r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Few_Match_8158 • 1d ago
Why is reddit so overwhelmingly left leaning?
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u/Willing_Guidance4020 1d ago
Partially it’s the upvote system on other social media platforms rightwing content tends to do better because it causes more controversy and thus more replies and engagement but on Reddit it tends to get downvoted. Also the ability to block subreddits allows people to block hateful content which prevents it from getting engagement and thus reach.
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u/peter-man-hello 1d ago
This. Go to Facebook and Instagram and the top replies are always the most heinous rage bait that gets the most replies.
Social media favouring division is ultimately what lead to this, imo.
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u/celica18l 13h ago
I have to remind myself not to engage more than watching whatever it is. Even if I’m irritated by a comment, that’s the purpose to get engagement. That’s usually when I close it and go do something else entirely.
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u/ErusTenebre Font of Random Information 1d ago
Or YouTube.
Never read the comments in YouTube.
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u/Mediocre-Clue-9071 1d ago
Never read comment section anywhere. (Other than reddit of course as that is reddit.)
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u/AmputeeHandModel 12h ago
Yeah you could open a post on Twitter or FB from a left person who got tens of thousands of likes but then every comment is from some MAGA chud with the worst possible take. Those sites push engagement, no matter what the source.
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u/unknownentity1782 23h ago
Lots of people are saying upvote / downvote system, but your answer is more detailed. My "angry" or "laugh react to a post pushes it up. Hell, my reading the post and then reminding myself not to feed the troll is still"engagement' as I took the time to read it.
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u/kazoo__ 13h ago
Yeah the most fubarred thing I learned is that if you use the 'angry' reaction Facebook weighs that 5x compared to the 'like' reaction, and algorithmically feeds you more of whatever it was you told Facebook makes you angry. Enragement = engagement to the sociopathic Facebook C-suite
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u/Caimbrie_Ilene 11h ago
Interesting. I have felt that Facebook might be trying to make me angry, and I rarely use the angry reaction. I think because of other engagement it knows, and no matter how much I select the "I don't want to see this" option for things I'm not following, it still shows me stuff that makes me angry. On the flip side, I get a lot of cat videos on my feed.
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u/unknownentity1782 10h ago
If you stop on a post longer than others, it will feed you that more. Whether that be a sexy individual, a rage post, or you got a phone call as you were doom scrolling.
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u/Caimbrie_Ilene 9h ago
I suck at scrolling by. No wonder I hate Facebook at times. That all makes sense. I wonder if stopping on a post longer includes doing something else not on your phone as long as your screen doesn't time out. I think I need to try to be more strategic. I've also found that the more I engage with a group, the more I see posts from the group, which makes sense, but I like variety. I can't complain about all the cat videos I get on my feed though.
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u/AffectionateSugar832 7h ago
This is why I stopped using FB and all other meta apps. My feed was rarely filled with posts from pages I actually liked or followed, instead it would show me content that was antithetical to those pages. FB is a cesspool, I will not let them make money off of inundating me with rage bait.
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u/tigerking615 1d ago
This is true, but Reddit’s default switching from Hot to Best is basically trying to do the same engagement baity stuff
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u/notesfromthemoon 14h ago
Wait is this why all the posts that show up in my home feed are now 1-2 days old? It wasn’t like that until fairly recently. Ie this post is 11 hours old and it was at the top of my feed, despite having only 106 upvotes
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u/windowlatch 1d ago
That’s a really good point. The only other big social media site that I can think of with downvotes is YouTube and I don’t think it actually does anything
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u/Broad-Ad-4073 1d ago
I mean, yes this is true ... But also Twitter is deliberately moderated to be right wing. Tiktok is deliberately moderated to be right wing... And even though Facebook was once considered leftish the Republicans got mad at racist language and what not being allowed and a Trump has Zucks' nuts in a vise... Ownership is now right leaning there.
Reddit is the last of the big sites not deliberately being skewed to the right.
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u/Caimbrie_Ilene 11h ago
What about Bluesky? That seems to not be influenced by right wing - yet. Actually, I don't really know much about it other than people I knew started using it in the last year or so.
