I think terms like 'left' and 'right' can sometimes be pretty subjective in that political philosophies and ideologies are so very complex and intricate that it's hard to get a solid definition of either 'side'. At least for myself personally, I don't see the Reddit-strain of libertarianism as particularly leftist. I think the extent that a lot of people on Reddit go to extol the importance of free speech and individual liberties over and in opposition to pretty well-documented oppression of minorities and women screams right-wing ideology, though hidden it might well be.
See, I think it's a mistake to decide to start defining people based on how you see their beliefs. Those same people who might not go along with considerations of political correctness may also be in support of issues that are most definitely leftist. Welfare, gay rights, reproductive rights, rejection of religious taboo, environmental conservation, shifting more of the tax burden onto the rich, single payer health-care even. It's certainly true that politics in the US is more complex than simply left and right, but you can point to specific issues that tend to be more popular with one side or the other. Bernie Sanders doesn't stop being further to the left than Hilary Clinton simply because he acknowledges the importance of gun rights. At any rate, I'd say the simplest way of determining whether a group is on the left or the right is to take some surveys. Those surveys have in the past shown that reddit is to the left of the US in general. Maybe not to the left of some areas of Europe, but by the standards of the US it's typically been pretty leftist. Maybe it'd be better to ask a series of questions of each individual regarding a bunch of different policies and beliefs and use that to chart where they're at, but to judge people's position on the political spectrum between liberal and conservative based solely on one issue or another is going to mislead you. Especially when it's something as controversial as feminism. A couple years back a poll by Yougov and the Huffington Post showed 82% of respondents saying they believed that people should be treated equally regardless of gender and only 20% of respondents saying they considered themselves feminist. Clearly there's a sizable portion of the population that believes in gender equality but has some criticism of some sort of feminism. All of those people probably aren't secretly conservatives. It's also important to note that supporting a cause doesn't necessarily mean that you want that topic to be treated with kid gloves. You can be supportive of something and still think that jokes about it are funny or that humorless people are taking advantage of that situation to promote their stick in the mud attitude. Like you said, there's a lot more nuance to it than just left/right. Edit: j4d3 if PC meant "respect" I'd say something entirely different. It's cowardly enough to construct a strawman, are you really going to build it in response to someone who you have blocked?
But I feel like Reddit's broader community (not everyone, mind you) ultimately suffers from the age-old idea of just having a full on egalitarian movement without necessarily identifying that it is actually pretty necessary to focus on specific elements of society in a way that directly helps the oppressed. So what I mean is that, for example, I suspect that most people on Reddit or perhaps even those respondents to the poll you cited probably wouldn't agree that feminism is about full on gender equality (with a focus on specifically eliminating the biases and oppression that women face), but would probably think that it's more a case of incendiary rhetoric directed at men, which I don't really think it is in most cases. For example, I love Bernie Sanders, but some of the more libertarian factions on the subreddit supporting his campaign would probably be the exact sort of people he would not even remotely want to associate himself, or his progressive agenda, with. My point is that it's all very well and good to say that you're all for reproductive rights and equality for gender but then to be so vehemently opposed to movements that are dedicated to that very thing on the basis that they are 'PC' or infringe upon free speech and individual liberty is a bit strange to me. Especially when you consider that something like feminism isn't even some 100% unified movement but rather a pretty diverse thing in and of itself. It's like saying "fuck Islam because it is a cult that is composed of a bunch of terrorist misogynists that follow a warlord"; you're reducing a huge ideology into a few buzz-words in the name of some faux-liberalism. And yes, I've actually seen some comments that are very close to that above statement, from users that had otherwise leftist views. That is the sort of area ultimately where you see the right-wing tendencies of certain Redditors crop up, I think: honestly, if you compare what they say to what pundits on Fox News say (i.e, sure gender equality would be great but fuck those loud women trying to fight for it, those guys suck and are way too hostile and PC) I think you'd find a lot of similarities. Yes, it's a mistake to define people based on how an individual sees their beliefs, sure, but my point was that it's very hard to develop a very objective view of the political spectrum. I wouldn't necessarily say Redditors are rightists, not at all, but they have rightist tendencies when it comes to certain topics, in my opinion.
A fun browser extension for conversations like this: PC2Respect."Those same people who might not go along with considerations of treating people with respect may also be in support of issues that are most definitely leftist."
Well, feminism is about gender equality from a very specific perspective on society, namely one that assumes the existence of patriarchy. You don't need to demonize feminism as inherently anti-male to disagree with that concept and thus disagree with feminism's focus or some of the contemporary rhetoric that seems to accompany it. Likewise you don't need to worry about things like 'cultural appropriation' to be anti-racist. It's all well and good if you disagree with people's opinions on whatever, but it's disingenuous to decide that because someone thinks something you don't feel is very liberal they're suddenly a secret conservative even though they're life-long democrats who've always supported liberal causes. You may remember that back in the 90s it was liberals who were defending art and media that was under fire from religious conservatives. That the same sort of hypercritical attitude is coming from left-wing authoritarians rather than right-wing authoritarians doesn't suddenly push those who oppose it to the right. Again, the question here is how much evidence exists that reddit is leaning to the right. Pointing out redditors who oppose authoritarian positions isn't the same as pointing out conservatives.
The concept of patriarchy arose within a certain branch of feminism, and tho it's permeated it's not a fundamental concept to feminism per se. Well, to characterize anyone as liberal, conservative, or whatever is necessarily going to be a generalization. Capitalist libertarians are hard for so many people to grasp because they tend to be "liberal" on social issues and "conservative" on economic issues. Hence, it's useful to have a seperate term to describe them, because there are so many people that can be characterized that way. Maybe what we need is a new term to for people who tend towards what's usually considered to be liberal positions, except on identity issues.feminism is about gender equality from a very specific perspective on society, namely one that assumes the existence of patriarchy.
it's disingenuous to decide that because someone thinks something you don't feel is very liberal they're suddenly a secret conservative even though they're life-long democrats who've always supported liberal causes.
"Left" and "Right" shouldn't be subjective. The Left has been liberal and the Right has been conservative since 1789. The problems of definition come from muddy thinking and misapplication. It's tricky to say that the right is "anti-feminist" when the right predates suffrage. It's trickier to say that feminism is leftist when the earliest feminists were also closely tied with prohibition. HOWEVER it's easy to say that requiring parental or partner consent for abortion is a conservative idea and anti-feminist. Case in point: no one on the planet would argue that Libertarians are leftist. On the political spectrum, Libertarians are so right-wing that they loop back to appear somewhat like anarchists.
Libertarians in the sense of the third party that had Ron Paul as a front runner? I absolutely agree. Libertarian as a second axis of the political spectrum (libertarian/authoritarian as well as liberal/conservative)? Not at all. That second meaning of libertarian, defined by its contrast with authoritarian ideals, can be liberal or conservative.