Reddit is the gospel truth on absolutely everything a social media content aggregation website that bills itself as "The Front Page of the Internet" (for trolls, it certainly is). It is incredibly popular, collecting over 37 billion views and 400 million unique visitors in 2012 alone,[3] even though it can't make itself profitable.[4]
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“”Now the best part — showing the world how angry you are. For that, you need to go to Reddit to create an account. |
—New York Times[1] |
“”Reddit has done well in getting interest from the mainstream[.] I just wonder if [...] allowing these children to run rampant and post whatever they feel will cause the most collateral damage. |
—William Shatner |
Reddit works by having users, or "Redditors", submit links to other websites, upload stolen images, or just provide textual content, or "self-posts". These posts and their comments are all voted up or down by other Redditors. Reddit displays more recent and more upvoted content higher, so "good" stuff gets visibility while "bad" stuff falls away. The site is divided into smaller sections, or "subreddits". Each subreddit focuses on a particular subject, and any somewhat established Redditor can create one; subreddit creators automatically become moderators on those subreddits. Moderators (normal users) effectively run most of the website.
Reddit's admins take a very hands-off approach, and it's swiftly becoming a site entirely made of YouTube comments. Given that Reddit is absolutely huge,[5] it has attracted an absolutely huge number of cranks and idiots, as documented below.
Whence the awfulness?
“”Though Reddit claims to be "the front page of the internet", it usually hits the news because of its nurturing attitude toward the asinine or the evil. Be it white power, radicalized sexism, or advocacy on behalf of gamers (AKA radicalized white power sexism), it's hard to find a group Reddit's mods won't drag their feet about banning. |
—Vice.com[6] |
In many ways, Reddit represents one of the worst possible results of enormous popularity, coupled with an immense and only loosely-connected pile of mostly self-governing communities (take care not to assume a coherence that really isn't there). A sliver of any website's traffic will consist of cranks and malcontents; the jaw-dropping amount of traffic Reddit receives means this subpopulation can number in the thousands or tens/hundreds of thousands. These cranks then either set up their own or join an existing subreddit that supports their ideas, which can (and do) turn into veritable echo chambers for their viewpoints since any opposing post can get removed and the poster is then banned (it's not like the whole website was like that). Any Redditor who posts a comment that contradicts the prevailing opinion within any of the nastier subreddits often finds all their comments and posts (which are accessible via their public profile) downvoted across all subreddits in retaliation (the software attempts to counteract this to some extent; if the user downvotes comments on the public profile page itself, these votes are ignored for karma calculation purposes). While not a significant impact by itself, floods of this sort of retaliatory voting can marginalize sensible Redditors, not just on the crank subreddit, but across unrelated subreddits as well (though sockpuppet and throwaway accounts cost only a few clicks/keystrokes, so this "problem" is easily manageable).
Unfortunately, the site's structure further encourages the spread of these ideas into any neutral or "good" subreddits; cross-pollination of users and topics between related subreddits can grow and strengthen the various crank communities and drive away more sensible users. Any thread that vaguely touches on crank Redditors' hobbyhorses can be swiftly hijacked by a sufficiently large population of cranks voting as a bloc. Subreddit moderators are often too apathetic, incompetent, or afraid of being too aggressive and alienating their own community to take any action, further encouraging crank Redditors to continue colonizing other subreddits.[7] This is made worse when moderators across seemingly disparate or only tangentially-related subreddits are sympathetic to these crank ideas and tolerate them, much to the community's detriment. For example, /r/ronpaul Redditors spread into the /r/libertarianism subreddit, which then spread into the /r/politics subreddit, eventually turning Reddit into an incredibly noisy fanbase for Paul's presidential campaigns. After the 2012 election, when it became clear that Paul wouldn't run again, the "Ron Paul 2012!!!!!11!" brigade was downvoted to virtual invisibility in many instances... only for the cycle to repeat in 2016 and 2020 with the diehard fans of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, and Tulsi Gabbard.
Anti-censorship?
Reddit also has a strong culture (although by no means a universal one) present within it of subreddits opposing any form of moderation and believing that upvotes and downvotes should be the sole judge of whether the content is any good in the name of free speech, and that, consequently, any form of active moderation beyond that prescribed by Reddit itself is censorship. This extends to such things as prohibiting harassing content directed at other users, racism, sexism, image macros, rage comics, and other such things; the primary argument is that if these things are really repulsive, they will be downvoted, and if they aren't, that means the subreddit's readers want them there. This rather peculiar form of the just world hypothesis ignores the fact that all evidence available shows that if you have no form of an enforced quality bar on an online community, it will quite rapidly become filled with low-effort content and become subject quite dramatically to the dickwad theory. A demonstration of this can be seen by the stunning quality of strictly-moderated subreddits, such as /r/AskHistorians, compared to, well, take your pick.
However, this paper-thin veneer of general alt-right nuttery principled free speech breaks down when it comes to anything that might be critical of Reddit or Redditors' particular hobbyhorses. For insight, CEO Steve Huffman is a doomsday prepper who frequently attends Burning Man, a yearly gathering for filthy-rich libertarians in the Nevada desert.[8] This might explain why /r/The_Donald wasn't banned until June 2020, long after most of its users had already left Reddit in anticipation of the sub's banning.
Meanwhile, calls are regularly made to close or ban /r/AgainstHateSubreddits (and before them, /r/ShitRedditSays, which fulfilled the same purpose although in a more circlejerk fashion, but is considered dead nowadays), a subreddit that overall does nothing other than providing links to examples of what it sees as bigotry or reactionary across Reddit (and enrage MRAs and racists in the process).
#RedditRevolt
In June 2015, Reddit shut down several breathtakingly odious subreddits that weren't just saying hideous things or brigading other subreddits, but also operating as bases for harassment off-site.[9] This included the infamous /r/FatPeopleHate subreddit, which had over 100,000 subscribers before its ban. Ironically, it was one of the more censored subreddits on the site, as showing sympathy or empathy towards fat people quickly earned the speaker a warning or a ban. Upset FPH readers proclaimed the Reddit admins a pack of censoring Nazis (also either blaming /r/ShitRedditSays or demanding its banning as usual),[note 1] and many decamped to Reddit for a newer similarly-structured site called Voat,[10][11] which promptly melted under the load.
Much of the hatred, centered on the hashtag #RedditRevolt, surrounded Reddit's interim CEO Ellen Pao, whose sexual discrimination lawsuit against her former employer Kleiner Perkins made waves in Silicon Valley. Thus, the Chinese-American feminist in charge of the site was made into a perfect target by Reddit's "disenfranchised" assholes. In addition to being compared to China's Cold War dictator Mao Zedong (with the epithet "Chairman Pao"), as well as the usual cries of "Nazi" because a handful of subreddits exclusively formed to harass other people were banned, a petition was made calling for her removal as CEO. Unshockingly, all of this was pretty blatant harassment, racism, and sexism levied at her until a popular Reddit staff member was fired in July 2015, leading to #RedditRevolt's revitalization as a form of solidarity with the former employee following a voluntary blackout of several Reddit boards. The petition for Pao's removal surged in popularity, and comment sections across the Internet seemed to think that #RedditRevolt, which had its origins in June, only started in July in response to the firing.[12][13][14] One commentator on a DOTA2 website, of all places, even noticed an apparent connection between the people pushing #RedditRevolt and Gamergate, pointing out that a feminist woman banning hateful communities is everything 4chan could have ever wanted in a controversy.[15]
Pao ultimately resigned from her position during this shitstorm[16] even though that another member of the executive board, who was one of the site's founders, was actually responsible for the popular employee's firing.[17] But the real bombshell comes from former CEO Yishan Wong, who first suggested that Reddit's co-founder Alexis Ohanian had set Pao up to take the fall for his actions.[18] Reddit's chief engineer Bethanye Blount also echoed these sentiments when she quit following Pao's resignation.[19][20] After the new CEO announced an AMA ("ask me anything") to handle questions about how Reddit was changing with Pao's departure, Wong appeared again and revealed that Pao was the only member of Reddit's executive board arguing in favor of all of the website's most toxic communities. According to Wong, the board had pressured Pao to "outright ban ALL the hate subreddits in a sweeping purge", but she resisted, knowing it would result in a "shitshow".
Now that #RedditRevolt had ousted Pao, nothing stopped new CEO Steve Huffman from going through with this purge. Wong stated that Huffman had previously confided in him that he would have banned such hateful communities outright.[21] What actually happened was that Huffman decided that all of the terrible communities shouldn't be banned entirely and instead be put behind registration walls. Within those new walled gardens, they had no advertisements whatsoever. He's also fully embodied the libertarian hands-off approach; in response to a question concerning the growth of white supremacist subreddit /r/CoonTown since the new rules were put in place, he responded, "Horrible, actually, but I don't think you can win an argument by simply silencing the opposition."[22] Several more subreddits were banned the following week, such as ones for lolicon, but more importantly, /r/CoonTown and its various satellite subreddits;[23] however, these were not banned for being racist, but because they were damaging to Reddit's reputation.[24]
Prominent terrible subreddits
/r/atheism
Ah, the embarrassing misadventures of angsty adolescence. Back when you could just throw on a black trenchcoat and give a middle finger to religion because there wasn't a single other problem in your life to be upset about. Not as relentlessly awful as some, but a good demonstration that not believing in a god or gods in no way implies any capacity for joined-up thinking or not being a horrible person. The average user is significantly younger than on other atheism-related sites and so fairly new to the whole non-belief sphere;[25] thus, the entire thing is more of a celebration of the new-found ability to blaspheme without guilt. Because of this, a large number of posts end up being cross-posted to the self-explanatory subreddit /r/cringe. The fedora neckbeard meme is also associated with the this subreddit, so far as to specifically include its prohibition in the rules.
Early in 2013, there was a little coup d'etat among the moderators at /r/atheism, where the subreddit founder was forced out.[note 2] The first assistant moderator that the founder had invited to help with the subreddit became the chief moderator. Afterward, many new policies were implemented, leading to the wailing and gnashing of teeth among most members. The founder then created a new subreddit called /r/atheismrebooted (which is just like it sounds: a rehash of the best and worst of /r/atheism's original format). Yada, yada, yada. One of the users at /r/atheismrebooted was kind enough to post a timeline of their grand soap opera here.
Anyway, it all became so annoying to the Reddit admins that they woke up for once and took /r/atheism off the default subreddit list.[26] However, by the end of 2014, the commotion had died down, and /r/atheism had been (very quietly) restored to the default list.
/r/Conservative
One of the more infamous subreddits, even among other Redditors, as it's known for being something of a self-parody of conservatives and a crackpot magnet. Written from an American conservative point of view (Londonistani European conservatives are generally not regarded as conservative enough),[27] it is known for their mocking of "SJWs" and "safe spaces," made even more ironic by the fact that many of their posts can only be commented on by designated users that they have approved. It is also one of the most ban-happy subs on Reddit, with even any mention of the Southern Strategy being a damnable and bannable lie.[28] On slow days, the mods blanket-ban anyone who criticizes their views, even if they've never posted in the sub. We're talking about a group of people with so little going on in their lives that they actually feel the need to comb over entirely different subreddits just looking for people they can ban from their hugbox.
