Perhaps as a way of pushing back against the negativity, I challenge my fellow circlebrokers to explore ways of how they might "fix" reddit.

What would you change? Defaults? Karma System? The People?

1. He's not a 15 year old LGBT kid. He's a grown-ass man, somewhere from his late 20s to mid-40s: https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/882533322160832512

Confirming he lives in Tennessee and is almost finished with his doctorate: https://i.imgur.com/gXkiLKu.jpg

Confirming he left Maryland in 1990: https://i.imgur.com/2g6MFdm.png

2) CNN didn't blackmail anyone. They did him a favor by not releasing his name. The First Amendment protects you from the government. It doesn't stop others from using their free speech to criticize your bigotry.

Racists will cry about free speech because they know their views are not accepted in public. It's not doxxing when CNN reports your name. It's journalism.

The news reports people's names all the time. Being anonymous on 4chan and reddit doesn't give you a right to remain anonymous if you're careless with your personal information and you do something newsworthy.

3) CNN also didn't doxx anyone. Again, they did him a favor by not releasing his information. CNN was perfectly within their rights and ethics to investigate this guy because he was part of a nationally-relevant news story.

The president re-tweeting something you said makes you into a person of public interest whether you like it or not, whether you posted it semi-anonymously or not.

4) He said FAR WORSE things than the GIF:

June 2017: HanAssholeSolo posted an image of CNN journalists and employees with a Star of David next to them writing, “Something strange about CNN...can't quite put my finger on it...” [above]

“FBI stats don’t lie n-----. You hood rats account for more that 50% of the murder, rape, robbery, and assault in the USA.”

“I just like dancing when n------ are getting beat down by the cops.”

“I guess letting them [Muslims] into your country and then being killed by them if you don't conform to their stone age ideology is? You can't win with these f------ wake the f--- up the only way to win is to eradicate them 100% they cannot integrate into modern society they take over like cockroaches.”

https://www.adl.org/blog/analysis-of-reddit-user-claiming-responsibility-for-president-trumps-cnn-video

He orders a lemonade because alcohol is for +21 only

http://www.np.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/1ihvu7/new_default_subreddits_omgomgomg/

Overall, they [/r/atheism and /r/politics] just haven't continued to grow and evolve like the other subreddits we've decided to add.

WHAT??? You mean bitching about u/jij and posting articles from rawstory.com with sensationalized titles is NOT growth and evolution? Well I'll be damned.

But seriously what do you guys think will happen to these two garbage subreddits after they're taken from the default list? I know that /r/atheism has been torn asunder by removing "may mays," but do you think that /r/politics will become less circlejerky or more so? Without brave "Swedish" and other "Scandinavian" commentators will the content be much better? Or will it turn into a situation where the user base, when left to its own devices separate from the rest of reddit, will jerk itself raw? Thoughts?

Almost every time /r/circlebroke is linked to or mentioned outside of this subreddit, two criticisms arise time and time again. The first is that it's a circlejerk (which we acknowledge and embrace, and have from the start).

The second is what I'm writing about today:

"If you hate reddit so much, why don't you just leave?"

Replace the word 'reddit' with the words 'the United States', and you can see how much weight that argument holds. But that's an obtuse reply, so let me be very specific...

^{ytknows presents:}

"If you hate reddit so much, why don't you just leave?"

or

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Circlebroke

or

Fuck You YT, No, I'm Not Reading This Wall of Text

There are some overlap in these reasons, but I've tried to break them into sections to make them a little less unwieldy. Warning: massive wall of hyper-opinionated text below

REASON #0
I don't hate reddit

The title of this post is an imagined quote, although I'm reasonably sure I could find a verbatim example. I figured I should edit this in at the beginning to point out that I don't actually hate Reddit; I've just been accused of hating it, as a user/mod of both /r/circlebroke and /r/circlejerk.

REASON #1
This website is a tool for building communities, not a community in and of itself

This website isn't a community any more than Facebook is a community. This website is a tool for sharing information. It contains communities, but what does that matter? You could say the same for Facebook, and I don't see people creating secret Facebook-user hand signals or putting FB logos all over their cars (or, worse, their bodies). Reddit is simply a tool for building communities within the website. This does not include the default subreddits, which are much too large to be considered communities. Anyone who makes an account—which is very easy—is automatically subscribed to those subreddits. This does not foster a sense of community; it fosters a sense of "oh-shit-I've-been-thrown-into-these-subreddits-what-the-fuck-is-going-on?".

The true communities on Reddit are non-default subreddits. When a user finds a subreddit organically, digests the content already there, and then integrates into the subreddit, that is what fosters a sense of community. Being automatically subscribed to a subreddit with 2,000,000+ users does not really qualify as a community, unless you would also be willing to apply that term to a third of the states in the U.S.

I believe that many users think the admins foster make Reddit a community because of the website itself occasionally taking political stances which align with those of a lot of the users—SOPA/PIPA opposition, for example—but Reddit isn't really taking a political stance, it's making a no-brainer financial decision. Bills like those pose a serious danger to websites like Reddit and its ability to make money from content it doesn't own, so it only makes sense that Reddit would oppose such legislation. Earlier in Reddit's history, the argument could possibly be made that the admins were a part of the community and helped shape the direction of the website, but at this point in time, and at this size, it just doesn't hold true anymore. Plenty of them are involved in the community in an unofficial capacity, but they are more reserved when speaking with their red [A]. (side note: if the admins were attempting to foster a sense of community earlier in its history, I wonder what kind of community they were aiming for, what with their tolerance of subreddits like /r/jailbait and all.)

I see people pointing to fundraising conducted within Reddit. The Reddit Wikipedia article's section on "community and culture" focuses largely on donation drives. Community fundraising efforts are usually just that: isolated to an individual community on the website. They are not site-wide, and a majority of users do not donate. Examples of charitable giving by individual redditors or communities inside of Reddit does not make Reddit itself a solitary community. It is a tool for building communities, and Reddit has even recently introduced tools to allow communities to more easily raise funds. I'm not bashing this fundraising, and I have no doubt that it's a positive thing—I was involved with the /r/ColbertRally fundraising for DonorsChoose.org—but it doesn't reflect on the entire website's user-base. It reflects on individual users and maybe on certain subreddits as a whole, but it is not a reflection of the website itself.