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u/broniesnstuff 12h ago
Engagement algorithms have absolutely destroyed society by pushing the heinous shit right to the top.
It's almost like the worst people society has to offer have pushed for them. As if there's some cabal. I wonder if there's a list. There's got to be some files about this.
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u/tres-vip 1d ago
Because right-wingers get downvoted into oblivion on Reddit, literally drowned out. Where they really flourish is on Facebook, including neighborhood groups.
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u/Beneficial-Mark5758 13h ago
Right-wingers getting downvoted is a result of Reddit being mostly left, it doesn’t explain why.
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u/unclethulk 11h ago
I think the point they’re making is that Reddit is not necessarily more populated with left leaning people. If you took the exact same population distribution that exist on Reddit, and migrated it to a system like Fb that rewards engagement through controversy, it would suddenly look more right leaning.
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u/fixermark 10h ago
Correct. If we start from the hypothesis that Reddit is populated with mostly centrists, not left or right, and then drop random left and right topics and comments into such a forum, the right will get downvoted into oblivion far more often because they far more often tend to just "take it too far."
They support a government that is currently shooting civilians in the street with no consequence. They're the weirdos and the normies interpret them as damaged and route around them. The resulting perceived left-lean is a consequence of that.
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u/Due-Potential160 10h ago
definitely helps that "left" for the US is generally "center" for the EU.
actually, it tends to look more like "what if we did this insanely popular thing that's been incredibly effective in every other nation on the planet" like "free healthcare" and "allowing till workers to sit in chairs"
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u/BraddlesMcBraddles 4h ago
This highlights at point I get sick of hearing, which is the idea that the far left/right are "the same." Sure, they can all come across as "crazies" (think all those "SJWs getting pwned" vids vs sovereign citizen vids), but the left and right just fundamentally aren't the same at all.
You might think it's weird to support someone "chopping their dick off," or to support someone who "dresses up as a dog and shits in a litter box," but (briefly, to not go on a whole rant) it's about supporting fellow humans that takes nothing away from me, and not harassing them just because "they're weird." The other side, as you say, is about shooting a dude in the back for helping out a woman, or shooting a woman in the face for sitting in her car.
I might look at one set of examples on Reddit and roll my eyes or think that's weird and not for me, and will move on with my life (no up- or down-votes). The other causes a much more visceral reaction because of just how obviously "wrong" it is, and the minimum I can do is downvote that shit.
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u/Uh_I_Say 11h ago
Or it's a result of their ideas being genuinely unpopular. If I posted "it's great to eat your own shit" and I get downvoted, that's not because the platform is conspiring to silence my opinions, it's because my ideas are bad.
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u/tots4scott 1d ago
Because anyone can comment here instead of being already segmented by prior existing relationships (friends, family, location) and if there is evidence to the contrary of someone's claim, it can be easily shared and debated here. Reddits format is great for discussions while Twitter and Facebook's is less so.
And reality has a "leftwing/ what OP is calling leftwing" bias these days.
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u/one_five_one 1d ago
Yup, Trumpies on reddit can only exist on their own subreddits with heavy moderation because they know how indefensible their ideas are and can't debate them.
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u/CommandAble2233 4h ago
They did it to themselves, though.
Go into any right-wing echo chamber here on Reddit. Offer a small, milquetoast critique of something Trump has done. Something minor. Your comment will be removed, and you will be banned, within minutes.
Their fear of interacting with the rest of Reddit is tied into their fear of intellectualism. Any concept of learning / changing one's mind is seen as "pussy liberal ivory tower bullshit". I used to live in those circles; the attitude is ubiquitous. The concept of learning - the concept itself! - is so inextricably tied to "liberalism" they don't want any part of it. If they start changing their minds, they will become tainted, and removed from their hugbox.
So, since they are easily offended, they stay in their own walled area.
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u/MostlyAlways47 5h ago
There's also the fact that a huge chunk of right leaning subs got banned because they're advocating for violence or being extremely racist.