Other shenanigans include the pro-fetus wing of r/con seeing fit to weigh in on bacterial life on Mars (as if it somehow relates to a fertilized human egg),[29] believing guys like Mitch freaking McConnell aren't true conservatives,[30] and linking to/having a massive overlap with /r/theredpill.[31] In fairness, they will sometimes stop short of endorsing some more absurd conspiracy theories and, shockingly enough, usually accept climate change to some degree (though the libruls obviously exaggerate it), so it's a bit better than Conservapedia, just not by much.
r/ShitRConservativesays was a rival conservative subreddit in the European-style, set up to monitor the unusually-high proportion of anti-science, racist screeds and PRATTs pouring out of Reddit, but the head mod eventually succumbed to the same No True Scotsman and persecution paranoia that pervades RCon, ultimately turning the sub into a wasteland where a dozen True Conservatives whine about the other conservative sub they were banned from while banning 90% of their users for not being True Conservatives.
/r/conspiracy
The front page of paranoia on the Internet. Run by a white supremacist moderator who worships Timothy McVeigh, they made Hitler Did Nothing Wrong their official documentary long before Trump ever had a chance at being president. Theories discussed here run the gamut from 9/11 to chemtrails to lizard people.
/r/conspiracy has a large subscription base but is considered by many to be the laughingstock of the site, with regulars routinely accusing anyone who disrupts their echo chamber of panicking of being a "shill" or an evil impostor working for the government/Jewish overlords/reptilians. Despite being presented as an open forum and "thinking ground" which "respects people of all religions and creeds", we dare you to try to question prolific appearances of Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Alex Jones. Lastly, anytime there is a mass shooting or a terrorist attack or anything horrible where many people die or are injured, it is automatically considered a false flag perpetrated by the United States government. No exceptions.
Many /r/conspiracy regulars actually believe that most of Reddit is paid government employees watching them (and yet they still go there, which might prove there is a genuine need for it and/or it is simply addictive). Due to its insanity and hostility, other subreddits such as /r/conspiratard and /r/actualconspiracies have been set up to take a slightly more rational approach to conspiracy discussion. Meanwhile, people interested in woo but not politics have mostly fled to /r/ConspiracyII after the mods all but pledged their loyalty to Trump to such a degree that even mild criticism of him would lead to an immediate ban.
In September 2014, the subreddit showed how anti-Semitic it really was by posting the documentary Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told in their sidebar (which included a big picture of Hitler's face). The move caused significant controversy and was heavily panned by /r/conspiratard and /r/subredditdrama.[32] Despite everything (though it shouldn't be any surprise), the documentary stayed up, and anyone who didn't like it were deemed Zionist Shills. It is regularly featured on r/TopMindsOfReddit, another watchdog sub.
In early January, 2021, top moderator of r/conspiracy, axolotl_peyotl, was permanently suspended by Reddit. He was a far right, extreme pro-Trump, anti-vaxx, anti-Semitic moderator[33] and was notorious for their itchy trigger finger on the ban button, often spamming multiple posts for their lord and saviour Donald Trump and silencing dissent at mach speed with the click of a button.[34]
/r/The_Donald
Now defunct, this was the main place for Trump supporters to gather on Reddit. Reddit had quarantined it due to inciting violence against law enforcement officials in the wake of the 2019 Republican Senator walkout from climate change legislation in Oregon,[35]. This action led to its slow decline, which lasted until the whole thing got banned. The majority of this sub didn't really seem to have any defined political stance and could change with the wind depending on what Trump does/says. People rarely spoke out if they disagreed on something that he did and would tie themselves into knots to defend anything the alt-right does. Next thing you know, paying $5 for a gallon of water will be good for America, and bread lines are going to be "alpha".
Users of /r/The_Donald are known for brigading all over Reddit. It was a mystery why the sub was allowed to exist for so long when it frequently broke the site's terms of service (it had, however, been sanctioned in the past), although they purchase a lot of Gold (stickied posts paid for by debit), so that might have something to do with it. They operate a half dozen splinter subs, among them being r/The_Farage, r/The_Ivanka, and r/Le_Pen. Milo "Raspberry Reich" Yiannopoulos was a mod for the sub until he was caught scamming money off of it. (This was his second scam: He also raised $100,000 for a "white male" scholarship fund and then pocketed the money.)
On March 5, 2020, the subreddit went on lockdown by the mods, claiming that the Reddit admins are liberally biased and hate Trump after the admins removed several moderators for harassing Reddit employees and stickying rule-breaking content and the admins instated stricter rules for assigning new moderators. The subsequent result is that the /u/reddit account (usually only used for corporate announcements and sending automated messages to users) was used to sticky an "application thread" on the_donald, which led to two more mod removals (who tried to unsticky and remove the post respectively.) Due to a coincidence, this resulted in the removal of all moderators who had opposed the explicit push for a move towards the site thedonald.win, another link aggregator set up by the_donald mods, which was aggressively pushed in the wake of these removals.
As a result of this, the subreddit has been by and large replaced by /r/Trump, with /r/The_Donald itself getting banned on June 29, 2020 for promoting hate speech,[36] with the_donald being a shell of it's former self at that point. A related Trump subreddit, /r/donald_trump was banned after playing a part in inciting the domestic terror attack on the Capitol in January 2021.[37]
/r/The_Congress is the same premise and worldview as /r/The_Donald, only focused on legislative races across the United States.
/r/ChapoTrapHouse
A sub initially devoted to the left-wing comedy podcast of the same name, but eventually devolved into its own comedy subreddit. As /r/CTH grew, its users' "ironic" support for Juche and The Lion of Syria got mistaken for the real item by Tankies, who thought that they were in good company, turned the sub into a poor man's /r/FULLCOMMUNISM, and finally got quarantined for many, many instances of its users inciting violence.[38]
The sub was known for being kind of a boogeyman across the site, but was also known for being so insanely sectarian that even the podcast's own hosts grew a distaste for it. The sub gained a lot of its notoriety for having a fuckton of spinoffs and backup subreddits. Most, if not all, would later be caught in the banwave of June 29, 2020.
A common consensus that came up was that "if /r/The_Donald were ever to be banned on Reddit, then so would Chapo". Coincidentally, on June 29, 2020, Chapo was one of the most prominent subreddits to be caught in the New-Policy Banwave for "Promoting hate," alongside /r/The_Donald.[39] After the Banwave, most of its users migrated to Chapo.Chat.
/r/KotakuInAction
A bunch of whiny manchildren who take Gamergate way too seriously. The members of this subreddit believe that there is a widespread feminist conspiracy to censor or ruin entertainment for everyone, that feminism will bring about the end of men everywhere, and that Gamergate is literally class warfare. All this... over video games. KotakuInAction itself spun off into /r/WikiInAction, where everyone on KotakuInAction went to complain about Gamergate stuff on Wikipedia and RationalWiki. Nathan Larson realized that /r/WikiInAction was unmoderated and got Reddit to restrict posting there by spamming it with child pornography in the hope of having it banned. [40] A few months later, /u/YangWenli1 took over the subreddit via /r/RedditRequest and turned it into a subreddit for mocking Conservapedia. [41]
In July 2018, /u/david-me, its creator, decided (perhaps a bit too late) to end the subreddit, calling it "one of the many cancerous growths that have infiltrated Reddit", citing "racism and sexism .... and other ism's". But unfortunately for him, and lucky for hate speech free speech advocates, Reddit employees responded in less than an hour, and it was back up.[42]
/r/WatchRedditDie
A community themed around documenting Reddit's supposed "Abandonment of free speech" (as in, the admins start enforcing their TOS more, so shareholders aren't scared away from it). The sub is often parodied and satirized for its' incredibly hyperbolic and Lolcow responses to controversial (and often right-wing) subreddits getting the ban-hammer, citing "Double Standard!!"[43] as many of its' Users post screenshots of other users on subreddits /r/WRD doesn't like, engaging in behavior that is apparently ban-worthy now (ergo: some people on /r/FragilewhiteRedditor were making some silly-ass jokes about how white people can't jump), leading to a lot of cherry-picking and whataboutism as a result. Users will also frequently post screenshots of themselves getting banned or their posts getting removed from other subreddits by their mods for reasons they believe are unjustified and/or are infringing on their First Amendment rights.
Just like every other "free speech" community, /r/WRD often scaremongers over and scapegoats China, especially He who shall not be named as to why things aren't going the way they want them to[44][45].
WatchRedditDie is also notorious for making up Conspiracy theories and hoaxes (completely out of thin air) about certain other communities they have personal vendettas for in the hopes that it will gain enough traction and the admins will take action. Around March/April 2020, a conspiracy theory had broken out from /r/WRD that users on notorious anti-hate sub /r/AgainstHateSubreddits were brigading and spamming hate subs with Child pornography to get them banned[46]. Notably infamous subs at the time (/r/ConsumeProduct and /r/Politicalcompassmemes) started to latch-on to this hoax in the hopes that it would save their skins and get /r/AHS banned (It mostly didn't[47]). All it resulted in was a long week of harassment, threats of violence, and bigotry directed at the users and mods of /r/Againsthatesubreddits and /r/Topmindsofreddit[48]. The admins have done nothing so far.
On top of all that, despite users consistently complaining about being called Nazis, they have been caught unironically praising Hitler[49] for apparently being "Right about the Jews". You'll never find any other places on Reddit that contain such high-level intellect.
/r/theredpill
Similar to /r/MensRights, but actually worse, to the point where even /r/MensRights denounced them as misogynist.[50] While /r/MensRights tries to mask its hatred of women in the language of anti-feminism, the folks at /r/theredpill are far more open about it. They reserve just as much hate for "betas", with quoting and mocking what male posters say on /r/relationships. Described on /r/TrollXChromosomes as "a place where bitter divorcees and young ugly dudes meet up to discuss strategies of making themselves feel better".[51] When you're so toxic that even the bottom 10% of MRAs don't want you, it's a sad day for you.
/r/RedPillWomen is another thriving subreddit. There are so many women who actually believe that they're lesser than men. (If he's flirting with other women, it's just because he's alpha. Make sure that he knows he's the king!)
We're not joking when we say /r/theredpill is worse than /r/Conservative.
/r/CringeAnarchy
One of the more famous examples of a hate sub throughout the site's history, this group started as an uncensored off-shoot to /r/cringe (hence the title 'CringeAnarchy'). Eventually, it became a haven for queerphobes, Alt-Righters and edgelords.[52] The subreddit was quarantined in September 2018, which at that point it had reached over 400,000 followers.