So Reddit isn't a community; it's a tool. It's a tool for building communities centered around a common interest. Maybe the topic is one as vague as /r/music; maybe as specific as /r/thedoors. It is not a perfect tool, but I think it is one of the best community-building tools available. A few of the things that set it apart from other similar tools: the comment nesting and comment/link sorting works well; it is easily accessible with a low barrier-to-entry; it allows users to easily build their own communities, in the form of subreddits, and it grants those moderators a lot of autonomy, including the ability to modify the design of the subreddit; the website administrators are reasonably accessible (especially by comparison to other similar sites); the large pool of users increases the odds of interesting information being shared; comprehensive (if at times not-well-thought-out) moderation tools; and, yo dawg, you can even add tools to your tools: Reddit Enhancement Suite Reddit Enhancement Suite Reddit Enhancement Suite Reddit Enhancement Suite

REASON #2
I like many of the things that are popular on Reddit

…but some redditors are making me hate these things. I'm an atheist. I'm a liberal. I like science. I like puns. I like memes. I enjoy using marijuana. I thought Firefly was a great show. I think Louis CK is the funniest comedian alive, and I like to watch Carl Sagan's COSMOS series or hear Neil deGrasse Tyson give an impassioned speech about the importance of science education. Many of you know I made the "So Brave" video for /r/circlejerk, and I had to sit through hours upon hours of NDT and Sagan footage. I enjoyed it, especially compared to how bored I was by the Ron Paul videos I had to endure (sorry Paul fans). I watch The Daily Show pretty often and I occasionally think Jon Stewart's commentary has more substance than the 'serious' media.

I get called a concern troll but if you go through my history, you don't have to venture far to see the two years I spent being a part of the hivemind. Calling all Republicans retarded, mocking religious people, making a shitty racist or misogynistic joke; I even started the massive spamming of the VOTE YES ON PROP 19 poster after Condé Nast refused to let Reddit run an ad in support of the proposition. That's either 3+ years of me telling the truth about my tastes, or I'm one goddamned dedicated concern troll. And while I may have been simultaneously poking fun at these things in /r/circlejerk, I'm still embarrassed at how oblivious I was.

Point being: a lot of my personal tastes overlap with those we in the Complainpire routinely attribute to the Reddit hivemind. I like to get new information about the things that interest me, and Reddit is a useful tool for doing that. The problem arises when the various communities beat each of these things into the ground, and turn adulation into worship, and make disagreement a sin punishable by mass downvoting, used so often on Reddit as a form of censorship-by-committee (and don't get too hoity-toity, Circlebroke, you're as guilty of it as anyone). Content related to these topics lacks depth because depth is not rewarded inside of these communities. A lengthy religious debate in /r/atheism will lose out to text-over-an-image every time. An analysis of the pros and cons of a conservative political viewpoint will never beat out a lazy insult.

Eventually, I just have to get fed up with seeing the people I agree with behaving like children. I can't tell you how many times I've almost left because I'm simply embarrassed that "my side" is acting like the "other side." I think part of the reason I stick around is that I hold out hope for the website, and I honestly believe that a majority of the website's users are completely capable of having a nuanced discussion about a topic they love (or despise). Maybe the atmosphere created by other users (a problem each user contributes to); maybe it is the way Reddit encourages users to consume as much content as possible very little time; maybe I'm just wrong to hold out hope that a large number of people can behave when no one is holding their feet to the fire.

REASON #3
I like meta discussion, bullshit social commentary, and complaining

A lot of the regulars in CB can be found haunting the other meta subreddits, like /r/TheoryOfReddit or /r/SubredditDrama (and obviously /r/circlejerk). We like talking about Reddit, examining how users interact, and making sweeping generalizations about the culture of Reddit. That last one is sometimes a problem, as I have seen CB users accused of making sweeping generalizations about redditors—which does happen—but it is a necessary part of trying to discuss Reddit as a whole. We're not doing systems theory, here, and people will just have to trust that we realize that not every redditor behaves the same way; at least I know I do. Otherwise, where would the other CB users come from?

I guess I secretly wish I had been a sociology major, because I like having armchair discussions about human interaction. Reddit serves as a sort of proxy for me to offer opinion on (look up sociology). The interactions of users (or groups of users) is more limited and quantifiable than real world interactions, and it's only a website, so no one should take the commentary too seriously. I mean, c'mon, CB is a direct spin-off of /r/circlejerk; who's taking that seriously?

It's too hot. It's too cold. I have a headache. This Mountain Dew is flat. These Cool Ranch Doritos are stale. My dogs are annoying. My lawn mower doesn't work right now. I'm a whiner. I like to complain. Other people do, too, and we sometimes even like hearing each others' complaints. If we didn't, CB wouldn't thrive, and neither would half the subreddits on this website. Hell, I think the rest of the website spends as much time complaining as we do. The only reason I've written this entire post is because people were complaining about CB users not "liking" Reddit.

REASON #4
Because some of the reasons Reddit sucks are why Reddit is good

Chief among these reasons is the large userbase. As the user-base of the website grows, so does the amount of knowledge that can be drawn from it. Reddit functions brilliantly as a tool for mining good content from that user-base. The comment and sorting system excel at finding relevant information (subreddits), getting relevant material to the top (through submission sorting and comment voting), and making it easy to add to that material and make it visible (ability to edit posts/comments, and nested comment replies with voting).

Unfortunately, if the user-base is skewed toward low-effort content—as is the case in a lot of the default subreddits—you're not getting the best of the best. Too often, you're getting the worst of the worst. Knowledge isn't the only thing that increases as a population grows. The larger the pool, the more assholes and morons are going to be posting and commenting, and the more they are going to be upvoting worthless—and in some cases, hateful—content.

Before I landed on Reddit, I'd never seen such a large congregation of liberals, atheists, and people interested in science and technology. That's what lured me here. But it's also what has led me to hate a lot of the people who represent viewpoints I agree with. The very reason I came to the website is the very reason I've contemplated leaving in the past: you can't just enjoy something on Reddit, you have to be willing to defend the thing you enjoy at all costs, including complete rejection of any detractors.

So with every positive thing about Reddit, there comes a negative. In an earlier section, I praised Reddit's lack of admin interference with subreddits. I wouldn't have it any other way, but that means that /r/jailbait remained available for years and /r/atheism isn't moderated at all.

REASON #5
Because it's not your website

If you have ever told another Reddit user to just leave Reddit (not even a particular subreddit, but the website itself): what is wrong with you? Just because your asshole comment got upvoted 4 times by /r/atheism or /r/politics or /r/trees subscribers does not make you right. One thousand upvotes will not make you right. Thinking you're an expert on who constitutes a 'good Reddit user' doesn't make you an expert, and being upvoted by a thousand non-experts doesn't give you any additional qualifications. One of the reasons we try so hard to discourage downvoting and participation in linked threads is that it accomplishes nothing. Why even waste the effort when it just makes CB users look petty?

Users with the "love it or leave it" attitude should be reminded that they do not speak for the website or its users; only the admins speak for the website. Users are able to speak for the subreddits—the communities—they moderate, but never for the website as a whole. There is a diversity of opinion here, whether the hivemind likes it or not, and as the site grows, those opinions are going to grow more diverse and the voices behind them will grow louder. Get used to it.

