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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • Yeah, that’s bullshit. Early Reddit is probably best described as “libertarian” - not to be confused with the embarrassing Republican malapropism of the same name. Much of the community was not explicitly political, but they definitely held what would be called “liberal” beliefs by conservatives. /r/atheism used to be a default sub. Political issues of the time such as gay marriage, OWS, and universal health care all enjoyed popular support among the site’s community. The demographics of the site skewed young, educated, and technically inclined - /r/programming also used to be a default sub - so the whole site had a sort of “California liberal” vibe.

    You can always tell a conservative who found Reddit during the /r/KotakuInAction/ and /r/the_donald era, because their memory of the site doesn’t go back any further than those shit-shows.




  • I remember it mostly the way you do. It certainly wasn’t conservative in any sense of the word. Socially, /r/atheism was a default sub, most of the user base was LGBT friendly, and pornography was allowed. Economically, universal healthcare and the OWS protests were supported.

    There was a libertarian-minded free-speech-absolutist streak, which is why things like /r/jailbait and /r/watchpeopledie were allowed. Some people like to blame the elimination of that type of stuff on “intolerant leftists” but in my estimation the real culprit there was the media catching wind and advertisers not wanting to advertise on sites with that sort of content.

    In my opinion, Reddit became far more hostile to conservatives when /r/the_donald took off. That may be more a sign of the times than anything particular about Reddit; political engagement in general was rising during that time. But also most users didn’t really appreciate the way that sub manipulated Reddit’s algorithms, or being called “cuck” in their hobby subs.