From RationalWiki

“ ” Now the best part — showing the world how angry you are. For that, you need to go to Reddit to create an account. —New York Times[1]

“ ” Reddit has done well in getting interest from the mainstream[.] I just wonder if [...] allowing these children to run rampant and post whatever they Reddit has done well in getting interest from the mainstream[.] I just wonder if [...] allowing these children to run rampant and post whatever they feel will cause the most collateral damage. — William Shatner [2]

Reddit is a social media content aggregation website that bills itself as "The Front Page of the Internet" (For trolls it certainly is). It is incredibly popular, collecting over 37 billion views and 400 million unique visitors in 2012 alone,[3] even though it can't make itself profitable.[4]

Reddit works by having users, or "redditors", submit links to other websites, upload images, or just provide textual content, or "self-posts". These posts and their comments are all voted up or down by other redditors. Reddit displays more recent and more upvoted content higher, so "good" stuff gets visibility while "bad" stuff falls away. The site is divided into smaller sections, or "subreddits". Each subreddit focuses on a particular subject, and any redditor can create one; subreddit creators automatically become moderators on those subreddits. Moderators (normal users) effectively run most of the website.

Reddit's admins take a very hands-off approach, and it's swiftly becoming a site entirely made of YouTube comments. Given that Reddit is absolutely huge,[5] it has attracted an absolutely huge number of cranks, as documented below.

Whence the awfulness? [ edit ]

“ ” Though Reddit claims to be "the front page of the internet", it usually hits the news because of its nurturing attitude toward the asinine or the evil. Be it white power, radicalised sexism or advocacy on behalf of gamers (AKA radicalised white power sexism), it's hard to find a group Reddit's mods won't drag their feet about banning. —Vice.com[6]

In many ways, Reddit represents one of the worst possible results of enormous popularity, coupled with an immense and only loosely-connected pile of largely self-governing communities (Take care not to assume a coherence that really isn't there). A sliver of any site's traffic will consist of cranks and malcontents; the jaw-dropping amount of traffic Reddit receives means this subpopulation can number in the thousands or tens/hundreds of thousands. These cranks then either set up their own or join an existing subreddit that supports their ideas, which can (and do) turn into veritable echo chambers for their viewpoints. Any redditor who posts a comment that contradicts the prevailing opinion within any of the nastier subreddits often finds all their comments and posts (which are accessible via their public profile) downvoted across all subreddits in retaliation (the software attempts to counteract this to some extent; if the user downvotes comments on the public profile page itself, these votes are ignored for karma calculation purposes). While not a significant impact by itself, floods of this sort of retaliatory voting can marginalize sensible redditors, not just on the crank subreddit, but across unrelated subreddits as well (though sockpuppet and throwaway accounts cost only a few clicks/keystrokes, so this "problem" is easily manageable).

Unfortunately, the site's structure further encourages the spread of these ideas into any neutral or "good" subreddits; cross-pollination of users and topics between related subreddits can serve to grow and strengthen the various crank communities and drive away more sensible users. Any thread that vaguely touches on crank redditors' hobbyhorses can be swiftly hijacked by a sufficiently large population of cranks voting as a bloc. Subreddit moderators are often too apathetic, incompetent, or afraid of being too aggressive and alienating their own community to take any action, further encouraging crank redditors to continue colonizing other subreddits.[7] This is made worse when moderators across seemingly disparate or only tangentially-related subreddits are sympathetic to these crank ideas and tolerate them, much to the detriment of the community. For example, /r/ronpaul redditors spread into the /r/libertarianism subreddit, which then spread into the /r/politics subreddit, eventually turning Reddit into a particularly noisy fanbase for Paul's presidential campaigns. After the 2012 election when it became clear that Paul wouldn't run again, the "Ron Paul 2012!!!!!11!" brigade was downvoted to virtual invisibility in many instances... only for the cycle to repeat in 2016 and 2020 with the diehard fans of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, and Tulsi Gabbard.