Following the Christchurch mosque attack in 2019, more and more islamophobic[53] and antisemitic[54] content started polluting the subreddit. It was banned on 25 April 2019 for posts explicitly calling for violence.
Other fairly awful subreddits
Reddit has many users. Reddit makes it easy to create splinter communities. As a result, Reddit hosts innumerable small, dedicated, and truly horrifying communities.
On June 29, 2020, Reddit finally cracked down on the spread of hate speech on their site, introducing a new policy against it and banning many hate subreddits, most notably the aforementioned r/The_Donald and /r/GenderCritical.
Conspiracy nuts
- /r/GreatAwakening
- The QAnon subreddit, established after its predecessor /r/CBTS_Streams was banned for inciting violence.[55] It got so bad that at one point, the mods had to order their users to stop searching for and posting child pornography, which users tried to justify under the guise of "investigating" the "cabal".[56] Elements of the sub's userbase did not take these orders well.[57] Was finally banned for threatening violence and doxxing on September 12, 2018.
- /r/Holocaust
- Created by an ex-mod of /r/conspiracy, this was a subreddit run by and dedicated to Holocaust denial. In early 2014, the mod list was expanded to include another mod of /r/conspiracy and members of the now-banned /r/niggers. Banned in September 2019.
- /r/911Truth
- The subreddit's Truthers scrape the bottom of the conspiracist barrel. Case A: 9/11 terrorists ate pizza = secret government code words.[58] Case B: Linking to globalresearch.ca.[59] Case C: Shitty memes. Like, really shitty.[60] Case D: It's an echo chamber. The sidebar states, "Submissions [...] supporting the official version [...] are considered off-topic here." (No quotemine.)[61]
Pseudoscientists
- /r/AlternativeHealth
- Supports homeopathy and other assorted alternative medicine nonsense.
- /r/ClimateSkeptics
- One of the milder ones -- a subreddit devoted to climate change denialism, branding themselves as "seeing past hyperbole, alarmism, and environmentalism-driven politics." It doesn't particularly help that their sidebar declares that they are "not a science subreddit".
- /r/Overpopulation
- A rather underpopulated ecofascist subreddit at around only 12,600 subscribers as of April 2018, /r/overpopulation is a rather misleading source when it comes to human ecology. Misanthropic in nature, users repeatedly predict overpopulation doomsday scenarios. To top off its woo, its top post is from The Onion.[62]
- /r/Collapse
- The extreme opposite of /r/ClimateSkeptics, this subreddit fetishizes the collapse of human civilization. Its focus on climate change is rather recent, as previously focused on economic or political collapse. They also tend to be very misanthropic.
Commies
- /r/Communism
- The USSR to r/DarkEnlightenment's Reich. Its mods are avowed Stalin apologists, and it links to articles defending Enver Hoxha and North Korea.
- /r/FULLCOMMUNISM
- Seizing the memes of production. Notorious for having entire comment threads reading "Stalin did nothing wrong. Kulaks deserved it."[63] The moderators have been known to be authoritarian. Quarantined in the fall of 2018, just one victim of a wide-scale purge of embarrassing subreddits.
- /r/InformedTankie
- Not only is the name of the subreddit an oxymoron, most of the users are regular morons. They usually repeat points refuted a thousand times regarding China and the USSR.
- /r/MoreTankieChapo
- Offshoot of /r/ChapoTrapHouse, a sub (supposedly) devoted to a left-wing comedy podcast of the same name. As /r/CTH grew, its users' "ironic" support for Juche got mistaken for the real item by tankies, who thought that they were in good company, turned the sub into a poor man's /r/FULLCOMMUNISM, and finally got it quarantined for many, many violations of sitewide rules. Having ruined the original sub, they moved on and founded a Stalinist cult with vaporwave aesthetics. Following the ban of /r/CTH and its sister subreddits, /r/moretankiechapo appeared to be one of the last surviving offshoots of the original community alongside the semi-satirical /r/lesstankiechapo. Banned on July 10th, 2020.
- /r/ShitLiberalsSay
- A place where tankies mock "liberals" (read: anyone who slightly disagrees with them) and anyone to the left of them, from anarchists, democratic socialists and social democrats to centrist liberals and conservatives. If you dare mock China in any way, they will call you a sinophobic racist (even though China's economy is not really socialist, and is instead capitalist in all but name). Frequently promotes Holodomor denial and Uighur genocide denial.
- /r/StupIDPol
- All of the people who got banned from r/LateStageCapitalism for being open bigots to trans people and generally opposed to identity politics. And by "opposed to identity politics," we mean "never wanting to talk about minorities ever except to make fun of them." Their politics boil down to "Why can't I be a communist and say the N-word?" They mostly strawman intersectionality with liberal identity politics
- /r/GenZedong
- Bunch of "Dengists" (read: not MLs) who unironically stan the regimes of North Korea and China. Some outside users could not tell if the posts are satire or not. Its users show support for right-wing reactionaries like Rodrigo Duterte and opposes Maoist groups in the Philippines because they are "anti-China" and hence anti-communist. Ironic since their subreddit is named after Mao Zedong.
- /r/GenZStalin
- Filled with Stalinists showing support for the Ba’athist dictator Bashar al-Assad.
- /r/GenZAnarchist
- Originally an anarchist sub, users from the aforementioned subreddit (GenZedong) brigaded it and turned it into a Marxist-Leninist subreddit. Currently private.
Anarchists
- /r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut
- Polar opposite to law enforcement support subreddit /r/ProtectAndServe (which whackers and wannabes are particularly fond of). While it does fairly thoroughly document cases of police brutality, it comes with an incredibly deep undercurrent of hatred, paranoia, and conspiracy-mindedness towards
law enforcement"roving gangs of militias instituted by local warlords we call sheriffs." Also often calls for violence against cops, jurors, and their families,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73] doxxing jurors and cops,[74][75] and has an overall extreme tendency to talk about violence against cops. They also engage in the promulgation of conspiracy theories around the 1993 Waco Siege that the FBI/ATF deliberately killed the Branch Davidians in their compound[76][77][78] and frequently post content from The Free Thought Project,[79] Ludwig von Mises Institute,[80] the Daily Mail, Globalresearch,[81] as well as other Crank websites. - /r/Anarchism
- Edgy kids who spend most of their time enjoying stories of police officers being attacked/killed for being "fascists".[82] Has a reputation for being extremely overdramatic and incapable of handling views that deviate even slightly from their own.[83] This has effectively scared off many of the more reasonable posters and left behind only the most extreme. While they can talk a big game, it is increasingly just nihilism and misanthropy hiding behind anarchism.
- Some users got tired of the constant "edginess" and founded /r/leftwithoutedge for a place to discuss leftist politics without constant bloodthirst. In retaliation, the worst parts of /r/anarchism founded /r/leftwithsharpedge (see below).
- /r/LeftWithSharpEdge
- Ever wonder what a leftist version of /pol/ would look like? This thankfully tiny (and short-lived) sub was practically founded on the idea of sending death threats to other Reddit users, particularly to less violent leftists, and spent most of its time fantasizing about killing everyone not quite as radical as them during the inevitable "revolution"[84]. Was hilariously and unsurprisingly discovered to be all bark and no bite, however, when a self-described police officer confronted them in their own sub. They quickly grew confused as to what to do and revealed they would not act on their convictions unless there was no chance of personal risk to them.[85]. Now banned; the last straw was likely being caught writing songs about murdering and cannibalizing another Reddit user.
Alt-righters
- /r/4chan
- 4chan if it was on Reddit. Basically, a mix of /pol/ threads and threads from random boards. It's honestly impressive how long this sub has lasted for and how gargantuan it has grown, despite being so openly reactionary and racist.
- /r/ActualPublicFreakouts
- Ostensibly created because /r/PublicFreakouts had too much content with people not acting hysterical enough. In practice, it contains nothing but out-of-context video clips of black people acting violent and comment sections full of blatantly unmasked racism. It also encourages posters to have a flair that shows their political alignment, an odd feature for a sub that theoretically should be apolitical.
- /r/AganistGayMarriage
- A place so insanely idiotic that they couldn’t even spell the phrase “Against Gay Marriage” correctly.[86] Even more hilariously, a pro-gay marriage Redditor noticed that they were registered as “AganistGayMarriage” and decided to create r/AgainstGayMarriage as a pro-gay marriage subreddit to prevent them from creating an anti-gay marriage subreddit with a correctly spelled name. /r/AganistGayMarriage was banned in September 2019.[87]
- /r/altright
- An alt-right subreddit... that was actually shut down by Reddit management on February 1, 2017, after calls for doxxing the man who punched Richard Spencer.[88]
- /r/Anarcho_Capitalism
- They have never been anything besides pseudo-intellectual dumbfucks devoid of empathy. Somewhat of a lolcow subreddit with subs like /r/EnoughLibertarianSpam, /r/AnCapMemes, /r/shitancapssay and /r/FragileAncaps mocking it.
- /r/AntiPOZi
- Dedicated to fighting "Cultural HIV".[note 3] Popular among white supremacists, neo-Nazis, homophobes, and redpillers. This subreddit was quarantined in June 2015 and was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[89]
- /r/average_redditor
- This subreddit split off from r/AverageRedditor after complaints that moderators were not letting users be racist enough. To the surprise of no one, the subreddit's content had absolutely nothing to do with "Redditors," instead focusing on mixed-race couples, anyone with a viewpoint left of Hitler, and LGBT+ people's existence. Massive overlap in userbase with r/Coomer, r/ConsumeProduct, and r/bruhfunny. Banned on March 5, 2020.
- /r/bruhfunny
- A satellite subreddit of iFunny's far-right community, bruhfunny used memes to peddle fascist viewpoints under the typical guise of "irony," somewhat similar to the r/frenworld approach. Contained connections via moderation and userbase with /r/average_redditor. Quarantined in 2019 and one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[90]
- /r/Bruhtopia
- Alt-right subreddit related to r/bruhfunny, but far more blatant in their goals and beliefs. General hate subreddit. Users of the subreddit call themselves Bruhtopians and treat the place as if it's an ethnostate. User and mod overlap with r/Coomer, r/average_redditor, r/DebateAltRight, r/bruhfunny and r/ConsumeProduct. Banned in March 2020.
- /r/ConsumeProduct
- Anti-consumerism from a fascist perspective. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[90]
- /r/Coomer
- General alt-right subreddit with an emphasis on the idea that the pornography industry is a Jewish conspiracy intended to emasculate white men and promote race-mixing. Subreddit name originated from the /pol/ "Coomer" Wojak meme, which has come to mean anyone who does not buy into their bullshit. It was full of the typical racism, transphobia, homophobia, glorification of violence, etc., that you find in alt-right circles. Banned on March 5, 2020.