If I do not like a certain subreddit and I voice my opinion within that subreddit, the moderatos there are free to ban me. I may ask them why, but I won't be a bother after it happens. "Love it or leave it" can certainly be applied to an individual subreddit, when it's a moderator saying it.

But all too often, users are just told to "leave" Reddit, that their opinions aren't welcome, and that they'd be better off on some other website. The fact is that anyone who displays that level of intolerance to difference of opinion is an asshole and deserves to be called out on it.

If nothing else, I'll stay on this website just to annoy those users. It's fun.

I'll be completely serious for a moment: the main reason I come to Reddit is that I still manage to get more joy than headache from visiting and interacting on the website. As long as that remains the case, I'm going to continue to visit the site regularly. It is a good tool and I will try to find good ways to put it to use. Sure, I can get burned out on it from time to time, but that's true of any hobby.

TL;DR "Why don't you leave Reddit?" Because I don't want to and I don't have to.

Stereotypes. We all use them. Whether it's that Asians are bad drivers, neckbeards are forever alone, or Italians make the best pizza, it's difficult to train your mind to not group people and things together. In a similar vein, we all love to generalize on Reddit, particularly here in the great subreddit in the sky that is Circlebroke. It's just easier, and it's often difficult to make your point without generalizing at least to some degree.

Now, before you go thinking this is just another SRS-lite post, think again my fellow Republikkan skytards. Herein, we will examine popular generalizations on Reddit from both sides, so as to give the appearance of objectivity and also make sure we make fun of everyone all at once. This way, no one can possibly get angry or defensive (LOL). So without further ado, I'd like to present:

The Not-Quite Comprehensive Guide to Reddit Stereotypes^TM

Neckbeards

• Native Habitat: Parents' basement.

• Primary Diet: Cheetos, Gummy Worms, Mountain Dew (all varieties).

• Hobbies: Gaming, schooling Facebook friends, gaming, getting friendzoned, gaming, science, gaming, arguing on Reddit.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them. (see also: /r/neckbeard)

[R]atheists (some overlap with Neckbeard)

• Native Habitat(s): Parents' basements, high schools, Sweden.

• Primary Diet: Logic, Reason, Science, pages ripped from Bibles marinated in Holy Water and fundie tears.

• Hobbies: Dropping knowledge-bombs on unsuspecting Facebook friends, taking screenshots, arguing with parents, arguing with teachers/professors, arguing, making memes, super-imposing quotes out of context over pictures of pop-scientists and comedians.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them.

SRS

• Native Habitat: Treehouses (no boys allowed), Battered Women Shelters, Communes, Freshmen Dorms, weird underground internet hideouts.

• Primary Diet: Blood (human), Creeper tears, foreskins of cis-scum, attention.

• Hobbies: Ruining fun, destroying things people enjoy, correcting political incorrectness, outing anonymous internet users, castrating cis-gendered single white middle-class privileged males, knitting.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them.

SRS Opposition

• Native Habitat: Treehouses (no girls allowed), Parents' basements, frat houses, executive board rooms.

• Primary Diet: Anger, raw meat, whiskey.

• Hobbies: Beating women, racism, fapping to inappropriate pictures, armchair jurisprudence on First Amendment law, calling people cunts.

• How they see themselves

• How others see them.

Bleeding-Heart Liberals

• Native Habitat: Berkley, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, nudist colonies.

• Primary Diet: anything found in a dumpster excluding meat, craft beer.

• Hobbies: voting for Obama, donating 90% of their income to charity and the IRS, fact-checking Mitt Romney, making Mitt Romney memes, laying blame.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them.

Republitards

• Native Habitat: Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, Kansas, gated communities.

• Primary Diet: Kobe beef, hot dogs, scotch, Budweiser.

• Hobbies: paying less tax than everyone else, literally pulling the food out of others' mouths, Bible-beating, gay-bashing, monster truck rallies, banging hookers in high-priced Vegas suites.

• How they see themselves Version 1;

• How they see themselves Version 2.

• How others see them Version 1;

• How others see them Version 2.

Ron Paul's Little Libertarian Tots of Bravery

• Native Habitat: concentration camps, communist China USA, under their parents' beds.

• Primary Diet: bravery, brave bravery, braver bravery, co-op crops.

• Hobbies: filming police brutality, looking for typos in the Internal Revenue Code, uncovering far-reaching Government and Big Business conspiracies and corruption.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them.

SRD Dramanauts

• Native Habitat: Movie theatres, crime scenes, scenes of accidents, emergency rooms.

• Primary Diet: Popcorn, tears of the bullied, school lunches.

• Hobbies: shitting all over things, rubbernecking, stalking.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them.

Circlebrokers

• Native Habitat: Parents' basements, Treehouses (no one else allowed), Germany circa 1943 (mods).

• Primary Diet: Redditors' dreams, karma points, attention, consensus, contrarianism, ego supplements, crocodile tears.

• Hobbies: circlejerking about circlejerks, bitching and moaning, incest, oppression, ableism, anti-ableism, whining, arguing, inside jokes that aren't funny.

• How they see themselves.

• How others see them.

Circlebroke Mods.

This concludes the Not-Quite Comprehensive Guide to Reddit Stereotypes. If you have suggestions for addition, or believe something to be incorrect, leave a comment and I'll downvote you, ignore it, or overreact in an outrageously defensive manner.

Edited to add important omissions, courtesy of /u/mister-bizarro, /u/SlutForPesto and /u/316nuts.

WELCOME

We all have little things that keep bringing up back to reddit, despite its tendency to confound or annoy or infuriate us. It might be a niche interest, a small community that can’t be replicated elsewhere, or a Sisyphean determination to wade through the defaults for the occasional nugget of insight.

For me, it’s been a longstanding fascination with what makes the hivemind tick. I may even be the most determined comment-miner on the site - when I see a comment of unusual bravery, I’ll often spend ages digging through their history just to figure out just what kind of person they are. I’ve long found that the hivemind of reddit presents an endlessly fascinating specimen, most particularly due to its ability to proudly maintain a host of bewildering quirks:

• Proudly leftist and staunchly pro gay rights, but cruelly dismissive any issues affecting women or minorities

• Priding itself on being attentive to propaganda, and yet eager to make a cause celebre out of someone like Kim Dotcom, whose self promotion can only be described as propaganda of the crudest kind.

• Insisting that Gawker links be banned in the name of free speech

• Furiously waving the flag for Palestinian independence while flippantly rejecting Tibet

• Continuing to repeat a joke at length, far beyond the point at which anyone could possibly find it funny

Years of carefully studying the hive (I’ll bump up against my fourth anniversary soon) have led me to believe that the quirks which animate its peculiar psychology can be broken down to a number of core concepts, and that once you add these concepts to your toolkit the otherwise inexplicable whims or the hive start to make a great deal more sense. If you’ll follow me, what follows is an attempt to collect these core concepts, most of which have hitherto been bandied about in various comments and threads, and organize them into a singe integrated document.