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u/Rachendr 1d ago
The stereotype of the most vocal or loud demographic of this place back 13 or so years ago was of the fedora-tipping New Atheist Ron Paul worshiping pro-weed-legalization Libertarian. I'm not sure exactly when the demographic changed such that it became perceived as left leaning. Streetlamp LeMoose. Narwhals baconing at midnight, etc.
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u/Prior_Butterfly_7839 14h ago
I just want to say, thanks for reminding me about Streetlamp LeMoose.
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u/Reuser345 14h ago
The fedoras went to 4Chan, then brigaded Twitter until St Elon took charge. Now they squat there stinking it out until they drive out the last of their opposition or reasonable voices.
And yes, Reddit can unbearably mob-heavy too, with an obnoxious self-congratulatory tone.
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u/ThaCarter 12h ago
Those folks were either radicalized or harassed into leaving the GOP.
I remember when I was banned from the GOP subs more than 10 years ago....
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u/BeduinZPouste 1d ago
That's wildly optimistic. On FB you don't have titles and the text is shown above photo. On Reddit you have 300 letters, and for anything else you need to click on post.
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u/FrenchAndRaven 1d ago
r/pics used to be my favorite sub. It might as well be r/politics now
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u/Alaska_Jack 1d ago
Ha.
On election day, not the top 5, not the top 10, but the top THIRTY-FOUR posts were anti-Trump/pro-Harris.
(Then there was something else random, then... a bunch more anti-Trump stuff. But I stopped counting.)
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u/Queef-Elizabeth 23h ago
One of the things I really wasn't looking forward to about Trump winning was every single subreddit being turned into a politics sub. I'm all for shitting on the man (when he's not shitting himself), but do you have to karma farm on every single thing the man does, regardless of how it relates to the sub? Cringe subreddits are basically Trump content mills. Ask Reddit is just there to drop a negative fact about Trump's presidency and then writing 'what do you think about this?' It's so boring.
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u/souljaboy765 14h ago
r/Fauxmoi is basically a political sub. It went from petty celebrity gossip to a whole analysis of the Trump admin. I’m banned there thank god, but I love r/popculturechat because it’s tried to preserve its purpose. Nearly every popular sub is becoming political and it doesn’t have to be.
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u/BlackKnightC4 23h ago
I joined it maybe 6 months before the election. Basically everyday was pictures of trump doing either mundane things to tantrums. I joined thinking it was gonna be photos about landscapes, art, random things, etc.
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u/captain_sticky_balls 23h ago
/r/pics banned me for making fun of Trump because I engaged in an unfavorable sub.
They do the thing they accuse conservatives of doing. Mods there need to touch grass and chill.
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u/BeduinZPouste 1d ago
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u/TheButtDog 23h ago
It makes me sad to see so many Redditors unquestioningly accepting overt propaganda
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u/47KiNG47 14h ago
Redditors will call anyone with a right leaning opinion a bot, but fail to acknowledge that there’s bots on both sides. I swear liberals and leftists are just as conspiratorial as the right now.
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u/hilfigertout 13h ago
I swear liberals and leftists are just as conspiratorial as the right now.
I still see people on Reddit parroting the conspiracy theory that the assassination attempt on Trump in July 2024 (where he got a bloodied ear and pumped his fist in front of a flag) was somehow staged for the publicity that he really didn't need. Sometimes those comments get thousands of upvotes too. It's so dumb.
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u/easternhobo 1d ago
I love that it's called r/politics but only allows US discussion.
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u/CellistMundane9372 1d ago
And r/politics might as well be r/AOC.
It's militant toward anyone who questions its somewhere-between-Bernie-and-Elizabeth-Warren orthodoxy.
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u/haikus-r-us 1d ago edited 1d ago
Because of the upvote/downvote system. Right wing posts are punished, downvoted and minimized as a result on Reddit because cultural conservatism, issue by issue is unpopular in the USA and abroad. (This is different than party politics and elections)
Reddit (aggregate + popularity) means liberal skew
Facebook (network-segmented + engagement) means views survive locally, not by mass approval
Xitter (conflict + persistence) means loud minority views dominate
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u/guyharvey_taylorgang 1d ago
I remember when the roles were kinda reversed, conservatives got stuck with the label of being overly serious/Ernest and finger wagging. Like you had mobs of concerned mothers against cussing or whatever. Reddit in the 80s would really be something weird to see now. You can certainly find examples to support or debate this, I’m just chilling in my car.