- /r/CoonTown
- A racist subreddit and successor to /r/niggers. It had over 15K members at its peak before it was banned in August 2015.[91][92] One of the former moderators did a AMA afterwards and engaged in more crude racism.[93]
- /r/DarkEnlightenment
- Reddit's playpen for neoreactionaries. ("Today In Science: The negroes sure are uppity today.")
- /r/DebateAltRight
- Self-explanatory. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[90]
- /r/DebateFascism
- "Debate amongst fascists is welcomed, and critiques of fascism (as well as those just curious) are encouraged to ask questions." Unlike actual fascism, this fascist subreddit loved free speech![94] Banned for posting violent content.[95]
- /r/DebateNazism
- If you think Hitler sounds like he was pretty bad, but you don't want to jump to any conclusions, these guys were here to help. Appears to have been hijacked and all posts deleted except one saying Nazism is a terrorist cult.[96]
- r/epicairconditioners
- A subreddit that was ostensibly about discussing air conditioners. In reality, it consisted of extremely poorly hidden neo-Nazi talk. Banned in October 2019.
- /r/European
- As of May 12, 2016, the subreddit was quarantined (only viewable by registered users who wish to see it, among other restrictions), creating much outrage and calls for, you guessed it, migration to Voat. Banned for being unmoderated.[97] Not to be confused with r/Europe.
- r/frenworld
- A subreddit dedicated to memes of Pepe the Frog. Posts consisted of neo-Nazi dogwhistles[98] sugarcoated in baby-speak. Banned in June 2019 for glorifying or encouraging violence.
- /r/HardUnpopularOpinion
- A place for unpopular opinions that are so reactionary and discriminatory that the regular unpopular opinion subreddit (which itself is infamous for harboring a ridiculous amount of reactionary and discriminatory ideals) denounces them. This should give you a sense of how toxic this community is. Banned in December 2019 for violating Reddit's rules on harassing content.[99]
- r/homophobes
- A subreddit filled to the brim with, well, homophobes. Banned in September 2019.
- /r/MillionDollarExtreme
- The official Subreddit dedicated to the alt-right sketch comedy group of the same name. Whilst it was already filled with racism, homophobia, and transphobia from the beginning, things really started to take off after the controversy surrounding the group's TV show airing on Adult Swim, as many of its members had been caught having ties to the alt-right. At it's peak, /r/MDE had reached over 44K followers.[100] After the troupe's channel was terminated from YouTube, /r/MDE was subsequently banned for violating Reddit's TOS regarding violent content.[101]
- /r/niggers
- A racist subreddit filled with crude and vicious content against black people. Banned in June 2013 for engaging in vote manipulation, incitements of violence and using racist content to disrupt other communities.[102]
- /r/Physical_Removal
- A place where Ancaps fantasized about throwing Socialists out of helicopters. Ultimately banned on August 15, 2017, following the tragic events of the Charlottesville white nationalist rally.[103]
- /r/PublicHealthWatch
- Had a fairly classy-looking design and instructed its users to "post examples of redditors spreading disease or promoting behaviors which are dangerous to public health". In practice, this means they linked to Reddit posts describing what they deemed to be acts of depravity by who they deem as "degenerates"... which totally wouldn't lead to harassment, as if the rules they display to cover their ass are to be taken seriously. The groups they deemed "degenerate" included pedophiles. Such a revulsion to pedophilia is definitely understandable...only they treat LGBT people with the same amount of scorn. With post titles like "The Jews have finally decided to drop the anti-'hate' and anti-White shit, and have become productive comedians", it's fairly obvious what kind of people its target audience consisted of. Not particularly well-known, but earned its spot here for its truly sickening nature. Not surprisingly, it is now banned.
- /r/ShitNeoconsSay
- A place where Fascists would lambaste neoconservatives and other right-wingers for not being fascist enough (refer to cuckservative). Filled with antisemitism, racism, homophobia and talk of white genocide. Nick Fuentes videos were often posted there. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[90]
- /r/smuggies
- What started as a meme subreddit to post r/coaxedintoasnafu style parodies turned into a place to post strawmen for the alt-right to target. Common enemies included "cuckservatives," anyone left of center, ethnic/racial minorities, and LGBT+ people. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[90]
- /r/The_Europe
- European nationalist version of r/The_Donald. Arguably more far-right than the aforementioned subreddit due to the blatant focus on skin color and "white culture" which outweighed that seen on r/The_Donald. Banned at the start of March 2020.
- /r/WhiteRights
- Two flavors of white supremacists, one arguing the Holocaust never happened, the other arguing the Holocaust did happen and was the best thing ever. Banned in January 2018 for proliferation of violent content.[104][105]
Free speech absolutists
- /r/SubredditCancer
- Basically /r/WatchRedditDie, but thinks Reddit is already dead (even though WatchRedditDie came after it). Filled with your typical whataboutism and scaremongering.
- /r/Reclassified
- A subreddit where reactionaries mourn the "Loss" of their favorite Hate-subs after getting banned or quarantined and come up with ban evasion alternatives.
- /r/DeclineIntoCensorship
- It's literally ALL THE SAME
Miscellaneous Ultra-nationalism
- /r/AznIdentity
- It calls itself "a space for Asian men and Asian women ... [but] primarily focused on Asian Men."[106] In practice, it's a circlejerk of East/Southeast Asian ultranationalism/supremacy and hatred for Asian women who date outside their race, yet with a side of fetishism for White women.[107][108][109][110] Challenging any of the sub's beliefs gets you banned as a "white troll" (they even require photographic proof that a "troll" is Asian[111][112]).[113] The slur "whitey"[114][115] is commonly used;[116][117][118][119][120]. One thread celebrated the fact that white American mortality rates are rising.[121] They also denigrate Asian immigrants who integrate (by the sub's standards), using a pejorative Vietnamese word meaning "lost origin."[122][123] Commenters on an incident where an ethnically Asian woman at an Asian market stall insisted on speaking English said that the stall's workers should have pretended not to speak English and acted "super, super Asian" to punish the woman's supposed "self-hate."[124] See also: /r/AsianMasculinity and /r/hapas.
- /r/Bakchodi
- Takes its name from a Hindi word that roughly translates as "trashtalking." Initially started off a sub for making offensive memes from a "centrist" perspective, howevever was soon taken over by alt-right Hindu nationalists. Ostensibly a place for Indian Redditors to shoot the shit, but in practice it's devoted to Hindu nationalism. Hates basically everyone who isn't a heterosexual northwestern Indian upper caste Hindu, but Muslims and East Asians seem to get the brunt of the sub's vitriol.[125] Its Pakistani counterpart, /r/Chutyapa, has notably not sunken this far, and remains mostly a sub for harmless shitposting.
- /r/EasternSunRising
- Fighting stereotypes by proving that East Asians can openly admire Hitler too.[126]
- /r/chodi
- Takes its name from a Hindi word, which roughly translated to "to fuck". Absolute degenerate sub, which should have been banned right from the start. Hides under the banner of "free speech" to promote Hindu nationalist ideas. Rampant Islamophobia and homophobia, believes that the LGBTQ+ community is left-wing propaganda. Has called for purging/ethnic cleansing of Muslims from India, and they all share a boner for the fascist prime minister of the country.
- /r/Israel
- Just your average ultra-nationalist sub. Hates anyone that offers even the slightest criticism of Israel, and is full of jokes strawmanning anti-zionists.[citation needed]
- /r/Sino
- CCP apologists, most of them foreign-born. Also known to decry Asian women race-mixing, a la /r/aznidentity (above). Frequently promotes Tiananmen and Uighur genocide denial. Slanders the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, alternately lies about/insults Vietnam[127], and psychotically Taiwan. Their wiki is filled with "news" webshites like Chinese state media, Zero Hedge, MintPress news, Press TV, RT, Qiao Collective, The Grayzone and other tankie/conspiracy websites. They frequently accuse other people for brigading their subreddit while brigading other subreddits like r/worldnews and r/news. The mods on this sub are so fragile that being banned from their subreddit has become a rite of passage among libertarian/ancap circles.
- /r/China
- The polar opposite of r/Sino, the subreddit is filled with non-Chinese who lean towards the alt-right. Claims to be anti-CCP yet is filled with actual rampant and negative stereotypes against mainland Chinese people in particular.
- /r/Chinesetourists
- r/China, but worse. Claims to not be racist, yet its users consistently portray mainland tourists as savages.
Extreme misogyny
- /r/mensrights
- 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.[128]
- 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.
- /r/Incel
- Short for Involuntary Celibates. /r/incels was an offshoot of the forum r/ForeverAlone and functioned as /r/truecels, just under another banner as they moved following a quarantine. (r/truecels had a banner of Eliott Rodger. Can't imagine why nobody wants to sleep with them!) There's nothing to understand other than these people want to fuck virgins and have constructed their entire worldview around wanting to fuck virgins. The new pet theory is white women are conspiring to have as many mixed-race babies as possible. If there's any place more cartoonishly evil than r/theredpill, this was it. Was banned in April 2017, only to be replaced by r/incels, which was then taken down in the following November and replaced by r/braincels, which itself was quarantined in September 2018 and banned a little more than a year later.
- /r/PhilosophyOfRape
- Also exactly what it says on the can (better described as rape advocates). View only if you place no value on your sanity and faith in humanity. It, among other horrors, thinks that raping a 6-year-old is justified.[129] Was taken down in 2015. Was later revealed to be the work of Joshua Ryne Goldberg, a free speech absolutist and troll-turned-terrorist enabler. He was arrested in September 2015 after using a false persona to encourage acts of terrorism along with giving an undercover FBI agent detailed instructions for making bombs in a bizarre plot to associate Amnesty International with Islamic extremism. [130] [131]
- /r/MGTOW
- Men Going Their Own Way: Another prominent part of the manosphere, a subreddit which purports to be a community of men who have decided not to pursue relationships but is actually a hub of misogyny. Got the quarantine hammer on 1/31/2020.
- /r/PussyPass
- A subreddit devoted to whining about how "pussy-owners" (read: cis women) get a free pass on certain things, often cherry-picking as a result.
- /r/PussyPassDenied
- As above, with a side of fetishizing violence against women (ostensibly in self-defense).
- /r/FemaleDatingStrategy
- A subreddit that claims to offer dating advice to women. In reality, it is TERF propaganda disguised as dating advice for women and is essentially intended to be the TERF equivalent of Manosphere subreddits such as /r/theredpill and /r/MGTOW. Beyond advising women to pick partners who exist only to serve them and do anything for them, there isn't much of a "dating strategy" being discussed here; it mostly consists of misandrist bashing of men, misogynisic bashing of women who stray from its ideology, and the shaming of people who like BDSM, pornography, open marriages, and even anime and video games.[132] The subreddit also bans transgender people.