THE CIRCLEJERK

Far and away, the most striking and characteristic aspect of the hivemind - perhaps even its definitive trait - is the circlejerk. Now, in one sense, the tendency to circlejerk is not itself a terribly unusual tendency, as any group of people sharing an enthusiastic agreement will inevitably tend towards smug in group congratulation. What makes reddit’s circlejerking so strange, however, is how whimsical the topics seem to be. Any casual visitor to reddit is well-versed with its obsession with a strange set of narrow, peculiar interests. The good folks at circlebroke have documented circlejerks over how Osama bin Laden wasn’t such a bad guy, two dollar bills, swastikas, North Korean propaganda, and a host of other topics. Why such a fixation on such peculiar issues?

SECOND OPTION BIAS

The seminal post on this topic was made by /u/douglasmacarthur, in which [he coined the term] (http://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/yngzi/reddits_strange_affinity_for_socialism_how/c5x6adc) "second option bias." In a nutshell, second option bias refers to the tendency of the typical hiver to tack to the opposite of whatever happens to be a commonly accepted view in his milieu without undertaking any sort of serious or good-faith analysis of the strengths in that position. Second-option bias is such a widely prevalent phenomenon among certain demographics that I was struck to see /u/Cenodoxus describing nearly the identical phenomenon in remarkably similar language here, when discussing the dangers of taking revisionist history too seriously.

SNOWFLAKING

But why would second option bias come to be such a defining characteristic of the community? It is clearly identifiable as a trend, but what motivates it? For a deeper read on the psychological needs which animate the typical hiver you may want to read this, but it may be sufficient for now to introduce the concept of snowflaking. Snowflaking describes the need of certain people to aggressively promote their individuality by insisting upon various ideas, tastes and practices that are intended to separate them from the crowd. Snowflaking is, of course, not unique to reddit, but it conspicuously manifests itself in various forms:

• The way every thread on music inevitably turns into a “can you name a more obscure artist” contest

• The insistence on belonging to an unfairly persecuted class of people

• The loud rejection of every identifiable aspect of American culture, no matter how petty or obscure

• The proud ignorance of celebrities (see also: Alpha Nerding)

JERK ALPHA

The king of all jerks, however, the sun around which jerks revolve, is clearly the “I am a misunderstood genius” jerk. Because this is the jerk which spawns and influences nearly every other jerk the hiveosphere, I refer to it as Jerk Alpha. It is the combination of Jerk Alpha and snowflaking that that yields second-option bias, and its infamous connections with bravery. You see, it is not quite enough to be a misunderstood genius, the opinions the hiver holds must also be dangerous and unconventional. For a typical example of these factors all playing out in real time, I refer you to the reactions the movie Avatar garnered when it first came out, compared to the reactions the movie typically gets now that it has become the most successful movie ever - a steady progression from a generally positive but nuanced take to OMG WORST MOVIE EVER.

THE EMPATHY DEFICIT

However, this does not quite manage to account for some other notable quirks in the hive, such as the aforementioned contrast between its affinity for gay rights and its disdain for women and minorities. To explain this, we have to examine the peculiar role that the empathy deficit plays in the behavior of the hive. We all remember that the hive erupted in outrage - and rightly so - at the awful bullying behavior of those middle schoolers to that older lady on the bus, right? It’s interesting to compare that to the hive’s reaction when a bunch of internet porn viewers start bullying a cam girl – all of a sudden everything is the girl’s fault.

What’s going on here? Note how many of these reactions are determined by who the hive happens to identify with more. Your average hiveminder has very little understanding of what it's like to be black or a woman, or to suffer the kind of discrimination blacks and women are sadly familiar with. But what about your average young gay male? Well, he's probably a little scrawny, probably has some tics that make him noticeably unusual, probably has unusual interests, probably gets picked on. Your average hiver gets this. Hell, your average hiver probably was picked on for being gay, even if he wasn't. He knows what it's like to be mocked for this and it hurts.

Now, what about the old lady getting picked on in the bus? Well, which side do you think your typically redditor was on in school - the jeering, bullying crowd or the tearful recipient? But when the bullying crowd is a group of anonymous keyboard warriors saying dickish things over the internet, how interesting that we suddenly have a whole new set of sympathies.

A lack of empathy is, of course, one of the most noted features of those on the techie side of things.. As a result, the average hiver places maximum priority upon issues with which he can empathize, while disregarding those which involve an unfamiliar form of experience. The best example of this can be found here, though I also refer you to:

• Jokes about raping men, particularly prison rape, are inevitably met with frowning tut-tuts of how that's not funny. Jokes about raping male children, however, are hilarious.

• Girls walking around in public should have little expectation of privacy, and yet Gawker's invasion of violentacrez's privacy results in sitewide condemnation.

• An abiding concern that women are out to get us.

Note how the only thing which seems to unify these disparate reactions is whoever the hiver tends to immediately identify with most.

Now, the assertion that the hivemind struggles with empathy might seem a bit confusing, even controversial, given the hive’s affinity for leftist politics. Personally, however, I found that comparing the hive’s relative reaction to Palestine (most important issue!) and Tibet (omg shut up already!) to be quite telling, suggesting that what animates the hive is less compassion than the opportunity to take an “unpopular” opinion. Once again, the prime movers are snowflaking and second-option bias, not bone-bred political convictions.

There is even, I think, a telling shallowness in the embrace of gay rights and a lesson in the limits of empathy which is revealed by the hive’s embrace of the epithet “faggot.” Being general champions of gay rights, one might expect the hive to reject such terms and their hurtful etymology. Note, however, that there’s no “second option” in this case, no in-law or journalist to contradict. No one, not even Republicans, argue in favor of the usage of “faggot,” and as a result there is no one to bravely disagree with. Furthermore, because of its quasi-meme status, the hiver associates people saying “OP is a fag” with people like him. The empathy for a gay individual hurt by the normalization of this slur is overridden by empathy towards someone even more like him than a homosexual. Again, what appears to be the moving piece here is that the hiver's compassion runs out as soon as his empathy does, particularly when there is no second-option to bravely brave against.