Reddit also has a strong culture (although by no means a universal one) present within it of subreddits opposing any form of moderation and believing that upvotes and downvotes should be the sole arbiter of whether the content is any good in the name of free speech, and that, consequently, any form of active moderation beyond that prescribed by Reddit itself is censorship. This extends to such things as prohibiting harassing content directed at other users, racism, sexism, image macros, rage comics, and other such things; the basic argument is that if these things are really odious, they will be downvoted, and if they aren't, that means the subreddit's readers want them there. This rather peculiar form of the just world hypothesis ignores the fact that all evidence available shows that if you have no form of an enforced quality bar on an online community, it will quite rapidly become filled with low-effort content, and become subject quite dramatically to the dickwad theory. A demonstration of this can be seen by the stunning quality of strictly-moderated subreddits, such as /r/AskHistorians compared to, well, take your pick.

However, this paper-thin veneer of principled free speech breaks down when it comes to anything that might be critical of Reddit or redditors' particular hobbyhorses. For insight, CEO Steve Huffman is a doomsday prepper who frequently attends Burning Man, a yearly gathering for filthy-rich Libertarians in the Nevada desert.[8] This might explain why /r/The_Donald wasn't banned until June 2020, long after most of its users had already left Reddit in anticipation of the sub's banning.

Meanwhile, calls are regularly made to close or ban /r/AgainstHateSubreddits (and before them, /r/ShitRedditSays which fulfilled the exact same purpose although in a more circlejerk fashion, but is considered dead nowadays), a subreddit that overall does nothing other than link to examples of what it sees as bigotry across Reddit (and enrage MRAs and racists in the process). For sites that dare to criticize Reddit on the interwebs, a "shit" icon is coded on many subreddits to appear on any link that directs to them. This includes Cracked.com and the Satanic blog whose name starts with a "G" and ends with an "r", as described below[citation needed].

In June 2015, Reddit shut down several breathtakingly odious subreddits that weren't just saying hideous things or brigading other subreddits, but also operating as bases for harassment off-site.[9] This included the infamous /r/FatPeopleHate subreddit, which included over 100,000 subscribers prior to its ban, and was, ironically, one of the more censored subreddits on the site, as showing sympathy or empathy towards fat people quickly earned the speaker a warning or a ban. Upset FPH readers proclaimed the Reddit admins a pack of censoring Nazis (also either blaming /r/ShitRedditSays or demanding its banning as usual)[note 1], and many decamped to Reddit for a newer similarly-structured site called Voat,[10][11] which promptly melted under the load.

Much of the hatred, centered on the hashtag #RedditRevolt, surrounded Reddit's interim CEO Ellen Pao, whose sexual discrimination lawsuit against her former employer Kleiner Perkins made waves in Silicon Valley. Thus, the Chinese-American feminist in charge of the site was made into a perfect target by Reddit's "disenfranchised" assholes. In addition to being compared to China's Cold War dictator Mao Zedong (with the epithet "Chairman Pao"), as well as the usual cries of "Nazi" because a handful of subreddits exclusively formed to harass other people were banned, a petition was made calling for her removal as CEO. All of this was pretty blatant harassment, racism, and sexism levied at her, until a popular Reddit staff member was fired in July 2015, leading to #RedditRevolt's revitalization as a form of solidarity with the former employee following a voluntary blackout of several Reddit boards. The petition for Pao's removal surged in popularity, and comment sections across the Internet seemed to think that #RedditRevolt, which had its origins in June, only started in July in response to the firing.[12][13][14] One commentator on a DOTA2 website, of all places, even noticed an obvious connection between the people pushing #RedditRevolt and Gamergate, pointing out that a feminist woman banning hateful communities is everything 4chan could have ever wanted in a controversy.[15]

Pao ultimately resigned from her position during this shitstorm[16] despite the fact that another member of the executive board who was one of the site's founders was actually responsible for the popular employee's firing.[17] But the real bombshell comes from former CEO Yishan Wong, who first suggested that Reddit's co-founder Alexis Ohanian had set Pao up to take the fall for his actions.[18] Reddit's chief engineer Bethanye Blount also echoed these sentiments when she quit following Pao's resignation.[19][20] After the new CEO announced an AMA ("ask me anything") to handle questions about how Reddit was changing with Pao's departure, Wong appeared again and revealed that Pao was the only member of Reddit's executive board arguing in favor of all of the website's most toxic communities. According to Wong, the board had pressured Pao to "outright ban ALL the hate subreddits in a sweeping purge", but she resisted, knowing it would result in a "shitshow".