TERFS and transmedicalists
- /r/GenderCritical
- In theory, GenderCritical is a "radical feminist subreddit to discuss gender from a critical perspective." In practice, it's a breeding ground for trans-exclusionary radical feminism. The subreddit has no unifying opinion other than a strong dislike and distrust of trans people, especially trans women.[note 4]. The stickied post is a "peak trans" thread, in which people can talk about their bad experiences with certain trans individuals and how it made them turn on all trans people.[133] GC cites a handful of fringe doctors and scientists when defending its positions. Some GC users even go as far as arguing that the acceptance of trans people is actually a conspiracy created by surgeons, doctors, Big Pharma, and/or the makeup industry to make money. Most GC users are otherwise liberal and don't have an issue with lesbians or gay people, but most of them do look down upon bisexuals and, as stated above, trans people. [citation needed] It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[90]
- /r/TrollGC
- Essentially, where TERFs express their incredibly hateful and/or incredibly misinformed opinions about trans people through incredibly cringey memes. Along with several other TERF subreddits, it was made private in June 2020 in response to the banning of r/GenderCritical. If you attempt to visit it, you will be met with the caption "You can’t call a man a man anymore, but you better treat him like one, with all the deference and respect he demands". Banned in July 2020 for promoting hate.
- /r/LGBDropTheT
- Consists of people who support dropping the T out of the acronym because why not pull up the ladder behind you once you get your rights? Users casually ignore that the movement was started by black trans women and defend themselves by saying that being transgender isn't a sexuality and that they aren't transphobes. Yet, there are countless posts of users outright saying they hate trans people. A lot of users also express distaste towards bisexual people as well. Banned in July 2020 for promoting hate.[note 5]
- /r/itsafetish
- A TERF subreddit dedicated to promoting the transphobic and pseudoscientific concept of autogynephilia/autoandrophilia, the idea that trans people have a fetish for being viewed as members of the opposite sex. Basically, the entire subreddit is a collection of screenshots of posts made online by trans people taken wildly out of context. They are then used to say that all (or at least the majority of) trans people are fetishists. Along with several other TERF subreddits, it was made private in June 2020 in response to the banning of r/GenderCritical. It was then finally banned in July 2020 for promoting hate.
- /r/truscum
- Supposedly "a respectful place for those who have been cast out of mainstream trans subreddits", in actuality this subreddit is inhabited by transmedicalists who whine about how nonbinary people (aka "tucutes") are "not actually trans" and are supposedly causing people to take trans people less seriously.
Religious extremism
- r/Catholicism
- Basically opposes anything the Pope is trying to push forward that is loving and accepting, in favor of traditionalist approaches to doing things that involve force, violence, hatred of Muslims, etc. Doesn't like Jews very much. Avoid at all costs.
- /r/TrueChristian
- A sub for very conservative Christians created because they denounced the more mainstream Christian sub, /r/Christianity, for being too moderate/liberal and thus not truly Christian. Unsurprisingly, rabidly homophobic (while insisting it's not and if you point it out well, then you're the real bigot!) and sometimes (though not always) anti-Catholic.[134]
- r/CatholicMemes
- Pretty much identical to r/Catholicism, but memes. Appears to be under the impression that Protestants are the worst people ever to exist, closely followed by LGBT people (AKA "Rainbow Flag Mafiosos"). Also believes that the world is subject to Catholic rule. [135] Also apparently under the impression that the Catholic Church has never been anti-science. We'll see what Giordano Bruno has to say about that...[136]
Very far rightists
- /r/Prolife
- Made up of the most hardline of the hardline pro-lifers and often compares abortion to the Holocaust,[137] doesn't support exceptions for incest and/or rape, and often doesn't even support abortion rights when the mother's life is in danger. "Pro-life" indeed. </sarcasm>
Mixed
- /r/AgainstDegenerateSubs
- As the name suggests, a right-wing equivalent to /r/AgainstHateSubreddits. Its biggest pet issue is stamping out subs that engage in sexualization of minors, though it also occasionally targets bizarre fetish communities and highlights distasteful things said on other subs. It is also a common target of r/AgainstHateSubreddits.
- /r/arabfunny
- Arabfunny is a meme subreddit that revolves around making parodies of low-quality social media content produced in the Middle East and South Asia. The posts that are being parodied are often seen as absurd and emulating a fever dream by foreigners, which is a valid point of view to take. The subreddit was originally a largely harmless ironic meme page. Unfortunately, the mod team and ownership of r/arabfunny have historically been vehemently racist, and the subreddit has gone through multiple upheavals of leadership. As a result of the aforementioned, many posters on arabfunny display genuine racism, and a common trope is to roleplay as Jew-hating Muslims due to apathetic moderation. Additionally, the meme format that the subreddit is centered upon creates an easy target of ridicule.
- /r/AverageRedditor
- A meme subreddit for mocking the “Average Redditor”, except their definition of an “Average Redditor” is everything /pol/ hates. Filled with the usual: transphobia, anti-semitism, alt-righters, etc.
- /r/Circlejerk
- Originally a subreddit parodying the meta, over the years, they had developed a view that anyone who criticizes America, Trump, or the Republican Party is only doing so for karma, ignoring the spaces where such subjects are highly praised and upvoted. Many posts contain the overused "orange man bad" phrase co-opted by conservatives, and it also has a large group of users overlapping with right-leaning spaces. Some genuinely funny posts satirize the userbase in general, but there are much better alternatives that achieve the same mission. Tread carefully.
- /r/DeuxRama
- The bastard lovechild of /r/Drama and 4chan's /pol/. Founded during one of /r/Drama's many private phases by people who weren't allowed in, it quickly turned into an edgy meme sub and was taken over by people who got banned from /r/Drama. Got axed in the summer of 2020, shortly before the great banwave.
- /r/Drama
- The bastard lovechild of 4chan's /b/ and /r/SubredditDrama (or at least it was such until August 2020, when the admins banned /r/Drama from linking to any Reddit URLs). Begat the now-banned /r/DeuxRama. Has occasionally made mainstream news, most notably when its users put on their Sherlock Holmes hats and debunked a fake nude of AOC. We aren't making this up.[138]
- /r/GamersRiseUp
- Originally a spin-off of a sub that actually knew what it was doing, r/GamingCircleJerk. It was originally people making fun of angry anti-SJW gamers by making memes about them. Actual alt-right gamers and bigots invaded it in late 2019, and the sub was no longer satirical in nature. Popular memes included Joker memes,[note 6] “We live in a society”,[note 7] “Gamers Rise Up”, memes about the n-word, 13/50, memes about hatred of women and minorities, transphobic memes, and many more bigoted and pro-alt-right memes. It was banned on the 8th of March 2020.
- /r/LegalAdvice
- Proof that legal advice should never be given on the internet. Many of their moderators are cops, which leads to severe downplaying and censorship on police-related violence and issues. Similarly, the subreddit has issues with an "in-crowd" of Quality Contributors who are given preferential treatment when it comes to giving advice, even if said advice is completely wrong. On the other end, the people who post on the subreddit tend to either ask how to get away with actual crimes or ask for situations where the best advice that is given is "talk to a lawyer".
- /r/UnpopularOpinion
- A "free speech" subreddit where people can post "unpopular opinions". Popular topics on the subreddit include anti-LGBT, fat people bashing, far-right conservatism, anarchism, and religious fundamentalism.
- /r/WallStreetBets
- A stock trading advice subreddit. Colloquially described as "like 4chan got access to a Bloomberg Terminal", most of its members pride themselves on losing as much money as possible. The subreddit has been subjected to several scams and has reached media fame a few times. The subreddit achieved mainstream attention when it's members decided to pump and dump Gamestop shares to stick it to hedge funds who had intended to "short" the company (essentially betting that the shares would go down).
WTF?
- /r/cocaine
- A place where people post pictures of cocaine and talk about getting high on cocaine. Yes, really.
- /r/heroin
- Like /r/cocaine, but for an even harder drug.
- /r/meth
- Like /r/heroin, but for an even harder drug.
- /r/opiates
- A strong contender for "most depressing large community on Reddit." It contains very little useful advice on harm reduction or for people who want to get clean. Has previously played host to scammers, including an especially nasty blackmailer who earned users' trust, got their personal information, and then extorted them with threats to expose them as addicts to employers, partners, etc.[139] The mods started running a tighter ship (by online opium den standards) after this incident. Still, the rules meant to protect users continue to be broken.
- /r/wouldyoufuckmywife
- A place where men post nudes of their wives and wives post nudes of themselves.
- /r/Misanthropy
- A subreddit dedicated to, well, misanthropy. Infested with edgy kids, nihilists, and extreme "doomers" who believe that humanity is made of horrible, heartless beings and promote the eradication of humanity, either by sterilization or more extreme methods. Despite despising humanity for being arrogant, selfish, and cruel, the sub members often boast about being "enlightened", rant about being mildly inconvenienced, and celebrate and fantasize about the deaths and suffering of people. Non-misanthropes are treated with scorn for not "realizing" the horrible waste of oxygen they are and defending an existence that, in their minds, is made pure of hate, evil, and suffering.
Other controversies
Gullibility
Redditors, like most massive online communities, are known for being particularly gullible and easily sent into a frenzy. As many Redditors are "passive content consumers" who only read the title and then upvote or downvote accordingly, without reading or participating in the comments, many posts with extremely misleading or false titles are upvoted to the front page of Reddit. It is common to see a highly upvoted article on the front page, only for the top upvoted comment in the thread to provide a detailed debunking of the article's claims. Reddit is at least as susceptible as the Twitterati to hoaxes about pet topics like Republicans, marijuana, gun control, Bitcoin, feminists, workers' rights, and so forth.
In a well-known example, Redditors fell for a hoax involving a user named "LucidEnding," who claimed to be about to use Oregon's right-to-death laws to perform assisted suicide. After redditors sent him thousands of comments and well-wishes, some users finally discovered his alleged mode of suicide (IV therapy) is not legal in Oregon. In the first of many incidents, Gawker writer Adrian Chen joked that he was behind the LucidEnding profile.[140]
Violentacrez, jailbait and creepshots
Violentacrez was a Reddit user responsible for creating and moderating many of the NSFW subreddits, including /r/jailbait and later, /r/creepshots.
/r/jailbait (2007 to 2011) was a vastly popular subreddit devoted to images of "clothed" (often naked but with no genitalia showing) teenage girls, often heavily sexualized and taken from Facebook or Photobucket pages without the subject's knowledge. In October 2011, /r/ShitRedditSays brought attention to the existence of /r/jailbait, and the mainstream media got involved; after an exposé by Anderson Cooper of CNN, Reddit shut the sub down. A noisy portion of Reddit now despises Cooper for doing his job.[141]
/r/creepshots was a subreddit devoted to posting images of women taken without their consent. Although "upskirt" shots were later banned, hundreds were posted here. Notably, a high school teacher was arrested and fired after posting images of girls in his class on /r/creepshots. Like /r/jailbait, /r/creepshots was brought to the mainstream media's attention by /r/ShitRedditSays and was later shut down during the public relations debacle involving Violentacrez.