CONTENT VS. COMMUNITY

But what about other quirks, such as the tendency to repeat jokes and memes until they are well and thoroughly beaten into the ground? Moreover, why do such tendencies persist despite such a vocal segment of the community loudly disdaining them? Here we must distinguish between content users and community users. Content users come to reddit primarily to absorb the information that is produced, whether in jokes, news or serious minded discussion. The value of the information is limited to its single use absorption. Community users, on the other hand, are attracted not just by the raw value of the content but also by the need to connect and integrate with what they take to be a community of friends and pseudo-friends. Community users will repeat a meme far beyond the point at which its inherent comical value has been bled dry because it functions as a symbol of in-group coherence - think of it as like a digital high-five amongst a cohort of people “in the know.” This is why in-jokes maintain a life far beyond the value of the original joke, as it functions as a reminder of the group’s unique social cohesion. This is also why content users roll their eyes with utter incredulity as yet another chain of beaten-down references - the joke has long since lost its inherent comic value, but community users are still banding it around because they are extracting a value from it which content users either don’t want or don’t need.

CASUAL VS COMMITTED

The final set of concepts necessary to explicate reddit’s behavior is to understand the distinction between casual users and committed users. This distinction is rather more trivial than the others, and should be readily evident to anyone who has glanced into a highly upvoted thread in which all the commenters are baffled by its popularity, but I think it is worth lingering on in order to unpack a few of its implications. Given the peculiarities of reddit's alogorithm and its accompanying “fluff principle", reddit clearly caters to casual users, and from a business perspective this makes a certain amount of sense since unique visitors power a website’s cachet. However, there is a certain danger in this, as the more bland and watered-down the experience becomes, the more it becomes indistinguishable from others, the easier it is to abandon. The casual users who are driving certain trends in the quality of content are also liable to the be most likely to move onto the next thing. Despite everything I’ve written here, I am very much a big fan of reddit at its best, and what reddit can manage to be, but without a robust understanding of the fundamental dynamics at play - what makes them strong, what makes it weak - it runs the risk of being just another thing.

I hope you have found this enlightening. If you’d like to read a similar take but viewed the filter of nationality and nationalism, please see here and here.

When writing a Circlebroke post, first choose a narrative you want to push, then find a post that fits that narrative. For example, if you want to say that Reddit hates mothers, find a post about a mother doing something, then quote all the comments that fit your agenda i.e. all of the comments that hate the mother. If the top scoring comments all agree, and the comments that disagree are downvoted until they are hidden, then you have a circlejerk. However, if you don't have a circlejerk, don't let that stop you from posting it to Circlebroke. Cherrrypick comments that support your position, and weave them together to form a narrative that matches the agenda you are pushing.

Let's take a recent example. I submitted a post to Circlebroke today: A mother shoots a half court basketball shot and wins half price tuition for her daughter. Reddit resents her accomplishment because they could have done it and anyway fuck you fat mom!

Here's a tip: Choose a circlejerk that Circlebroke is already aware of. That's why I chose Reddit resenting someone else's accomplishments, 'fat people hate', and 'fuck you mom'. I recommend you start with something easy, like an AskReddit thread asking 'What's your edgiest opinion?'.

Next, I quoted the comments that furthered my cause.

amerifats

America is very odd and not in a good way.

they should work on reducing their butt size before they work on reducing their tuition costs.

There was only one problem: these were the most downvoted comments. The most upvoted comments disagreed with my position:

The best part was that she didn't know that it went in, there was like 30 seconds of trying to process it. Also, she got this opportunity because her daughter collected the most money for needy families so this is an awesome win-win. [+4,000]

So it seems like they counted the shot. [+2,000]

Well that was nice. [+900]

No no, this just won't do. These are all positive and supportive. These are highly upvoted, meaning most users agree. My quoted comments are the most downvoted, meaning they are the most disagreed with. To overcome this, I lied, and said they were the highest scoring, when in fact they were the lowest, with negative scores.

amerifats [top scoring comment]

America is very odd and not in a good way. [2nd top]

they should work on reducing their butt size before they work on reducing their tuition costs. [3rd]

So obviously you would think that just lying and saying 'amerifats' is the top scoring comment when really it's the bottom scoring comment will never work. Well you would be wrong. As of now, my post is 4th highest on Circlebroke's Hot list, has a score of +50, where 90% upvoted.

Obviously I will get called out for my shenanigans in the comments section of my post. Let's check:

[Warning: Maximum smugness] I have never seen reddit be happy for the achievements of a non-white guy. Since this was won by a female, of course they are mad.

My post links to an example of Reddit being happy for a female woman. They are not mad at all, they are happy for her. And for her daughter. Those who are mad were downvoted. But Circlebroke has its expectations, and those will be validated regardless of whether or not they are true.

100% yes. If this was a white man, this would be the most amazing thing ever and he's such a good father and PURE SKILLZZZZ. [top reply]

Instead, it was a woman, and the comments that said it was the most amazing thing ever were upvoted to the thousands. The comments minimising the accomplishment were downvoted. Circlebroke's expectations prevail once again. Is 'prejudice' too strong a word? I'm sticking with 'expectations' for now.

Man watches Star Wars with his kid: father of the year

Woman wins free tuition for her kid: ewww she's fat just die already [top reply]

Or more accurately: woman wins free tuition for her kid - "Bounce counts double. Free tuition for a year. Beer pong rules. [+3,000]" Reddit invites the mom into their cool beer game, and wants her to get double tuition for her daughter. The comments calling her fat were the most downvoted, therefore most disagreed with.

> I have never seen reddit be happy for the achievements of a non-white guy anyone. [+15]

Counterpoint: Elon Musk, they lerrrrv him. [+22]

You know who else they love? The basketball shot-making mom.

Ah, the good old "as a European" schtick. For when you want to be smug without admitting to living in a country with its own issues. [2nd top scoring comment]

The pro-European shtick was downvoted. But I lied and said they were upvoted. Therefore, the lie becomes the truth.

The UK has plenty of fat people in it. Never understood this "Brits are super race of athletes" thing [top scoring reply]

'Fat people'. When they say it, they are monsters. When we say it, we are Self-Aware™.

And buried down at 6th, with just 6 points:

I can't find any of those comments.

Of course you can't, they were the most downvoted. They were downvoted so much that they were hidden from view.

Finally: a recap.

1. Choose an agenda you want to push aggressively.

2. Find a post on Reddit that might fit your narrative.

3. Choose a title that allows Circlebrokers to upvote without first reading your post, like mentioning a circlejerk that Circlebroke is already familiar with.

4. Quote the comments that suit your needs and weave them into your story as though they support your position. Leave out that they are tiny scores. Ignore the prevailing high-scoring comments that disagree with the narrative you're pushing.

5. And for true maximum smugness®, make a second Circlebroke post where you point out in excruciatingly minute detail what you've done, and how much you have lied, and how everyone lapped it up. That way, you can be superior to both all of Reddit and also to Circlebroke, so you can show everyone online just how smug you are.

Why exactly is reddit so obsessed with such peculiar topics?