Now that #RedditRevolt had ousted Pao, there was nothing stopping new CEO Steve Huffman from going through with this purge. Wong stated that Huffman had previously confided in him that he would have banned such hateful communities outright.[21] What actually happened was that Huffman decided that all of the terrible communities shouldn't be banned entirely and instead be put behind registration walls, and within those new walled gardens, they had no advertisements whatsoever. He's also fully embodied the libertarian hands-off approach; in response to a question concerning the growth of white supremacist subreddit /r/CoonTown since the new rules were put in place, he responded, "Horrible, actually, but I don't think you can win an argument by simply silencing the opposition."[22] Several more subreddits were banned the following week, such as ones for lolicon, but more importantly, /r/CoonTown and its various satellite subreddits;[23] however, these were not banned for being racist, but because they were damaging to Reddit's reputation.[24]

Prominent terrible subreddits [ edit ]

Ah, the embarrassing misadventures of angsty adolescence. Back when you could just throw on a black trenchcoat and give a middle finger to religion because there wasn't a single other problem in your life to be upset about. Not as relentlessly awful as some, but a good demonstration that not believing in a god or gods in no way implies any capacity for joined-up thinking or not being a horrible person.[note 2] The average user is significantly younger than on other atheism-related sites and so fairly new to the whole non-belief sphere; thus, the whole thing is more of a celebration of the new-found ability to blaspheme without guilt. Because of this, a large amount of posts end up being cross-posted to the self-explanatory subreddit /r/cringe.

Early in 2013, there was a little coup d'etat among the moderators at /r/atheism, where the founder of the subreddit was forced out.[note 3] The first assistant moderator that the founder had invited to help with the subreddit became chief moderator. Afterwards, a lot of new policies were implemented, leading to the wailing and gnashing of teeth among most of the members. The original founder then created a new subreddit called /r/atheismrebooted (which is just like it sounds: a rehash of the best and worst of /r/atheism's original format). Yada, yada, yada. One of the users at /r/atheismrebooted was kind enough to post a timeline of their grand soap opera here.

Anyway, it all became so annoying to the Reddit admins that they woke up for once and took /r/atheism off the default subreddit list.[25] However, by the end of 2014, the ruckus had died down and /r/atheism had been (very quietly) restored to the default list.

One of the more infamous subreddits even among other redditors, as it's known for being something of a self-parody of conservatives and a crackpot magnet. Written from an American conservative point of view ( Londonstan European conservatives are generally not regarded as conservative enough),[26] it is known for their mocking of "SJWs" and "safe spaces", and is also one of the most ban-happy subs on Reddit, with even any mention of the Southern Strategy being a damnable and bannable lie.[27] On slow days, the mods blanket-ban anyone who criticizes their views, even if they've never posted in the sub. We're talking about a group of people with so little going on in their lives that they actually feel the need to comb over entirely different subreddits just looking for people they can ban from their hugbox.

Other shenanigans include the pro-fetus wing of r/con seeing fit to weigh in on bacterial life on Mars (as if it somehow relates to a fertilized human egg),[28] believing guys like Mitch freaking McConnell aren't true conservatives,[29] and linking to/having heavy overlap with /r/theredpill.[30] In fairness, they will sometimes stop short of endorsing some more absurd conspiracy theories and shockingly enough usually accept climate change to some degree (though it's obviously exaggerated by the libruls) so it's a bit better than Conservapaedia, just not by much.

r/ShitRConservativesays was a rival conservative subreddit in the European-style, set up to monitor the unusually-high proportion of anti-science, racist screeds and PRATTs pouring out of Reddit, but the head mod eventually succumb to the same No True Scotsman and persecution paranoia that pervades RCon, ultimately turning the sub into a wasteland where a dozen True Conservatives whine about the other conservative sub they were banned from while banning 90% of their users for not being True Conservatives.

The front page of paranoia on the Internet. Run by a white supremacist moderator who worships Timothy McVeigh, they made Hitler Did Nothing Wrong their official documentary long before Trump ever had a chance at being president. Theories discussed here run the gamut from 9/11 to chemtrails to lizard people.