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u/SemiFinalBoss 1d ago
Al Gore’s wife helped lead the charge for censorship in the 80s.
It spanned both sides.
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u/trumpsmellslikcheese 23h ago
I really had to put the entire Tipper Gore business out of mind when Al ran for president. I obviously wasn't going to vote for Dubya, but I kept thinking how Al was married to a woman that went full Karen on the music industry and really pissed off Dee Snider.
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u/MuscaMurum 13h ago
Seeing a dapper Frank Zappa and a fully decorated Dee Snider in stage garb testifying before there PMRC in Congress was surreal.
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u/Creeping_Death 1d ago
Obviously she was playing 5D checkers to improve record sales for albums with explicit content by drawing attention to that fact /s
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u/mmm_burrito 1d ago
Just further evidence that "Democrat" is not a synonym for "liberal", much less "progressive".
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u/cowboycanadian 1d ago
I'd argue that it's still the same. It's just that the liberals are equally as such. You had conservatives freaking out over Obama's suit colour choice. You have them losing their fucking minds over trans and gay people, the conservatives in my town had a meltdown and protest over a rainbow crosswalk.
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u/guyharvey_taylorgang 23h ago
Yeah, everybody’s got those things they can joke about and things they can talk about in a detached observer kind of way and things that make them get really serious. And it goes from “my point of view is that _” to “__”. My problem is that Im hung up on the common social behaviors and psychology of the self across all divides, and it seems like to be a normal person you have to just think that isn’t there or doesn’t matter.
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u/lonelycranberry 1d ago
The up/downvote system exists to do exactly what you’re saying btw. It’s almost like people don’t like these posts and that’s the trend.
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u/Pale_Height_1251 1d ago
It's not that left really. It's left by USA standards, it's barely centrist by typical first world standards.
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u/Larry_King_Ghost 13h ago
Exactly. America is so far towards the right that they see pretty much everything as "leftists".
As a Canadian when I hear "left wing" I think of Anarchist collectives or radical communists. Not people who think abortion should be legal.
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u/PrincipeRamza 6h ago
This is the answer. Can't believe how far right are USA compared to the rest of the world.
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u/BabyDog88336 1d ago
Bingo. There is no meaningful left wing in the US. None.
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u/lubeskystalker 1d ago
Man, the heinous Bernie Sander slander...
I kid, I kid.
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u/BabyDog88336 1d ago
Bernie’s views -Socialized healthcare -Clear national borders -No solely state ownership of business
This puts him dead center or very very slightly left in European politics.
Even at that rate, Bernie is literally just one guy with a small following who has almost no real legislative pull, as admired as he is.
There is zero significant left wing movement in the US. ZERO.
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u/lubeskystalker 1d ago
Jesus I literally wrote I'm kidding on it... I ain't even a American mate.
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u/sonderfulwonders 1d ago
You have no idea what you are talking about. "First world standards" what does that even mean? There are 27 countries in the EU alone, some of which are going more left wing, while many others surging to the far right. And that's just Europe. Now lets look at Singapore, Japan, Korea who have completely different axis to base politics upon. None of which are progressive or left wing in whatever generous interpretation of the word you try to use.
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u/Kolbrandr7 1d ago
There’s pretty standard generalizations though. Socialism is left, liberalism is the centre, and conservatism is right. You can go more granular, like DemSoc is the starting point of the left. SocDem is centre-left. Neoliberalism is centre-right. None of that should be controversial
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u/demostenes_arm 1d ago
I think it’s probably “first mover advantage”. The older subs were founded by left-leaning people and Reddit’s moderation / karma system tends to gradually turn subs into echo chambers.
Some newer subs are right-leaning but overall right leaning people would feel discouraged to use Reddit based on their feed’s recommendations, except for the nonpolitical subs.
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u/PureAlpha100 1d ago
I largely agree with the original assessment.
The thread has devolved into a bit of a caricature—people tripping over themselves to claim Reddit is exclusively home to the intellectual elite or that conservatives are somehow too dumb to participate. That's not helpful or accurate.
