I was merely pointing out that whether or not this was a targeted raid from /pol/ or Stormfront or any of the other racist websites out there is irrelevant. Racism is endemic on reddit. Stormfront has a bunch of people there because it is the optimum environment to foster bigotry. One of the rallying cries of racists and bigots in general when people object to their views is that those against racism are in fact the real bigots. Essentially arguing that refusing to tolerate intolerance is itself intolerant. This is literally one of the talking points of the modern neo-Nazi movement. And reddit tacitly endorses this by letting any bigot spout their insanity and hiding behind the protection of free speech as if this gives some moral high ground. The fact is, if your only defense for your argument is that it isn't illegal to say what you are saying, then your argument is pretty weak. Ultimately, reddit is a private website and obviously the owners can do whatever they want with it. This something that its users cannot seem to fathom in many cases. Reddit is not a democracy. But this doesn't excuse it from any moral culpability or criticism in fostering a seething cesspool of intolerance and extremism. They give hate groups a very public and popular place to deliver their message. False equivalence much? Watch how quickly posts criticizing something 'all women do' gets upvoted. Observe the victim complex whenever things like the pay gap and false rape are talked about. Reddit is pretty anti-feminist and all around misogynistic."It is worth noting that Stormfront has a pretty active presence on reddit and there are numerous racist subreddits. "
There is a large feminist presence on reddit also, they have numerous subreddits. Reddit must be highly feminist also.
You are taking the words of a small majority and saying they are a large majority. EVERY racist comment on that thread is downvoted. Are you really going to tell me reddit is racist when clearly racist shit that is not taken as a joke is downvoted? Perhaps reddit is insensitive, too keen to upvote things that may be racist but also appear to be lighthearted jokes, but that doesn't make reddit a bunch of racists. That is you making generalizations. "And reddit tacitly endorses this by letting any bigot spout their insanity and hiding behind the protection of free speech as if this gives some moral high ground. " They always hate the free speech, until the day comes that they are the ones who want to be speaking. Reddit isn't letting things happen under the guise of free speech. Reddit lets stuff happen because of a belief that through an open market of ideas, where everyone can speak without censorship, those who are wrong will become downvoted and disliked. "The fact is, if your only defense for your argument is that it isn't illegal to say what you are saying, then your argument is pretty weak." You, again, make massive generalizations for the sake of feeling superior about yourself. I don't agree with the stuff either, but it's not nearly as one sided as you make it out to be. "Ultimately, reddit is a private website and obviously the owners can do whatever they want with it. This something that its users cannot seem to fathom in many cases. " Ultimately, reddit is a business, and people use the internet because it's a free and open place to discuss and have ideas. Start banning the ones you don't like and you kill that entire notion. Kill that notion and people will go elsewhere. Reddit isn't some safe place where only good things can be said. It's a cut-throat system that is designed to show you when you are wrong, not by a moderator, but by your peers. "False equivalence much? " "Watch how quickly posts criticizing something 'all women do' gets upvoted" Oh, yes, i'm sure those comments were downvoted because they were supporting equality, not because they were being hasty and acting superior/demeaning to all parties reading. I've seen some of the shit that gets downvoted because it "criticizes all women do" and it's almost never because it's criticizing. What I was doing is pointing out the flaws in your own logic. The fact that subs exists that are stormfront proves nothing of reddit being stormfront focused. Hell, I bet if you compare sub counts the feminist subs outnumber the stormfront ones by a large margin. I can't tell however, because /r/stormfront is god damned hilarious.
Whelp, when I visited the thread it seemed like they were all downvoted. Maybe it was a different one, but I could have sworn every comment that was guilded like that was in the negative teens. And are you ignoring the fact that this s probably some outside source coming in and voting? Read the circlebroke thread. So far as I am aware this sort of racism never occurs naturally on reddit, and is either quickly down-voted or falls into the sorts of things I mentioned earlier. "If you want a community full of racist and sexist shit, make it yourself. I want a community without it and so I attack Reddit for putting up with it. " I want a community full of open ideas where racists are free to post, but free to be ridiculed and told why they are wrong. Censorship only makes people more angry and will never fix any issues. I'd rather see the issues and take them on than hide from them. "All the massively upvoted racist posts didn't exactly become downvoted and disliked, did they?" They also aren't active, are posts that are buried in an old thread, etc. https://np.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/28jwqv/brutal_robbery_of_girl_at_a_boost_mobile_store/ Look here, do you see any racist comments scrolling down the page? This isn't representative of reddit, this is representative of two or three people pulling a ton of crap out of context and pointing at reddit saying "IT'S SO RACIST" when the only real "racism", again, is of the sort I talked about before, where it is crappy jokes that are supposed to be funny because they are taboo. The comments aren't deleted either, as the links still work in the circlebroke thread.
"You can only blame brigading so often before it becomes the community doing it. I mean they obviously all have accounts and regularly do this shit " If a group that talks primarily outside of reddit, and has accounts purely to do actions on reddit, they are not redditors. "What, you think the Civil Rights Movement should have allowed Nazis to march with them and attack their goals?" Reddit isn't the civil rights movement. Any subreddit which wishes to push for civil rights is free to ban any sort of discussion or comments they like. Just look at what /r/feminism does. They are a bit too strict with the banning, IMO, but it is often for good reason and keeps the community intact. " It's not like the Internet is a less free place because racists have to make their own spots" It means reddit is a less free place, however. And, again, i'd rather see and deal with issues than push them to where they are hidden and I can live in bliss. "The point of an open Internet is that anyone can make their own community" Look at the structure of reddit for a moment. I also read reddit, and again, outside of the context of it being an "offensive joke" or some other sort of comment, nearly anything that is racist quickly gets downvoted.