/r/conspiracy has a large subscription base, but is considered by many to be the laughingstock of the site, with regulars routinely accusing anyone who disrupts their echo chamber of panicking of being a "shill" or an evil impostor working for the government/Jewish overlords/reptilians. Despite being presented as an open forum and "thinking ground" which "respects people of all religions and creeds", we dare you try to question prolific appearances of Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Alex Jones. Lastly, anytime a mass shooting or a terrorist attack or anything horrible where many people die or are injured, it is automatically considered a false flag perpetrated by the United States government. No exceptions.

Many /r/conspiracy regulars actually believe that most of Reddit is paid government employees watching them (and yet they still go there, which might prove there is a genuine need for it and/or it is simply addictive). Due to its insanity and hostility, other subreddits such as /r/conspiratard and /r/actualconspiracies have been set up to take a slightly more rational approach to conspiracy discussion. People who are interested in woo but not politics, meanwhile, have mostly fled to /r/ConspiracyII.

In September 2014, the subreddit showed how anti-Semitic it really was by posting the documentary Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told in their sidebar (which included a big picture of Hitler's face). The move caused major controversy and was heavily panned by /r/conspiratard and /r/subredditdrama.[31] Despite everything (though it shouldn't be any surprise), the documentary stayed up, and anyone who didn't like it were deemed Zionist Shills.

It is regularly featured on r/TopMindsOfReddit, another watchdog sub.

Not to be confused with /r/thedonald, about everyone else called Donald. Or with /r/The_Dotard, which has a more reality-based view of Trump.

Now defunct, this was the main place for Trump supporters to gather on Reddit. It had been quarantined by Reddit due to inciting violence against law enforcement officials in the wake of the 2019 Republican Senator walkout from climate change legislation in Oregon,[32] an action which led to its slow decline which lasted until the whole thing got banned. The majority of this sub didn't really seem to have any defined political stance and could change with the wind depending on what Trump does/says. People rarely spoke out if they disagreed on something that he did, and would tie themselves into knots to defend anything the alt-right does. Next thing you know, paying $5 for a gallon of water will be good for America and bread lines are going to be "Alpha".

Users of /r/The_Donald are known for brigading all over Reddit. It was a mystery why the sub was allowed to exist for so long when it frequently broke the site's terms of service (it had, however, been sanctioned in the past), although they purchase a lot of Gold (stickied posts paid for by debit), so that might have something to do with it. They operate a half dozen splinter subs, among them being r/The_Farage, r/The_Ivanka, and r/Le_Pen. Milo "Raspberry Reich" Yiannopoulos was a mod for the sub, until he was caught scamming money off of it. (This was his second scam: He also raised $100,000 for a "white male" scholarship fund and then pocketed the money.)

On March 5th, 2020, the subreddit went on lockdown by the mods, claiming that the Reddit admins are liberally biased and hate Trump, after the admins removed several moderators for harassing Reddit employees and stickying rule-breaking content and the admins instated stricter rules for assigning new moderators. The subsequent result is that the /u/reddit account (normally only used for corporate announcements and sending automated messages to users) was used to sticky an "application thread" on the_donald, which led to two more mod removals (who tried to unsticky and remove the post respectively.)

/r/The_Congress is the same exact premise and worldview as /r/The_Donald, only focused on legislative races across the United States.

This subreddit had been effectively superseded by /r/Trump as of mid 2020, with most of its users leaving reddit to the new supposedly "uncensored by liberals" site thedonald.win, around 4 months after its effective death, it was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020. [33]

A sub originally devoted to the left-wing comedy podcast of the same name, but eventually devolved into its' own comedy subreddit. As /r/CTH grew, its users' "ironic" support for Juche and The Lion of Syria got mistaken for the real item by Tankies, who thought that they were in good company, turned the sub into a poor man's /r/FULLCOMMUNISM, and finally got quarantined for many, many instances of its' user inciting Violence[34].

The sub was known for being kind of a boogeyman across the site, but was also known for being so insanely sectarian that even the Podcasts own HOSTS grew a distaste for it. The sub gained a lot of its' notoriety for having a whole FUCK-TON of spin-offs and backup Subreddits (Most, if not ALL, would later be caught in June 29 Banwave in 2020).