It should be no secret to any long time redditor that the reddit community has a tendency to fixate on certain topics to the point of gleeful, euphoric agreement, often accompanied by a vicious intolerance for disagreement. The puzzle, however, comes with the strange diversity of obsessions - why be so progressive on subjects such as gay marriage and yet veer close to outright prejudice on issues of race and gender? Why loudly trumpet the cause of Palestine and yet express bored disinterest to the analogous situation in Tibet? What does any of this have to do with Mother Teresa? Or tipping? Or creepshots?

When presented with such a bewildering kalidescope of obsessions, it’s easy to wave it all away with the commonly heard refrain that “reddit is not just one person.” As a long time watcher of the hive, however, I’m convinced that a vast amount of these peculiar quirks can actually be explained by a few simple rules of thumb - tendencies which characterize the average redditor, and which color the shared outlook into a series of odd, but predictable convictions. Back at the beginning of the year I wrote a lengthy post introducing some of these concepts, now I’d like to return to that discussion in order to revise it a bit and, more importantly, to demonstrate how they can be applied in order to unify the perplexing variety of obsessions.

It’s my contention that around 90% of the circlejerks on reddit derive from four simple principles - one single Jerk Prime, and three individual Alpha Jerks.

• Jerk Prime - I am a misunderstood genius.

The "misunderstood genius" jerk holds pride of place because it acts not only as the progenitor of its own minor jerks (social conventions are beneath me), but also as the glue and justification which holds all other jerks together. The average redditor takes pride in peculiar obsessions - these are not evidence of a blinkered perspective shaded by several forms of bias, but rather prima facia evidence of misunderstood genius. In other words, they are both the product of a need to feel like a misunderstood genius, and then, once produced, taken as evidence that they were a misunderstood genius all along. Certainly, all of the jerks are snowflaking of one degree or another, but Jerk Prime is no doubt the most treasured, most beloved snowfalking of all.

The purest distillation of this jerk is most visible in the recurring I’m too smart for school and that’s why I failed posts, but you’d be hard pressed to find any recurring obsession which does not in some way rely on the redditor’s outsized confidence in their rarified reasoning abilities.

The Alpha Jerks

• SELECTIVE EMPATHY

• Rule of thumb - In any given dispute, the person most similar to the average redditor will be the one deemed correct.

As I wrote in my prior post, the role of Selective Empathy becomes most apparent when comparing reddit’s reaction to the older woman bullied on the bus by middle schoolers, and a cam girl bullied on her channel by internet porn viewers. The old woman was (at least initially) showered with sympathy and funds, while according to reddit the disaster on the cam channel was all the girl’s fault.

Why the differing reactions? Well, let’s apply our rule of thumb. In the case of the bus lady, who is the redditor most similar to? The bullying middle schoolers, tossing out jibes and insults? Not them, so the bullying recepient is held to be correct. In the case of the cam girl, however, suddenly the bulliers are keyboard warriors, tossing out cruel insults from behind a veil of anonymity. Strikingly similar situations, but suddenly the recpient is in the wrong.

Let’s apply this to a few more situations:

• Gay marriage:

• Race:

• Gender

• Any situation involving children.

• Usage of "Op is a Fag"

Now let’s make things a bit more subtle. Remember the violentacrez controversy? How fascinating was it that the same community which decried the invasion of violentacrez’s privacy was comparatively silent at the fact that what got violentacrez into trouble in the first place was invading other people’s privacy? Again let’s apply Selective Empathy. On the one hand we have anonymous attractive females wandering around in public, and on the other an awkward internet pornographer, and a noted redditor no less. [Little surprise that the hive chose to overlook the irony.] (http://www.reddit.com/r/circlebroke/comments/11aiuy/when_youre_a_woman_or_a_young_girl_in_public/)

Notice how Selective Empathy plays out in the following scenarios:

• A rowdy crowd of men gropes a woman. She should have known better than to be a crowd of rowdy men.

• Jokes about raping men and the trivialization of male rape are commonly complained about. Jokes about raping children are hilarious.

• Guy rudely pushes woman out of the way of his photo. Compare to how reddit would have reacted if it had been a frat boy pushing some nerd out of the way and then braying with laughter about it.

• Woman reacts angrily to boys skateboarding near her home. Compare the reaction had it been a nerd who was angry at a bunch of teenage girls for getting loud and annoying.

• Even in /r/philosophy, discrimination against men is a serious, pressing issue. I’ve never seen near the same sort of attention being paid to discrimination against women.

It's difficult to discern any sort of principle which unifies the cases above, but an instinct towards being emphatic only towards those most similar to yourself helps to explain a great deal of the peculiarity. I find it too remarkable to be a coincidence that a lack of empathy of often noted among those on the techie side of the spectrum.

• SECOND-OPTION BIAS

• Rule of thumb - The contradiction to any commonly held position is immediately held to be correct, so long as there is some veneer of plausibility to the argument.

This phenomenon was first identified in /u/douglasmacarthur's classic comment, and has been analyzed in detail - here I would like to expand a bit on how it appears in practice.

My personal favorite example of second-options bias is the hive’s astonishingly divergent reactions to Palestine and Tibet, summarized here. However, perhaps the most amusing example is the demonization of Mother Teresa and the rehabilitation of Adolf Hitler (see here and here and here).

I once came across a comment which summed up the attitude pretty well: Just imagine how amazing this world would be if we had a few more Hitlers and a few less Mother Theresas.

The most prominent Beta jerk of Second-Option Bias is your:

• Edgy Hipster Jerk:

• Rule of thumb - The best known or most popular version of anything is automatically bad.

Naturally, this includes popular music (Kesha sucks, Mumford and Sons suck), popular TV shows (Big Bang Theory sucks), Apple (brainwashed), Digg (when it was popular enough to be a threat to reddit), Avatar (despite praising it before it became popular), Thomas Edison, etc.

Of course, if the theory is that redditors love to bravely brave against popular things, then the elephant in the room in terms of popular things and popular culture is the United States itself. This leads to another, Beta Jerk, the:

• Amerikkka Jerk.

• Rule of thumb - Every uniquely identifiable aspect of American culture or society is automatically bad.

Examples of things that suck about America: [ice cubes] (http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/dg4h2/goddamn_ice_cubes/c0zzlog), tooth brushing, teeth, courtroom procedure, appreciation of heavy metal, game buying habits, and so forth.

For an interesting thought experiment in how second-option bias plays out, compare the relative treatment of Muslims in Israel with Muslims in Europe. Surely they are not altogether terribly different from one another, but the former is held to be an unfairly maligned paragons of peace, while the latter are savage mongrels trying to drag down Eutopia with their medieval beliefs. I don’t think this really files under empathy given that Israelis are too unfamiliar to be identified with and Europeans too incandescently perfect, but I think it works pretty well as an example of vulgar contrarianism.

• BROGRESSIVISM

• Rule of thumb - Give me everything I want, yet ask of me no sacrifice.