Violentacrez posted hundreds, perhaps thousands of images to Reddit. He also regularly made outlandish comments about his sexual history, most notably claiming in an Ask Me Anything session that he had sex with his stepdaughter. In October 2012, Gawker writer Adrian Chen obtained Violentacrez's real identity, that of 49-year-old Michael Brutsch from Arlington, Texas, from a disgruntled former friend who met Brutsch at a Reddit meetup and became disillusioned with his disturbing sexual behavior. Chen contacted Brutsch and informed him that he would be writing an article about Brutsch's online behavior. On October 12, 2012, this article was posted.
War was declared.
/r/ShitRedditSays
A subreddit devoted to criticizing, making fun of, and drawing attention to the ignorant and otherwise disturbing content that some Redditors shower with upvotes. SRS users typically find upvoted comments, post them to SRS, and then make fun of or heavily criticize the users involved. SRS was originally designed as a subreddit to try and educate these users, but when those attempts were met with severe downvoting, the users decided to turn the subreddit into the "circlejerk" it is known for today. Because SRS is supposed to be a safe space for marginalized groups to talk without fear of downvotes, those who violate the circlejerk or attempt to argue their viewpoint find themselves swiftly banned, ostensibly to preserve the "safe space" for people who would get downvoted elsewhere on Reddit.[note 8] This practice tends to upset other subreddits, which typically have a much more tolerant policy on speech and are less likely to issue bans (Yes, even /r/mensrights has a better speech record than /r/ShitRedditSays), and users who believe they have been unfairly banned.
This results in /r/ShitRedditSays being blamed for all manner of things by all manner of people in Reddit, such as vote brigading, publishing personal information on other users, and conducting campaigns of harassment against other Redditors. The fact that there is no definitive proof of an SRS-wide conspiracy for anything worse than cynical insults kept strictly within the subreddit itself[note 9] which is continuously emphasized by the admins of Reddit[142] does not seem to stop them being viewed as a mystical bogeyman or part of an even greater conspiracy encompassing the Reddit Admins (particularly former interim CEO Ellen Pao), who allegedly turned a blind eye.
One such conspiracy that seems to pop up as proof perennially is the doxing of Youtube comedians Jon "JonTron" Jafari and Stephen "Boogie2988" Williams by someone claiming to be from the SRS IRC chatroom over their support of Gamergate, despite one of them (Williams) having had little to do with Gamergate at the time of the doxxing. However, the main piece of evidence claimed to prove this conspiracy is a screenshot of a now-deleted anonymous post on Pastebin (a service that anyone can post text to) signed with the SRS IRC address at the bottom of the page. No IRC logs, SRS posts, etc., have been found corroborating the allegation that SRS members had posted it. The style of the doxxing is more consistent with a false flag operation against SRS than a malicious act by SRS users.[143]
/r/creepyPMs
Another "safe space" for people, largely women, who are creeped upon or harassed via text/SMS or private messages on social media. Reddit's personal messaging system is one of their sources: that is to say if a photo of yourself (no matter the context) goes to the front page — and you look any bit attractive to the hivemind — expect a veritable flood of sexual advances from a large number of the single 20/30-year-olds that inhabit the site.[144]
/r/fatpeoplehate
/r/fatpeoplehate, as its name implies, was set up for people who are so completely enveloped with rage about other people being fat that they have to post about it on the Internet, this obviously being a rational activity engaged in by only the most well-adjusted of individuals. Naturally, with Reddit management not caring about any shitty content on their servers (unless it somehow causes negative consequences to Reddit itself), it was allowed to live until the point it was determined that it was being used to harass other people both on and off Reddit and that its moderators were not banning users who were engaging in this behavior, which included harassing a fat person on a suicide support subreddit and mocking and attacking the staff of Imgur.[145] This, naturally, led to a huge fit amongst the Reddit userbase, who was convinced that, as opposed to this being an expression of one of Reddit's famous few hard and fast rules ("if you're harassing people or brigading other subreddits, we will ban the shit out of you"), it was actually a "politically correct" judgment on the content of /r/FatPeopleHate itself. This, clearly, makes no sense, as Reddit left up myriad other subreddits that don't brigade while also being filled with all manner of racism, misogyny, and rape advocacy, as well as the non-FPH-affiliated /r/FatPeopleStories, which has not engaged in any harassing behavior of note (while, it must be said, also being somewhat lighter on the "hatred" aspect). Simultaneously, FPH's defenders also tried the old "but SRS brigades too" argument, which, as previously noted, doesn't work, because SRS doesn't brigade. However, SRS did take credit for the banning on the basis that everyone would blame them anyway and that it was funny.
The result of this was of FPH users creating new replacement FatPeopleHate subreddits (which were promptly banned). It also resulted in them invading existing subreddits such as two whale watching communities which were accidentally banned on suspicions of being FPH clones after FPHers started making threads there and were later unbanned when the subreddits' moderators explained the situation to an administrator.[146]) With the administrators cracking down on any attempts to make a new FatPeopleHate subreddit, FPH users began posting obesity-related content to other subreddits (which was promptly deleted).[147] When FPH users realized that their tantrum did not work, they began threatening to up sticks and move to Voat, a Reddit clone which promised a completely hands-off approach to hosting content and is, as such, beloved by racists, misogynists, etc. The consensus was that they were more than welcome to do so and were encouraged to follow through. Voat's instability led the FPH users on a brief exodus to 8chan before returning to Voat as their site of choice to stew in their hatred. Not content with just ersatz Reddit, an FPH member also created their own Imgur clones because Imgur had been removing FPH uploads; the first was called Slimgur (which was shut down after someone uploaded child pornography), and the current one is called SLiMG.[148]
/r/Games and /r/BlackPeopleTwitter April Fools acts
On April 1, 2019, the moderators of the /r/Games subreddit made an, ironically, completely serious post to the subreddit[149] announcing that the subreddit would be locked from posting and commenting for the day, to shed light on what they perceived to be serious issues regarding behavior and postings of many of the users in the subreddit. As expected, whenever they are called out on their actions, users ran to their respective subreddits[150][151] to complain about how being locked out of a subreddit they probably never used for 24 hours is a complete and utter injustice. Hilariously, and what can only be described as pure, unadulterated irony, The r/pcgaming post concerning the matter ended up being locked by the sub's moderators because, as they put it, the comments and behavior being demonstrated in the thread were literally proving r/Game's arguments right about toxicity in gaming culture.
Similarly, the moderators of /r/BlackPeopleTwitter, a subreddit about funny and relatable social media postings from people of color, made the announcement that they were closing the subreddit to only black Redditors, requiring photo proof to participate[152]. This was done to bring attention to the level of racism, both casual and direct, that was being shared on the sub. It went over about as well as one would expect. Before the reopening of the subreddit and the follow-up post from the BPT mods,[153] dozens of threads from white users angry about the announcement sprouted in the more toxic parts of Reddit,[154] including the creation of a brand new subreddit titled /r/SubForWhitePeopleOnly, which was swiftly "quarantined" by Reddit admins from the level of racist and white supremacist material that immediately sprung from it.
The best of Reddit
Thankfully, the particularly notorious subreddits tend to be in the minority (although the users who favor them do occasionally leak). The long tail of Reddit is an amazing place. The nature of how communities and networks form has led to a great number of subreddits on a bouillabaisse of topics, from hometowns (e.g. /r/Boston, /r/PeoriaIL) to home countries (/r/De[utschland], /r/Australia) to interests and hobbies (/r/DIY, /r/books) to fandoms (/r/ASOIAF, /r/TheWalkingDead). The better of these include:
- /r/ActualLesbians
- A friendly, supportive, trans-inclusive subreddit for queer women and allies
- r/ADHD
- A subreddit where people with ADHD, people who are related to someone who has ADHD, and people who want to learn more about it can discuss their experiences and get support from each other
- /r/adorableoldpeople
- A subreddit that showcases the sweet, innocent, and just plain adorable things the elderly do.
- /r/AgainstHateSubreddits
- A community dedicated to exposing hateful communities and content on Reddit, however, the subeddit and its users have widely been criticized for being biased (Only reporting on hateful centre-wing or right-wing subreddits) and targeting edgy subs such as r/DarkFunny.
- /r/asexuality
- A place where asexuals, asexual allies, and anyone who wants to learn more about the asexual community is free to go. It’s known for being supportive of both asexuality and other sexual orientations. It is usually more than happy to support others in the community and help non-asexuals better understand the orientation.
- /r/AskScience, /r/askhistorians and related subs
- Good starting points if you need homework help, and often features real-life academics
- /r/AskTransgender
- An incredibly supportive safe space for trans people.
- r/AteTheOnion
- A subreddit for the unfortunate souls who posted satirical news on Twitter thinking it was real news.
- /r/aww
- Probably the nicest subreddit on the site. Its more recent tendency to post ‘adorable’ pictures of cops with police dogs suspiciously close to the news breaking of a police shooting yet another unarmed black man is...worrying, to say the least, but on the whole, the sub has an extremely present and friendly community, with some lovely pictures of adorable animals! (See also: /r/eyebleach)
- /r/BadEconomics
- Honestly, the best subs are the ones covering how bad the other subs are. /r/economics (or ones with similar content) has some competent people, but also all sorts of Reddit quackery. /r/badeconomics is the single best place on all of Reddit to discuss anything related to Econ by a large margin. See also /r/BadHistory, /r/BadLinguistics, /r/BadLegalAdvice, /r/iamveryculinary, /r/fitnesscirclejerk.
- /r/badhistory
- Features a tonne of amusing """interpretations""" of historical fact
- /r/BadPhilosophy
- Cousin of /r/BadEconomics. Annoyingly circlejerky at times and not as good for serious discussion, but great at savaging the dimwittedness that the rest of Reddit spawns.
- /r/BanVideoGames
- A Facebook group where concerned Christian parents raise awareness of the n*zi propaganda of v*deog*mes plaguing God's All-American children. Poe'd to oblivion by /r/gaming and /r/pewdiepiesubmissions.
- /r/BestOfOutrageCulture
- A sampling of apoplectic rants and overreactions by other users who are, as the title suggests, outraged by a topic (usually something trivial).
- /r/circlebroke2
- /r/circlejerk's antifascist cousin that highlights the bigotry plaguing Reddit's larger communities. Think of it like /r/ShitRedditSays before it became a circlejerk.
- r/dataconspiratardshate
- Conspiracy theorists love to make up statistics that they claim proves their worldview. Use this to find more credible info they willfully ignore.
- /r/debunkthis
- When you feel like a visit to the shooting range.
- /r/DerScheisser
- /r/ShitWehraboosSay's less serious counterpart. Dedicated to memes ridiculing Nazis and tankies.