A common consensus that came up, was that "if /r/The_Donald were to ever be banned on Reddit, then so would Chapo". Coincidentally, on June 29th 2020, Chapo was one of the Prominent Subreddits to be caught in the New-Policy Banwave for 'Promoting Hate', alongside /r/The_Donald[35]. After the Banwave, most of its' users migrated to Chapo.Chat.

A bunch of whiny manchildren who take Gamergate way too seriously. The members of this subreddit believe that there is a widespread feminist conspiracy to censor or ruin entertainment for everyone, that feminism will bring about the end of men everywhere, and that Gamergate is literally class warfare. All this... over video games. KotakuInAction itself spun off from /r/WikiInAction, where everyone on KotakuInAction went to complain about Gamergate stuff on Wikipedia and RationalWiki, before a certain someone realised that it was unmoderated, and got Reddit to restrict posting there by spamming it with child pornography in the hope of having it banned.

In July 2018, /u/david-me, its creator, decided (perhaps a bit too late) to end the subreddit, calling it "one of the many cancerous growths that have infiltrated Reddit", citing "racism and sexism .... and other ism's". But unfortunately for him, and lucky for hate speech free speech advocates, Reddit employees responded in less than an hour, and it was back up[36].

A community themed around documenting reddits supposed "Abandonment of Free speech" (as in, the admins start enforcing their TOS more so shareholders aren't scared away from it). The sub is often parodied and satirised for its' incredibly hyperbolic and Lolcow responses to controversial (and often right-wing) subreddits getting the ban-hammer, citing "Double Standard!!"[37] as many of its' Users post screenshots of other users on subreddits /r/WRD doesn't like, engaging in behaviour that is apparently ban-worthy now (ergo: some people on /r/FragilewhiteRedditor were making some silly-ass jokes about how white people can't jump), leading to a lot of cherry-picking and whataboutism as a result. Users will also frequently post screenshots of themselves getting banned or their posts getting removed from other subreddits by their mods for reasons they believe are unjustified and/or is infringing on their first Amendment rights.

Just like every other 'Free speech' community, /r/WRD often scaremongers over and scapegoats China, especially He who shall not be named as to why things aren't going the way they want them to[38][39].

WatchRedditDie is also notorious for making up Conspiracy theories and Hoaxes (completely out of thin air) about certain other communities they have personal vendettas for in the hopes that it will gain enough traction and the admins will take action. Around March/Aprill 2020, a conspiracy theory had broken out from /r/WRD that users on notorious anti-hate sub, /r/AgainstHateSubreddits, were brigading and spamming hate-subs with Child pornography in order to get them banned[40]. Notably infamous subs at the time (/r/ConsumeProduct and /r/Politicalcompassmemes) started to latch-on to this hoax in the hopes that it would save their skin and get /r/AHS banned (It mostly didn't[41]). all it resulted in was a long-lasting week of harassment, threats of violence and bigotry directed towards the users and mods of /r/Againsthatesubreddits and /r/Topmindsofreddit[42], the Admins have done nothing so far.

On top of all that, despite users consistently complaining about being called Nazis, they have been caught un-ironically praising Hitler[43] for apparently being "Right about the Jews". You'll never find any other places on reddit that contain such high level intellect.

Similar to /r/MensRights, but actually worse, to the point where even /r/MensRights denounced them as misogynist.[44] While /r/MensRights tries to mask its hatred of women in the language of anti-feminism, the folks at /r/theredpill are far more open about it. They reserve just as much hate for "betas", with quoting and mocking what male posters say on /r/relationships. Described on /r/TrollXChromosomes as "a place where bitter divorcees and young ugly dudes meet up to discuss strategies of making themselves feel better".[45] When you're so toxic that even the bottom 10% of MRAs don't want you, it's a sad day for you.

/r/RedPillWomen is another thriving subreddit. There are so many women who actually believe that they're lesser than men. (If he's flirting with other women, it's just because he's being alpha. Make sure that he knows he's the king!)

We're not joking when we say /r/theredpill is worse than /r/Conservative.