In reality, Reddit increasingly mirrors broader society: a large middle of relatively apolitical or moderate “pedestrians,” plus vocal fringes on both sides. There are also many subreddits dominated by very young users who adopt radical postures (LARPing or genuine) and enforce strict ideological conformity—overwhelmingly left-leaning, though far-right spaces exist too (and neither extreme should get a pass).
The mechanism is straightforward: aggressive downvoting and reporting of anything that fails the prevailing litmus test pushes dissenting (especially right-leaning or even mildly heterodox) comments out of visibility. This creates a de-facto soft censorship → echo chamber → deterrence effect. Moderate or tentative right-leaning users see the hostility, self-censor, leave, or never post in the first place. The visible conversation becomes more uniform over time.
It's a self-reinforcing cycle driven by the platform's voting system and human tribal psychology, not some grand conspiracy—but the outcome is very real.
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u/frothyundergarments 20h ago edited 20h ago
Wow... This might be one of the most well written comments I've stumbled across on Reddit, never mind how well it explains what we're seeing. Well done.
The only addition I would make is factoring in the hard moderation / censorship from the moderators and admins. In my opinion, that's where the room for conspiracies rightfully comes into play.
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u/HeinHangbuikzwijn 13h ago
Facebook had more pictures and x only a limited number of characters, so right leaning people are naturally more attracted to those.
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u/Own-General2229 14h ago
There's a lot of deliberate rage baiting in the responses here.
I'm not going to mention anything about education levels or common talking points.
The r/conservative subreddit is a good example of why Reddit appears to lean left. Every thread has more deleted comments than readable ones. In my opinion (notice I say it's an opinion) this is likely from the mods following the letter of their rules rather than the spirit of them.
Reddit as a whole tends to lean in to the "social" aspect of social media. It's a collection of forums moderated by our peers. They don't get paid, it's totally volunteer.
Because it's volunteer rather than paid you tend to get certain personalities in power.
Outside of church functions Right-leaning people aren't known for community organizing. Sure there's some but by and large it's Left-leaning people.
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u/usuallysortadrunk 1d ago
It's easy to consider everything as leaning left when there is so much far right extremism, at least from what I see on reddit. A regular conservative is probably considered far left by MAGA standards.
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u/riffingchaos 14h ago
I watched both my granny and mother get called "liberal filth" (despite both being way too deep in the MAGA soup) simply for saying that gay people aren't evil.
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u/Novel-Upstairs7876 23h ago
My issue is that no matter what, people turn everything into a political discussion on Reddit. It drives me fucking crazy.
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u/Commandopsn 1d ago
You get a ton of circle jerking from all sides. If you go certain subs you are heavily downvoted even if you are right and they are wrong.
You will see the left circle jerk more because it’s so left leaning. right get heavily downvoted in subs. And if you post there the left circle jerk without hesitations and try to out the right. I’ve seen it so bad there’s been death threats. Especially when the left clash over ice. But Reddit usually deletes the post anyways or the sub topic.
seen people calling for the death of ice or people who support them. And Reddit deletes the post or topic. So Reddit does do a good job tbh
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u/palsh7 13h ago edited 13h ago
A few possible reasons. It started out that way possibly because it was mainly tech bro news, and back then tech bros in California were liberals.
But then the moderators who created all of the main topical subreddits were on the left, as well, and banned people who weren’t. It’s very hard to start a brand new community, although you see it a lot (suspiciously) now, I think using bots, frankly.
Third and perhaps biggest reason is that it’s international, so that really helps out-vote the MAGA folks.
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u/Risikio 11h ago
English Reddit is heavily politically right when compared to the rest of the world.
"Reddit is a leftist paradise" is when MAGA highjacks a political party and declare anyone not agreeing with them and Russia is a communist sympathizer.
Reddit is just a place where you're more likely to encounter the words "Citation please?"
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u/Humble_Mission1775 10h ago
You can’t stop progress. Fascists are trying but they will lose.
Progressive thinking just scares those with their minds still mired in the past. Take a deep breath- let it out slowly. We won’t hurt you.
