimands until finally the quarantine order came down. But the quarantine didn't stop anyone's "free speech". T_D kept on with their schtick until the sub's mods thought it was time to cash in. They closed posting down and redirected people to their forum on a new URL.
On Reddit, and elsewhere, there's no shortage of people loudly proclaiming their love of the President. Sure, Trump isn't very popular on Reddit as a whole and posts involving him will be voted down when they show up outside of the usual echo chambers. But the posts and comments are still there. As well as being a constant presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube. Political speech in the US is far from being censored in any way.
We shouldn't downvote or ban people from which reddit community because we disagree with their opinion? /r/BeatingWomen? /r/Gore? /r/Incels? /r/FatPeopleHate? /r/Pizzagate? /r/The_Donald? /r/MensRights? /r/ShitN_ggersSay? /r/TransF_gs? /r/CreepShots? /r/TheRedPill? /r/WatchPeopleDie?
Why, because it hurts their feelings? To protect them from the consequences of what they said, and ensure everyone has a chance to hear it? Downvoting is an exercise of free speech, too, you know.
A friend and an old boss used to work in accident forensics and as an EMT respectively. First guy said, never stand with your toes over the curb. Second guy said two things. Never put your thumbs in the wheel. Because airbags will dislocate your thumbs. And if your toddler slips his car seat pull over then and there. Because in an accident toddlers go head first into the windshield.
Looking at https://sandhoefner.github.io/reddit/, "MensRights" and "Feminism" looks pretty similar in term of words, and the most common words used on both is the exact same one.
But then that is just one objective analyze of the subs. It would be interesting to know what kind of definitive standard tool we could use in order to define which subs should be banned.
Looking at the Wikipedia article, their definition is that a sub is controversial if a reliable source (primarily a news paper) call a sub controversial, and such it list one feminist sub and one mens rights sub. It not the best definition of truth, as people in the education system and research community commonly points out, but as an approximation it gives the outline of the issue.
A funny thing happened yesterday. I started seeing hits from Reddit. A lot of hits. Fully a fifth of my traffic came from a particular thread on Reddit — despite my being in a slow blogging period, posting my one post I managed very late in the day, and despite the long tail on my bigger posts already waning.
So I clicked through to see what I was linked from, Turns out, it was r/MensRights, and they were opining that I’m a terrible human being, a beta mangina, and a sop for the Gynocracy because of this post.
One of the top gathering points for MRAs, because they really needed more of those. Notably, /r/mensrights was flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center in a report about online misogyny.[97]
>Reddit: Mens Rights: A “subreddit” of the user-generated news site Reddit, this forum describes itself as a “place for people who feel that men are currently being disadvantaged by society.” While it presents itself as a home for men seeking equality, it is notable for the anger it shows toward any program designed to help women. It also trafficks in various conspiracy theories. “Kloo2yoo,” identified as a site moderator, writes that there is “undeniable proof” of an international feminist conspiracy involving the United Nations, the Obama Administration and others, aimed at demonizing men.
Essentially full of outdated anti-feminist conspiracy theories, their contest to find the worst woman on the planet, and whining about any joke ever made with men as the punchline, while contributing fuckall to any gender debate. RationalWiki also annoys them.
How Reddit Is Used to Indoctrinate Young Men Into Becoming Misogynists.
Reddit’s “involuntary celibate” group was taken down earlier this month after its anti-woman debate turned violent. But the problem is much larger than one subreddit.
Amid a global conversation about sexual assault, a group of men complaining about their "involuntary celibacy" have lost their central platform.
In the r/incels subreddit, young men wrote about how they couldn’t find women to have sex with. The subreddit, which had 40,000 users a week ago, was a casually misogynist forum that compared women to Nazis and so-called “Incels” to Jews, posited that rape is “just sex” and argued that we need to include “reverse rape”— not having sex with someone—in the #MeToo conversation.
But it wasn’t until last week that the sub was banned for violent content, shortly after a young man turned to the forum to talk about his roommate, who he called “suicide fuel.” The user said it was painful to see his roommate, a “better human being,” have a girlfriend and talk about his close-knit family. Other members jumped in to offer advice to this man about his attractive roommate, a so-called “Chad” in incel speak. They encouraged and instructed the poster to castrate his roommate.
Like other anti-women subreddits, r/incels has been catching heat for a while. It even spawned its own watchdog community r/inceltears, which remains to chronicle incel extremism. Reddit has not said what the exact comment was that led to their banning the subreddit for inciting violence.
"Communities focused on this content and users who post such content will be banned from the site,” their statement said. “As of Nov. 7, r/Incels has been banned for violating this policy.”
Reddit recently announced that they plan to re-tool their policy regarding violent content on the heels of an additional $200 million in venture capital funding. It began by cracking down on Nazi and white supremacist subreddits including r/Nazi, r/DylannRoofInnocent and r/farright. However, many misogynist subreddits, like r/MensRights, are still thriving.
This isn’t Reddit’s first attempt to clean house: Its first round started after CEO Yishan Wong’s resignation in 2014 after a flurry caused by a Gawker expose on a Redditor heavily involved in subreddits like r/jailbait and r/creepshots. Interim CEO Ellen Pao, famous for suing Kleiner Perkins for sexism, instigated the first major cleanup, to user revolt: Many Redditors didn’t want to give up any subreddits, including those devoted to hating fat people or leaking celebrity nudes. Pao, squarely vilified during her tenure, did not last the full year as interim, leaving after eight months. (Pao later went on to describe how exclusion is entrenched in tech.)
The glue of communities like r/incels is obvious: Men feel held back by the women who “have it easy.” And as with most online communities open to anyone with Internet connectivity, indoctrination is easy for an outsider to spot. (Though under special circumstances, open subreddits go underground: r/incels went private recently after a member posed as a woman in r/legaladvice for tips on getting away with rape.)
If cults have taught us anything, it’s that the first rule of indoctrination is you (try to) get them while they’re young. Most Redditors are young men, and Reddit offers them unfettered ability to form and engage with “misogyny clusters”—anti-women communities that share DNA, but have distinct personalities and creeds. R/incels is a cousin of many other misogyny clusters on Reddit, including r/MensRights, r/MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way—those who opt out of the “mating dance”), and r/TheRedPill.