- /r/dogelore
- A subreddit dedicated to the modern wave of Doge memes, where "dog does something uncharacteristic and wacky." Aside from the sub's fondness for using the term retard, it is notably LGBTQ-friendly and can be surprisingly serious and wholesome with some of its memes. [note 10]
- /r/ExplainLikeImFive
- Complex or confusing phenomena and situations to be explained in layman's terms.
- /r/forwardsfromgrandma
- It's time to see what ol' granny's up to!
- /r/gatesopencomeonin
- A sub dedicated to sharing content that encourages inclusivity and equality.
- /r/ftm
- Support sub for trans men and other afab (assigned female at birth) trans people.
- /r/inceltear
- Collects and mocks outrageous and ridiculous examples of misogynist stupidity while hosting weekly threads to support men (and women) who struggle with dating.
- /r/oldpeoplefacebook
- Like /r/forwardsfromgrandma, but wholesome. For when you realize that most of ‘what ol’ granny’s up to’ involves being violently racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic, and need a palate cleanser.
- /r/forwardsfromreddit, /r/forwardsfromklandma, and /r/forwardsfromhitler
- Subs dedicated to posting, criticizing, and mocking bigotry of an even worse flavor than /r/forwardsfromgrandma (in order, the three subs cover edgy ‘anti-SJW’ teens, KKK supporters (or people who may as well be), and literal, actual Nazis)
- /r/Gamingcirclejerk
- A subreddit meant to mock angry "anti-SJW" gamers that complain about things like "forced diversity" by basically roleplaying as them. It's designed in a way such that it's prevented from actual gamers like that can't take over the sub, unlike a certain other sub that was meant to be like it. It does this because it allows users to /unjerk, which means to break character and be serious.
- /r/gardening
- A place for people interested in gardening to share their progress and get advice from fellow gardeners. Generally, a very supportive and congratulatory community in which members react positively to whatever people post.
- /r/GenderCynical
- A satire subreddit dedicating to mocking and picking apart TERF nonsense.
- /r/Goats
- The official favorite subreddit of RationalWiki for obvious reasons. And /r/goatpics for the discerning gentlegoat.
- /r/HaveWeMet
- The semi-official online community center for the residents of Lower Duck Pond. (In actuality, it is a massive post-based role-playing game where Redditors pretend to have known each other for a long time. It has its own improvised storyline, internal politics and wiki.)
- /r/insanepeoplefacebook
- A collection of the craziest posts on social media. Craziness can range from average nuttery to absolute psychopathy. (Poe's law DEFINITELY applies!) (Possible NSFW warning!)
- /r/librandu
- The most malevolent place on Reddit, a safe space for Indian social liberals. Dedicated to ridiculing bigots as it hides behind a satirical ideology of Sharia Bolshevism.
- r/LGBT
- A pro Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans subreddit to discuss anything related to the LGBTQ+.
- /r/MensLib
- A scarce example of a community that brings attention to the societal and internal struggles men face without attacking women or feminism. In addition to addressing these problems, it puts a lot of focus on debunking the pseudoscience and misogyny that runs rampant in other men's rights communities.
- /r/mtf
- Support sub for trans women and other amab (assigned male at birth) trans people.
- /r/News
- A subreddit about journalism where news articles are shared.
- /r/nottheonion
- For real-world happenings that cross into the realm of Poe.
- /r/okbuddydengist
- A compilation of memes mocking people who think China is socialist or will be socialist by 2050. Unlike most anti-CCP subs, it makes sure that sinophobes are not welcome.
- /r/OutOfTheLoop
- For catching up on trends, memes, and news stories you don't understand or haven't heard of.
- /r/raisedbynarcissists
- A source of support for people raised by a parent or parents with abusive personality traits, particularly those associated with cluster B personality disorders.
- /r/rarepuppers
- Bork bork. For images of "rare" looking animals, but mostly dogs.
- /r/RationalWiki
- Toot toot! We have our own horn too...that nobody seems to spend any time on. Currently on full moderation, as banned users were trying to use it as a platform.
- /r/scholar
- The Pirate Bay of academia. Their powers to ferret out obscure paywalled papers are stupendous.
- /r/SexWorkers, /r/SexWorkersOnly and /r/ClientCringe
- Useful subreddits to understand the perspectives of sex workers and see why the stigma against and banning of sex work makes no sense (many sex workers are in that line of work by choice, and laws against buying make it hard for them to conduct screening). Also helpful for potential clients to read to understand how to treat sex workers well.
- /r/ShitLeeaboosSay
- A satellite of /r/ShitWehraboosSay, but instead focusing on apologists for the Confederate States of America, termed "Leeaboos" after Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
- /r/ShitWehraboosSay
- Like /r/BadHistory, but exclusively dedicated to debunking myths about World War II, particularly Axis apologia. Be it relatively benign stuff like exaggerating the Third Reich's tanks' quality, or darker stuff like the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht", you can be sure that this sub contains a well-researched rebuttal.
- /r/ShitTankiesSay
- Requiescat in Pace. A subreddit similar to /r/ShitWehraboosSay, but dedicated to mocking and debunking apologia for Stalin, Mao, Kim Il Sung, and other Marxist-Leninist dictators. Fell apart and went private thanks to internecine drama within the mod team.
- /r/skeptic
- Annoyingly blokey and dumb at times, but people actually come to it asking for help dealing with foolishness and get good answers, so it can be a good place to help combat public stupidity. A good repository for skeptic-related news and blogposts not covered here.
- /r/spaceporn
- For amateur and professional images of space and the things in it (and not, as the title seem to imply, space-related smut). The rest of the SFW Porn Network is cool too.
- /r/stormfront
- A group of fine upstanding amateur meteorologists that stole the name before the right-wing hate site could get to it.
- /r/talesfromtechsupport
- Work at an IT helpdesk? A repository of frustrating (and very occasionally heartfelt) stories of dealing with IT clients. Sister subreddits include r/TalesFromRetail and r/TalesFromYourServer.
- /r/topmindsofreddit
- Showcasing the ramblings of Redditors who know THE TRUTH about the Jewish space-lizard Marxist bankers who are faking school shootings to destroy the white race... or something like that.
- /r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns
- A transgender meme sub.
- /r/vaxxhappened
- Collects and mocks outrageous and ridiculous examples of anti-vaxxer stupidity.
- /r/whatsthisbug
- A great community to help you identify what's currently making you say "NOPE".
- /r/WOSH
- A subreddit devoted to Our Lord and Savior, WOSH (in reality, a parody religion that worships a strange Dutch sculpture meant to represent "people who wait at the doctor's office" named Homunculus loxodontus
File:Wikipedia's W.svg , which became an Internet meme in Russia and other post-Soviet countries).
See also
External links
- What is this thing called Reddit?, BBC News
- Reddit is a failed state, The Verge
- Can Reddit Grow Up?, The New York Times
- Reddit or Stormfront?
- Let's play Reddit's Controversial Opinions Bingo! -Or if you want to lose your faith in humanity, enter these terms into the search bar.
- Anatomy of a Circlejerk, or A Grand Unified Theory of Redditors A decent (if generalized) explanation of the mindset of not just Redditors but the comments section of some other popular sites as well (it helps that they tend to overlap in commentators).
- You are benned from r/conservative
- Reddit Masstagger A tool that automatically tags posters in extremist subreddits.
Notes
- In a stroke of genius, SRS immediately claimed full responsibility on the basis that they were going to be blamed for it anyway
- The minor issue of the founder not logging onto /r/atheism in about a year. Gotta keep current, y'know.
- The term "poz" is a corruption of the word "positive," as in "HIV-positive."
- TERFs and far-right transphobes often collaborate and treat each other as allies, even though little often unites them outside of their views on trans rights. In fact, in online spaces, the two are often indistinguishable. As such, many far-right transphobes would participate in the subreddit solely to join in on the trans bashing.
- The exclusionary trend started by this subreddit was continued in r/LGDropTheB (which has been made private), r/LDropTheG (which has been banned), and finally, the satirical r/VoidDropTheL.
- Referencing the Batman villain, who tends to get idolized by incels.
- Referencing George Costanza from Seinfield, oft combined with Joker memes to the point where the 2019 movie about the Joker included the line.
- It does sound a little harsh, and it and related subreddits have had their share of unpopular or in-poor-taste ban decisions, but we're dealing with an audience that tends to verge into boob jokes and dank memes within a short period of time (particularly on default subreddits).
- In fact, the subreddit uses a automated historical vote tracking system to maintain transparency in preventing vote brigades
- One popular example involves Doge and his wife (who is actually Animal Crossing character Isabelle) being told by their child that they are trans. Not only are they both approving and accepting of their daughter's decision, but they even refer to her by her preferred pronouns when in bed together later that night. Though this example was posted in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit before doge posts were banned and users seceded to form /r/dogelore, it is still largely accepted by the community and is considered part of the "Doge Canon".
References
- Put Your Rage Into a Cartoon and Exit Laughing, New York Times
- William Shatner Voices Dismay At Reddit's Dark Side, Huffington Post
- erik (hueypriest). "Top Posts of the Year and Best of 2012 Awards", Reddit Blog
- Reddit CEO Admits 'We're Still In The Red', Business Insider
- As of May 2013: 71 million unique views, 5487 active subreddits, approaching 5 billion page views a month.
- The Horrifying Food of Reddit's Bro-Cooking Community , Vice
- Why Reddit sucks: some scientific evidence, Washington Post
- Osno, Evan, "Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich", New Yorker 1.30.17.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removing_harassing_subreddits/
- https://voat.co/
- These voat.co infidels also take goats name in vain!
- Chitra Ramaswamy, "Is Reddit’s Ellen Pao just too radical for Silicon Valley’s unequal terrain?", The Guardian
- Derrick Clifton, "The problem with the backlash against Reddit's CEO that nobody’s talking about", The Daily Dot
- Megan Condis, "#RedditRevolt is harassment dressed up as free speech", Al Jazeera America
- Gay Farang, "RedditRevolt: Just Another Offshoot of GamerGate", Mid or Techies
- Mike Isaac, "Ellen Pao Is Stepping Down as Reddit’s Chief", The New York Times
- Alexis "kn0thing" Ohanian, "An old team at reddit", /r/announcements, Reddit
- Sam Biddle, [Gawker.com: archive.is, web.archive.org "Was Ellen Pao Set Up? Former Reddit CEO Unleashes on Founders"], Gawker
- Noah Kulwin, "Reddit Chief Engineer Bethanye Blount Quits After Less Than Two Months on the Job", Re/code
- Gabrielle Bluestone, [Gawker.com: archive.is, web.archive.org "Top Reddit Engineer Quits Saying Ousted CEO Ellen Pao Was Set Up to Fail"], Gawker
- T.C. Sottek, "Reddit's secrets are being leaked by the company's former CEO", The Verge
- Adi Robertson, "Reddit needs to stop pretending racism is valuable debate", The Verge, July 29, 2015
- T.C. Sottek, "Reddit bans several of its most racist communities", The Verge
- Steve Huffman, "Content Policy Update", /r/announcements, Reddit, "We didn't ban them for being racist. We banned them because we have to spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with them. If we want to improve Reddit, we need more people, but CT's existence and popularity have also made recruiting here more difficult."