Reddit’s affinity for social programs should be pretty well established, but the notable twist is that reddit generally balks at any form of sacrifice whatsoever. Already noted above in the discussion of Selective Empahty is the pearl-clutching whenever affirmative action or race/gender based scholarships come up, all of which run the risk of taking something away from the redditor. Note also the tendency among European redditors to search for Americans to buy Steam games for them at American prices, circumventing the very taxes which make their social welfare programs possible.

Brogressivism leads to some strangely selective libertarianism. Although reddit is sometimes noted as a “libertarian” community, its eagerness at the prospect of a complete government takeover of medicine is well-noted, as it would result in more free things for the redditor. This sits a bit strangely alongside reddit’s libertarian stance towards drugs and guns, save for the fact that reddit simply likes them and wants them. Note again the role of Selective Empathy here, as the people most likely to be hurt by the ready availibility of guns and drugs are likely to be poor inner-city residents, and therefore unlike the redditors themselves. Again, libertarian when it comes to gettings things, socialist when it comes to getting things.

The affinity for free things and the aversion to sacrifice extends beyond policy, however. Note the cavalier attitude towards piracy (arguably a Beta Jerk in and of itself), although also note how the attitude towards “free culture” changes when the empathetic role changes from faceless corporation to reddit itself.

Along with a splash of the Amerikkka jerk, the tipping jerk emerges from the same instinct. Redditors perhaps like to fancy themselves warm and compassionate, but when the opportunity arises to cut a few dollars towards hard-working people the storm clouds immediately gather. “Make the owners pay for that, not me!” is of a kind with “Make the rich pay for that, not me!,” (ignore the fact that in the former case, the customer would pay the same amount no matter what, the lack of rigor is what reveals it to be more instinct than position).

Conclusion

For the sake of brevity, there are a couple of jerks I didn’t cover and a few which don’t cleanly fit into this rubric (clapping at movies just riles people up for some strange reason). Still, I’m confident that this approach captures a great deal of the common sentiment as well as some of the more notable and peculiar quirks of the community.

Eh?

So there was a pretty neat photo of someone's daughter that takes an annual "metaphoto" with Adam Savage. It's the top of /r/all at the time of this post.

https://np.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4kkof5/adam_savage_with_my_daughter_in_our_annual/

I thought that maybe this could just be an enjoyable Reddit thread. There's nothing controversial about it, right?

Top comment:

She's going full feminism (1921, gilded x3)

Fuck Reddit.

So yeah, their crusade against women with short hair and/or hair that is dyed continues.

Now, to be very fair, almost all of the replies are criticizing this.

Fuck you reddit (450, gilded x3)

God this is so fucking disgusting. This girl is probably 12 years old and literally thousands of people are teasing her for her looks. This user base (at least for the defaults) fucking blows. (score hidden)

I'm not going to go through all of the replies, but there are lots of "refutations" to the replies that oppose the original comment. Basically, it's a complete shitshow. Almost all of the comments are controversial.

Regardless, this is the top goddamn comment of the entire post, with 2000 upvotes, with two people who thought it was clever enough to gild. Basically, it's straight-up bullying. I'm sure it does a lot for the girl in the photo to see that comment is the first thing that Redditors give a shit about in the photograph.

EDIT: Just at the time of posting...

The thread has been locked.

WE DID IT REDDIT!!!!11

This thread has 1500 comments and currently over 200 are in our modqueue right now. Holy moly guys. I am going to lock this thread, at least until I can get through the backlog.

Everyone is free to have their own opinions, and trust me I love drama, but don't be assholes.

Comments that are sexist, racist, or are personal attacks will be removed, and if you leave these comments you will be banned.

Stop being dicks to each other. And yes, before anyone asks or makes a snarky modmail, I am censoring you, and I am fine with doing so.

Congratulations, Reddit. You managed to lock a thread of a completely innocent photograph.

EDIT 2:

ADAM SAVAGE HIMSELF HAS COMMENTED ON THE THREAD

(thanks /u/DanClearyFan for bringing this to my attention)

Seriously reddit? ffs. sigh. (636, x2 gilded)

Congratu-fucking-lations, Reddit. Now you made one of your idols upset. What a mess you've made.

And yes, Adam commented before the thread was locked. I just didn't see this until after then.

What is a secret opinion you have, that if said outloud, would make you sound like a prick? - Points for title originality: negative infinity.

If you can't afford food don't have 5 fuckinh kids you fucking idiot. [+2,500 and top]

Yeah you fucking idiot! Guys look I'm superior to poor mothers! Upjacks to the left.

I would not want to raise a mentally disabled or autistic child. [+2,000 and 2nd top]

These threads are now so predictable that I genuinely believe AssCredit mods should put out a statement blanket-banning the topic. "What edgy opinion do you say on the internet to have your smug stroked?' should be banned, and posters told to just search for the answers. At this stage you could make a Wiki to link to.

I think some people use the term introvert to hide their poor social skills. [3rd top I'm not bothering with scores anymore]

Yes!! I hate when people who are shy or have social anxiety say "Oh well I'm just introverted."

No. You are not introverted. As an introvert, I THOROUGHLY ENJOY being alone....

Yeah I'm not quoting the rest of that garbage. No True Scotsman - I am a true entrovert, you are not really an introvert, not really, not like me. Yeah we all enjoy alone time, you're not special, you're a normal human being. Find another way to get your ego points.

Yes, abortions does mean killing babies. And I'm okay with that. I can barely take care of myself and I don't want to bring a life into this world because we'll both just be miserable. [4th top worst]

I am okay with killing babies - guys am I edgy enough to be in the cool group? Upcontrarians to the left? I'm okay with killing babies! Like, I agree with extreme pro-lifers that abortion is baby murder, but I'm still superior to both them and pro-choicers because I'm down with baby murder! Guys?

I've noticed so far that these all have to do with hating kids. 1. Don't have 5 kids fucking idiot. 2. I don't wanna raise a retard. 3. I wanna kill babies. Yeah that introverted one is the exception, but there's a lot of kid hate, and weirdly, specifically baby hate. Reddit hates babies now. I thought they just hated kids. Nope, actual babies. Up-edgies I suppose.

Just because you're gay or transgender doesn't mean it's always the reason people give you shit. Maybe you're just an insufferable shithead. [5th top]

Who are they even arguing with? They create a strawman, then get angry at their own strawman, then argue with him. What gay guy or transgender person said that the only and exclusive reason people give the shit (token swear word) is because they are a gender or sexual minority? Name one. Name even one, and I will grant you your victory. I was in the supermarket and a man dressed and living as a woman was doing his shopping. He had random guys making jokes at his expense. Minding his own business, and having to put up with 'hilarious' crap. It's a real problem. That's a real person I saw in real life. What is this imaginary anger on Reddit? "Grrr, I'm angry at transgendereds for existing, grrr!"

