It may be my fault but the focus shouldn't really be Reddit, this has repeated itself in Twitter, Facebook, various message boards, it was basically the downfall of Digg. In terms of Facebook they seem to be very much stricter in what they do and don't allow which insulates them legally. Want to show a beheading? Nope. Breastfeeding your baby? Nope. Someone flagged your WorldStar sourced video too many times? Yoink. Looking at the real world we see it even with the ISIS militia in Iraq. Even they, feeling they're righteous in their deeds, cover their faces, seemingly still needing the cloak of anonymity to carry out their most barbaric of activities. It's not only on the internet where we give in to our most base instincts when no one knows our names.Is this basically, "Is Reddit and/or its moderaters really a decent site/decent people if they don't do anything in the face of the really nasty stuff?"
Why is it awful? I think the thing that most struck people here in the UK when the July 7th bombings happened was the regular mundane lives the terrorists lived until the day they did the deed. The same with people caught in the recent child grooming rings. My contention is against the phrase "normal people". Do we all simply live in societies that reward good behaviour and decency in opposition to our nature? Are we mostly polite not because we really want to be but because we'd like it in reciprocation?
I wasn't saying that it was offensive. Just that a religiously and ideologically crazed radical isn't at all comparable to the average person. Not even the "lol phaggots suck dix" type. And I don't see anything wrong or disingenuous about treating people well in the hopes of being treated well in return. Reciprocation is the basis of every relationship and friendship I've ever had. It doesn't mean I'm fighting some suppressed nature to be an asshole.