Disclaimer: the following is a massive storm of especially incoherent thoughts, read at risk of sever confusion, painful run on sentences and perfectly normal migraines.

Reddit is supposed to be “the front page of the internet”, that great mosh pit of uninformed ideas and the haters that bash them down with more BS. It’s supposed to be neutral, with everyone able to voice any opinion they want and throw it to the wind. Because didn’t we just have a YYYYUUUUGE (very big) fight over it in the whole FTC vs internet net neutrality thing. That’s basically why I am allowed to post nonsense and not get banned from the internet. Because it is neutral, and Reddit is supposed to reflect that . . . right?

Now on the surface their upvote downvote system is all great and glorious but there is that one problem with all voting systems, the voters themselves. Now, because i’m seeming anti democracy some redneck who misunderstood the constitution is probably coming for me. Before you go cheer on that redneck hear me out okay.

People like their junk food. It’s good, its addictive, it’s cancerous. Junk food for thought, like regular junk food, makes you feel good. Which is great, I always need that boost to ever contain any sort of esteem. But there is a problem WHEN YOU GET WHOLE SUBREDDITS THAT ARE BASICALLY SAFE-SPACE TRIGGER-SAFE SOMETHING-SAFE SPACE.(lonely is triggered) It creates these idea mirrors that just reflect back what you think. “Echo chambers” perhaps? The most popular opinions get boosted to the top while the unpopular opinion, which people need their healthy dose of, is send spiraling to the bottom. So posts get these floods of conformation bias while my post is sitting at the bottom of the sub with -11 votes. THIS IS SO STUPID WHY IS IT A THING.

As Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein put it,

The mere discussion of, or deliberation over, a certain matter or opinion in a group may shift the position of the entire group in a more radical direction.

Everyone has to take a stand a some point in life, will it be an informed opinion or just extremist herd zeal like the “not my president protests” (hint: he is).