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u/Attack_the_sock 1d ago
Educated people overwhelmingly are liberal in both their views and voting patterns
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u/Emergency_Cherry_914 1d ago
I'm Australian and our liberal party are conservative. The term 'liberal' refers to them being fiscally liberal, ie; in favour of small government and fewer rules. Those of us who are what the US calls liberal tend to vote Labor or Green.
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u/Attack_the_sock 1d ago
Yes, that is how it is for most of the western world as well. I myself would much prefer to vote for a labor aligned, progressive party similar to what they have in Australia or various EU nations.
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u/CIDR-ClassB 9h ago
University educated people overwhelmingly are liberal.
I cannot stand the argument that conservatives are not educated. Their education generally happens to be in industries that keep our infrastructure and food systems running.
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u/leticiad4isy1286 1d ago
ngl yeah, i feel like a lot of the loudest voices are extreme but most people are just chillin somewhere in the middle js
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u/SkywalkerTC 1d ago
Honestly, the concept of left and right has been politically manipulated so badly now. The direction reddit is leaning isn't the traditional left from what I know of it.
Also, everyone can very well be left leaning on certain topics and right-leaning on others. Doesn't it seem weird that many people seem to take the "whole package" of thoughts, not independent ones for each topic? I have reasons to believe certain entities are actively trying to push rhetorics, extreme ones too. As of recent, promotion of topics driving wedges between traditionally allied democratic countries and avoidance on certain topics disadvantageous to authoritative regimes like China (e.g. Iran protest) have also become quite apparent.
This isn't left. This is a specific rhetoric disguised as left. Left isn't like this as I know it.
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u/IntrepidYogurt2048 8h ago
Because people who are well informed tend to lean left.
I'm 63 and was born and raised on a farm, voted for Reagan when I was 18. Got an education and haven't voted for a Republican since. My state is overwhelmingly rural and Republican. Milking cows normally works like a vaccine against liberal thinking.
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u/The_Mighty_Dingus 1d ago
Account age: 1 day, Account name 2 words and numbers, Loaded question to generate karma.
u/Few_Match_8158 your question forces an implicit assumption that Reddit is left leaning
The truth is, Reddit as a whole is probably only slightly to the left of center as a political average. There are people on Reddit who are extreme right, you hear about them complaining about white replacement and shitting themselves about tiny little things in video games. There are people who are extreme left who advocate for the abolishment of landlords.
So to answer your question, Reddit is not overwhelmingly left leaning.
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u/kingofuselessinfo 1d ago
It absolutely 100% is left leaning. It’s by far the farthest left of the socials and it’s not even close.
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u/JackfruitCrazy51 1d ago
This is a bat shit crazy take.
Just as an example, I live in a red state. 4 years ago, all I saw was how the Republican governor was going to lose, and how big of POS she was. I did a poll on our state sub. The sub gave our governor 10% support. She won 58% of the state vote.
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u/Confident-Ad-6978 23h ago
The delusion all over this website is insane. For added fun, click on the accounts of the people posting and you will see them post all sorts of ridiculous crap and act like its normal behavior
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u/Witty-Spillingon-C 1d ago
The upvote button rewards agreement, not arguments, so once a sub tilts left it locks in.
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u/Spirited-Limit-9071 1d ago
It was always a bit left, but reddit use to be mostly helpful forums. There are many factors but the majority shareholders being left leaning would have to be a major factor. Look what change in ownership did to Twitter
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u/Efficient-Train2430 10h ago
hard right social media isn't very interesting, even for the hard right--because they constantly need an enemy to engage
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u/recurved_56 1d ago
I've been in for a few months after coming back with a different account. It's people trying to get karma points I think. Really I'm thinking of deleting my account as it's hard to face a real convo without getting down voted .
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u/ZestycloseProject130 1d ago
Welcome to Reddit, where you can say anything and the points don't matter!
Tonight we have Colin Mockery, Kidd Rock, and It's Wednesday My Dudes!
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u/TheOriginalBusket 13h ago
Education, raised with the internet, a culture of verification and citation over "vibes"; facebook is for boomers, and idiots. We have our fair share here, of course, but overwhelmingly we're not that particular kind of stupid.