Teenage girls have fantastic looking tits. [6th top and 1,500; some scores have to be quoted to be believed]

You can take the /r/jailbait out of Reddit, you can't take Reddit out of the jailbait.

Teenage girls also have fantastic butts. [+900]

18 and 19 still technically teenage.

Still technically correct, because technically correct is best correct, right?

Me and a friend in our 30's visited Seville Spain. We were bar hopping at 4am, and apparently in that country 12 year old girls dress like adults, and go out and drink until 7am. And this isn't like you see a few in-between the normal aged woman ... it was thousands of girls this age all over everywhere. So me and a friend kept noticing how attractive these girls were all night long ... and took a vow to never tell this story to anyone ever. Until now. [+200]

Ha ha no no no no no. 18, 19? Nope, 12. Twelve-year-olds. That's what they meant by 'teenagers'. Don't worry bros, I heard your dog whistle. Loud. And. Clear. That one commenter thinking we were talking about 19 year olds. too_old.jpg amirite???

Fat people are fat because they gorge on processed food and sugar. Fat acceptance is embracing laziness and sloth. [+1,400 and 7th top I think now? I've lost track]

Yeah, 'fat people'. That's another thing I hate about Reddit; this term, 'fat people'. Say that in real life. You never will. You're a coward. But on Reddit, 'fat people' is thrown around like 'blonde women', like it's just a descriptive phrase, with no hate at all. Also, she tried to slip 'gorge' past me too. No, people are overweight don't 'gorge', they eat. They eat food, same as you do. They're not at a trough, as much as you'd just love to dehumanise them. You know what proportion of adults are considered obese? Two-thirds. They're the majority. But no, I'm sure you're a supermodel with the self-control of a monk, and two-thirds of people are inferior to you.

That a lot of black people like to pull the race card in situations without even knowing the full story. [8th top and still the score is over a thousand]

Again, who is 'a lot of black people'? What, like Tyrone at work? Or are we talking Jesse Jackson here? Nope, just cowardly opinions thrown around on the internet anonymously, no-one having the spine to hash it out.

People should not be receiving scholarships based on the color of their skin as retribution for what white people did to them. I did nothing to you, neither did my parents, or grandparents. You do not deserve money over me because you're not white. The only cases where you deserve a scholarship over me is if you have better credentials or you are less financially fortunate. Affirmative action in the education system is bullshit.[9th top and still over a thousand points]

Top reply: 0.25 percent (one quarter of one percent) of all undergrad scholarship dollars come from awards that are restricted to persons of color alone... White kids are more likely to win scholarships. Remind me again, about that 'race card' thing? What was the previous top comment? Black people are too quick to pull the race card? Well here's a white guy pulling his race card, in a situation where he is proven dead wrong, in the comment right underneath his. Reddit's reaction? A net score of over a thousand upvotes. Huh. You couldn't give one example of black people pulling the race card unnecessarily, yet here I have one - RIGHT UNDERNEATH IT MIND YOU! - of a white card pulling his race card - unnecessarily, and even incorrectly. Oh, your hypocrisy tastes so delicious.

Find, I'll just skim the rest of the >1,000 score comments, because these 'unpopular' opinions sure are a lot more popular on Reddit.

We don't just have a bully problem, we have a victim problem. [+1,100]

Literally victim-blaming. Literally. As in literally. As in look in the dictionary. 'Your face got in the way of my fist.'

I fucking hate interacting with *mentally disabled people. Keep them away from me... Also, your deformed child is not "beautiful." ... I think that people who stop or refuse chemotherapy or other lifesaving therapy because they are or want to be pregnant are selfish idiots. [+1,100]

Oh we started talking about 'people' but we got the message by the end - babies. Oh you hate interacting with those with a mental disability? Oh how awful for you. Oh how very difficult it must be for you. Would you like some breastmilk to calm yourself down? You poor thing. Imagine, having to actually interact with someone with a mental disability. Must have been the worst 20 seconds of your life. Oh excuse me you 'fucking' hate it? Oh I didn't realise. And parents thinking their babies are beautiful - fucking idiots. And women with cancer who want to have babies - selfish idiots, you are so right about that. They should just have their wombs cut out, no biggie. After all, I wasn't born with a womb, and I'm doing fine. Retarded people, babies, and mothers.

Strangely no edgy opinions about Reddit's main demographic, like 'I think guys in their late teens and early-twenties have poor body hygiene, and a lot to learn about romance'. No, that wouldn't get any traction. Murdering babies, that's what we upvote on here!

Your kids are annoying and I hate you because of it. [+1,000]

Another case of kids being guilty of 'Existing While Young'. Your kids annoy me, so I hate you, not your kids. Well also your kids. I mean I hate your kids for existing annoying me, and I also hate you for existing well actually just for existing. This web site really is hateful. Now that /r/fatpeoplehate is banned, I think they'll replace it with /r/youngpeoplehate. Oh wait, we already have that, it's called /r/childfree, or more accurately/r/IAmSuperiorToParentsBecauseIDidLiterallyNothing.

Damn there are even more. I'm just going to stop. Shall we analyse the results, so we feel less dirty? Let's try to wash the ejaculate off of ourselves.

Child hate: 4/11

Black hate: 2/11

Mental disability hate: 2/11

Victim hate: 2/11

Introvert hate: 1/11

Gender and sexual minority hate: 1/11

People who are obese hate: 1/11

Pedophilia love: 1/11

What I'm realising is that for all of the backlash against Reddit becoming a 'safe space', it is already a safe space, just for hate speech. It's not free speech, it's hate speech. You can just create a thread in AskReddit with the title 'You have permission to spew hate speech here. Pick a minorty to hate. You don't need to say why. In fact it's preferable if you don't justify your hate speech, because that can be easily refuted. Again, you have permission to spout hate speech, and you might even get a round of internet applause.', except the title is phrased in the form of a question, Jeopardy style. Reddit isn't a hugbox, it's a hatebox. Kids, babies, blacks, mothers, cancer victims - cancer victims.

Something else I just noticed: Reddit seems to hate perceived weakness. Rather than sympathises with someone who they see as weak, they hate them. Babies, kids, victims, minorities, mothers - they see them as weak, and hate them for it. They see pedophiles as strong, so they latch onto them. That's so weird. I knew Reddit had a superiority complex, but I wasn't previously aware of this phenomenon. Does it have a name, does anyone know, preying on the weak to make yourself feel stronger, or something?

In conclusion, Reddit's a shithole. Don't overthink it.

https://www.reddit.com/quarantine?dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Feuropean

You guys are hypocrites. All you do is try and accuse Reddit of circlejerking, when in fact you guys are the ones that are circlejerking. Why don't you do the rest of us a favor and just delete this hateful sub? This place is negativity central.