Yeah, I know, it's reddit drama, but I can't look away.
Everything you say is right and true, but some people want to invest their time and energy in an open marketplace of ideas that is not arbitrarily and capriciously censored for corporate whims. Reddit has the right to do whatever they want, and redditors have the right to leave, which I think many have and more probably will. Edit: Apparently, there will be an entire new category specially made for "offensive content," requiring a login to view and will feature no ads. Still sounds like they're going to ban other subreddits which openly advocate for physical violence. It just sounds like a messy, opaque compromise that will ultimately please no one. Reddit has become the bunghole of the internet, I just don't think it can be fixed. Too many people go there specifically for that content now.
You know what, after reading this same damn quote for the 10th damn time, I'm starting to agree with Huffman's ideal. If reddit's admins definitively and confidently started molding the community's values, they would be able to actually make reddit a more coherent, united community– with a bonus of less dead kid pics. An obvious problem is fuck you this is reddit the users decide what the community looks like and we're just about the shittiest bunch of humans that ever farted out a comment– and that's not the sort of problem that Huffman's utopia can work around. You can ban a thousand nasty subreddits but the shit-stains are on the wall, and some people are admiring it as artwork. I just don't know what he's planning on accomplishing.We as a community need to decide together what our values are.