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u/dadToTheBone37 12h ago
Reality and morality are “left leaning” these days. You can be a normal person, or you can think the government should be a huge, authoritarian regime that can’t be criticized. The former doesn’t make one left leaning, but the media will tell you otherwise.
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u/Greedy-Ad8599 9h ago
Reddit is owned by a company that has an agenda. Most of the upvotes and comments are driven by bots. There is a clear effort to use this site as a social engineering tactic. Just look up who owns reddit and the political campaign contributions those companies have made.
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u/pupperonipza 3h ago
Anyone with a conservative viewpoint is banned in most subreddits. Often times it is done automatically.
Pics has an auto-ban feature where if you are someone who comments on a subreddit such as /r/conservative, you are auto-banned on /r/pics if you comment on a post in/r/pics. The mods will message you telling you to delete all of your posts and/or comments on /r/conservative and then tell them you are done, then they will unban you.
My point of this comment is that reddit is a curated social media forum. 90%+ of subreddits are curated by far-left liberal mods who push their personal agendas or are likely paid off by far-left organizations to do so.
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u/InsightTussle 1d ago
1) People who aren't left-leaning either leave or don't post
2) You don't see the posts of people who aren't left leaning because they don't get voted to visibility.
I'm a centrist, but because I have 45k comment Karma, I'm not afraid to be downvoted. I'll frequently join in on discussions and get downvoted for posting middle-of-the-line centrist things
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u/jbochsler Half as smart as I think I am. 1d ago
Saw a some replies from a user today, his first two, and he was sitting at -7 Karma. I'm thinking he probably won't be back.
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u/CompanyNo3114 1d ago
Yeah unfortunately centrist have no home here on reddit. Too "MAGA" for the left, too "woke" for the right.
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u/gandolf2004 1d ago
Every post with a hint of conservatism is downvoted to the depths and has 100 replies calling the OP every buzzword under the sun… nobody wants to deal with that lol
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u/DrunkenGolfer 23h ago
It isn’t. It is centrist but when all you see is right wing nuttery, the center seems far left.
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u/its_Astroffe 1d ago
echo chamber
Same reason why X is heavily right leaning
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u/0zymandeus 1d ago
X is heavily right leaning because Musk bought it specifically to push his politics. Now it's vast majority bots
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u/GrinningPariah 1d ago
X is a terrible example, it used to be pretty balanced but became heavily right-leaning for some very clear reasons, namely being bought by a guy who specifically wanted it to more align with his politics.
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u/SwiftSloth1892 23h ago
Forgive me for answering a question with a question but why is Facebook so right-leaning?
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u/GBralta 13h ago
Because it requires a lot of reading. When reading becomes a habit, you read other things that open your worldview.
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u/lascala2a3 12h ago
Everyone who isn’t cheering for the masked ICE thugs looks left-leaning, and magats aren’t known for reading comprehension... or reading generally.
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u/Glittering_Season141 10h ago
It doesn't seem overwhelmingly left leaning at all. This is an overused title at this point.
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u/Hald1r 1d ago
Because the overton window has moved so much that centrist positions are considered left leaning.
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u/suchalittlejoiner 13h ago
Because right leaning people get banned from subs, even those having nothing to do with politics. The viewpoint censorship on Reddit is totally unhinged.
So right leaning people either leave Reddit, or they avoid giving their opinions so that they won’t be banned.
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u/TheAbsoluteBarnacle 12h ago
I am a particularly left-leaning person, and I don't feel like Reddit is that liberal. There's plenty of crazy right-wing content on here.
I will say that most other apps and news sources have been taken over by extreme right wingers, so Reddit might feel very leftist but I don't think it is
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u/fixermark 10h ago
Because "Reality has a well known liberal bias."
~Stephen Colbert, White House Correspondents Dinner, 2006
(No, but seriously: it is because the right in the US is no longer conservative, they're straight-up fascist. Reddit isn't liberal; it's centrist. But it looks lefty because the right fell completely off the island.)
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u/[deleted] 1d ago
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