- https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Reddit-Atheism-have-such-a-bad-reputation-and-is-r-atheism-a-bad-atheist-community
- Finally.
- Link to different sub mocking them for it
- /r/badhistory deconstructs this
- "KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!" "Science Tools!" - updated Bill Nye Theme Song
- Warning direct link
- Sadly it is so
- "Isn't r/Conspiracy overwhelmingly opposed to 'big government?' And yet they admire the man who led one of the most intrusive governments in history!"
- Top Moderator of r/conspiracy, axolotl_peyotl, has been permanently suspended. via Reddit
- A year end review for the insanity of Moderator action in r/Conspiracy. (01-01-2020 to 31-12-2020)
- Robertson, A. (June 26, 2019). Reddit quarantines Trump subreddit r/The_Donald for violent comments. The Verge. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- https://www.adweek.com/digital/reddit-finally-bans-hate-speech-and-subreddit-for-trump/
- /r/DonaldTrump has been banned, /r/subredditdrama
- https://www.dailydot.com/debug/chapo-trap-house-subreddit-quarantine/
- https://redd.it/hi3yq7
- https://genderdesk.wordpress.com/2020/10/12/nathan-larson-has-been-busy-again/
- https://old.reddit.com/r/WikiInAction/comments/kgm18x/this_is_now_a_subreddit_for_mocking_insane/
- https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/13/17568556/kotakuinaction-reddit-mod-shut-down-administrator
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ENLIGHTENEDCENTRISM/comments/c78e0e/from_top_of_all_time_on_watchredditdie_the
- https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchRedditDie/comments/hi4t4q/reddit_banning_rthe_donald_and_rchapotraphouse
- https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/apcmtf/reddit_users_rally_against_chinese_censorship
- https://old.reddit.com/r/AgainstHateSubreddits/comments/fhgsmz/watch_reddit_lie_understanding_the_latest
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Gamingcirclejerk/comments/hi4885/_
- https://www.reddit.com/r/TopMindsOfReddit/comments/fwjskj/watch_reddit_lie_part_ii_how_rwatchredditdie_has
- https://www.reddit.com/r/TopMindsOfReddit/comments/cl35z7/rwatchredditdie_unironically_praising_hitler_but
- It's seriously that bad.
- Pretty much.
- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xxymb/here-are-reddits-whiniest-most-low-key-toxic-subreddits
- https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/reddit-new-zealand-shooting-islamophobia
- https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-9-months-reddit-finally-bans-group-spreading-thinly-veiled-anti-semitism
- https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/84fz1j/the_storm_has_been_calmed_cbts_stream_has_been/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20180415180311/https://www.reddit.com/r/greatawakening/comments/8cdmkh/warning_dont_seek_to_view_any_hrc_vid_relating_to/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Drama/comments/8cfkw7/yep_these_morons_totally_arent_pedophiles/dxekjn2/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/911truth/comments/5bkbjr/theory_as_to_why_the_911_terrorists_made_a/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/911truth/comments/5axxmg/why_are_nists_911_wtc_reports_false_and/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/911truth/comments/5a12zi/attention_soldiers/
- https://archive.is/Uxxvf
- https://www.reddit.com/r/overpopulation/top/?sort=top&t=all
- https://np.reddit.com/r/FULLCOMMUNISM/comments/4tjh8n/the_sliding_scale_of_opinions/
- Seattle Police officers were recorded running into pedestrians with their bikes and arresting the victims for assault., Reddit comment by reallymental on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Seattle Police officers were recorded running into pedestrians with their bikes and arresting the victims for assault., Reddit comment by DataEast1 on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Seattle Police officers were recorded running into pedestrians with their bikes and arresting the victims for assault., Reddit comment by ConfusedEgg39 on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Cop punches girl in the head, Reddit comment by kyfto on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut
- ACAB, Reddit comment by Bob29400 on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut
- Seattle Police officers were recorded running into pedestrians with their bikes and arresting the victims for assault., Reddit comment by Letsdothisfish on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Cop punches girl in the head, Reddit comment by f0rsi on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- NSFW: Woman raped, sodomized, beaten, and failed to get medical care in jail by cops/staff. Went into a coma yesterday and died today., Reddit comment by latinasaretoogood on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Seattle Police officers were recorded running into pedestrians with their bikes and arresting the victims for assault., Reddit comment by Copkiller696969 on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Seattle Police officers were recorded running into pedestrians with their bikes and arresting the victims for assault., Reddit comment by The__Froth on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- ACAB, Reddit comment by TheFailSnail on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- ACAB, Reddit comment by gakman41 on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- The replies to this ATF Waco anniversary post are hilarious, Reddit thread on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Let's honor those who burned people alive in their compound..., Reddit thread on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- The Waco Incident – 20 Years Later, Reddit thread on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- 72yo Grandma Shot Dead as SWAT Raided Her Home To Arrest Her Son For Marijuana, Reddit thread on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- "Disabled" Cop Fleeces Taxpayers While Working Full-Time for FBI, Reddit thread on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Our police act like idiots, because on average they really are., Reddit thread on r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut.
- Warning direct link
- Subreddit Drama almost has too many posts on this
- Most of the planet, esesentially
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Drama/comments/4tcms3/cops_perform_noknock_raid_on_rleftwithsharpedge/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AganistGayMarriage/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstGayMarriage/
- Reddit Bans Alt-Right Group https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/01/reddit-bans-alt-right-group.html
- https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/hia9a9/all_the_subs_banned_in_the_ban_wave/
- New admin policy announced, including the banning of r/the_donald and r/chapotraphouse. Discuss this dramatic happening here!, /r/subredditdrama
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/brandonwall/racist-reddit-group-embraces-alleged-charleston-shooting-man
- https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/05/reddit-finally-bans-rcoontown-and-other-hateful-subreddits-updates-user-policies/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/3fxlsn/i_am_a_moderator_of_the_now_banned_racist/
- https://archive.is/olMyX
- /r/DebateFascism on reddit. "This subreddit was banned due to a violation of Reddit’s content policy against posting violent content."
- https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateNazism/
- /r/European on reddit. "This subreddit was banned due to being unmoderated."
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstHateSubreddits/comments/9iwe0c/rfrenworld_the_mde_revival_subreddits_get_weird/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/hardunpopularopinion
- https://subredditstats.com/r/milliondollarextreme
- https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ishmaeldaro/reddit-sam-hyde-million-dollar-extreme-ban
- https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/does-anything-go-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-racist-corner-of-reddit/277585/
- https://np.reddit.com/r/Physical_Removal/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstHateSubreddits/comments/7u3rsw/rwhiterights_has_been_banned/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteRights/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5egcp6/another_beautiful_couple/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5e83qv/breeding_out_the_colour_and_how_it_relates_to_us/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5cpqj7/what_the_world_would_think_if_whites_didnt_have/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5cotmx/fuck_you_japan_get_yourself_together_and_stop/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5508e3/chewing_the_fat_on_why_asian_male_toxic/d86gfz5/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/547elr/just_saw_this_video_in_my_youtube_feed_only_one/d80xjvq/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/56sxmy/the_demonizing_of_china_hurts_all_asian_americans/d8n1ygm/[a w]
- http://www.racialslurs.com/slur/whitey
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs#W
- https://np.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/52caj9/how_to_slack_off_make_money_and_fuck_over_whitey/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5czvag/based_thai_bro_stands_up_to_shit_on_whitey
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5cjeqg/whitey_gets_a_taste_of_the_minority_experience
- {{a|https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5bolwn/mindy_kaling_is_cancer_abcdesis_agrees]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5d3tdb/doublestandards_white_people_are_the_real[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5fqy8e/the_new_yellow_peril_middleaged_white_men_dying/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5auilk/how_do_you_raise_a_female_relative_in_this/d9jzyca/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5ieo6m/in_east_asian_communities_our_parents_raise_us/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/5gdwp6/freeforall/darkhug/[a w]
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstHateSubreddits/comments/6ddypx/call_for_genocide_good_thing_whole_of_east_asia/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/EasternSunRising/comments/80iln6/lorde_refuses_to_perform_in_israel/duvvqoj/[a w]
- Vietnam and China, despite being nominally communist, having frosty relations
- Misogyny: The Sites, SPLC
- https://www.fstdt.com/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=109504 We are not making this up
- Joshua Goldberg, the fake Aussie jihadist, had a hand in every online fight
- Unmasking a troll: Aussie 'jihadist' Australi Witness a 20-year-old American nerd
- The Verge - Reddit’s Female Dating Strategy offers women advice — and a strict rulebook for how to act
- https://www.reddit.com/r/GenderCritical/comments/7fdj38/peak_trans_vi_tell_your_story_here/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/4z71la/no_christianity_should_not_welcome_or_include/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/CatholicMemes/comments/hg3tgt/a_truly_catholic_church/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/CatholicMemes/comments/hsh6hw/catholics_have_never_been_antiscience_we_invented/
- https://np.reddit.com/r/prolife/comments/4p3a1v/ironically_it_was_a_holocaust_survivor_who_was/
- wikiFeet: how online foot fetishists debunked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s fake nude, The Guardian
- https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/bopbzu/in_response_to_a_blackmailingextortion_scandal/
- [Gawker.com: archive.is, web.archive.org Why the Internet Thinks I Faked Having Cancer on a Message Board]
- Enter if you wish.
- "The accusations of brigading we have investigated many times, and the data just doesn't support the claims." --spez, "Reddit in 2016 (Archive)"
- A KotakuInAction user who regularly logs chats on the /r/ShitRedditSays IRC room mentioned that they could not find any instances of the unusual slang found in the doxx. And let's be frank here, what kind of utter moron would knowingly attach their name or organization to something like this?
- Oh, you think we're joking?
- https://np.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removing_harassing_subreddits/cs20pnh
- Reddit, Administrator Ocrasorm explains how /r/whalewatching was banned and unbanned
- Reddit, /r/ThePopcornStand "The banning of /r/fatpeoplehate."
- Archive of Slimgur/SLiMG creator discussing the suspension of Slimgur
- Reddit: r/Games is closed for April Fool's. Find out why here!
- KotakuInAction's predictably incoherent and rage-fuelled take: “r/Games is closed for April Fool’s. Find out why in here!” - proceeds to go on a screed about bigotry and negativity, lists SocJus ‘charities’ including the infamous Hope not Hate"
- r/pcgaming's "discussion": "r/Games has been locked for April Fools, and it isn't a joke"
- "Announcement: BlackPeopleTwitter is now for Black People Only"
- /r/BlackPeopleTwitter is open to everyone again
- comment by BPT moderator DubTeeDub, who compiled a list of threads