One of the more famous examples of a hate sub throughout the site's history, this group started out as an uncensored off-shoot to /r/cringe (hence the title 'CringeAnarchy') but eventually became a haven for queerphobes, Alt-Righters and edgelords.[46] The subreddit was quarantined in September 2018, which at that point it had reached over 400,000 followers.

Following the Christchurch mosque attack in 2019, more and more islamophobic[47] and antisemitic[48] content started polluting the subreddit. It was banned on 25 April 2019 for posts explicitly calling for violence.

Other fairly awful subreddits [ edit ]

Reddit has many users. Reddit makes it easy to create splinter communities. As a result, Reddit hosts innumerable small, dedicated, and truly horrifying communities.

On June 29, 2020, Reddit finally cracked down on the spread of hate speech on their site, introducing a new policy against it, and banning many hate subreddits most notably the aforementioned r/TheDonald, and /r/GenderCritical.

Conspiracy nuts [ edit ]

/r/GreatAwakening The QAnon subreddit, established after its predecessor /r/CBTS_Streams was banned for inciting violence.[49] It got so bad that at one point, the mods had to order their users to stop searching for and posting child pornography, which users tried to justify under the guise of "investigating" the "cabal".[50] Elements of the sub's userbase did not take these orders well.[51] Was finally banned for threatening violence and doxxing on September 12, 2018. /r/Holocaust Created by an ex-mod of /r/conspiracy, this was a subreddit run by and dedicated to Holocaust denial. In early 2014, the mod list was expanded to include another mod of /r/conspiracy and members of the now-banned /r/niggers. Banned in September 2019. /r/911Truth The subreddit's Truthers scrape the bottom of the conspiracist barrel. Case A: 9/11 terrorists ate pizza = secret government code words.[52] Case B: Linking to globalresearch.ca.[53] Case C: Shitty memes. Like, really shitty.[54] Case D: It's an echo chamber. The sidebar states, "Submissions [...] supporting the official version [...] are considered off-topic here." (No quotemine.)[55]

Pseudoscientists [ edit ]

/r/AlternativeHealth Supports homeopathy and other assorted alternative medicine nonsense. /r/ClimateSkeptics One of the milder ones -- a subreddit devoted to climate change denialism, branding themselves as "seeing past hyperbole, alarmism and environmentalism-driven politics." It doesn't particularly help that their sidebar declares that they are "not a science subreddit". /r/Overpopulation A rather underpopulated subreddit at around only 12,600 subscribers as of April 2018, /r/overpopulation is a rather misleading source when it comes to human ecology. Misanthropic in nature, users repeatedly predict overpopulation doomsday scenarios. To top off its woo, its top post is from The Onion.[56] /r/Collapse The extreme opposite of /r/ClimateSkeptics, this subreddit fetishizes the collapse of human civilization. Its focus on climate change is rather recent, as previously focused on economic or political collapse. They also tend to be very misanthropic.

Commies [ edit ]

/r/Communism The USSR to r/DarkEnlightenment's Reich. Its mods are avowed Stalin apologists, and it links to articles defending Enver Hoxha and North Korea. /r/FULLCOMMUNISM Seizing the memes of production. Notorious for having entire comment threads reading "Stalin did nothing wrong. Kulaks deserved it."[57] The moderators have been known to be authoritarian. Quarantined in the fall of 2018, just one victim of a wide-scale purge of embarrassing subreddits. /r/MoreTankieChapo Offshoot of /r/ChapoTrapHouse, a sub (supposedly) devoted to a left-wing comedy podcast of the same name. As /r/CTH grew, its users' "ironic" support for Juche got mistaken for the real item by tankies, who thought that they were in good company, turned the sub into a poor man's /r/FULLCOMMUNISM, and finally got it quarantined for many, many violations of sitewide rules. Having ruined the original sub, they moved on and founded a Stalinist cult with vaporwave aesthetics. Following the ban of /r/CTH and its sister subreddits, /r/moretankiechapo appeared to be one of the last surviving offshoots of the original community alongside the semi-satirical /r/lesstankiechapo. Banned on July 10th, 2020 /r/StupidPol All of the people who got banned from r/LateStageCapitalism for being open bigots to trans people and generally opposed to identity politics. And by "opposed to identity politics," we mean "never wanting to talk about minorities ever except to make fun of them." Their politics boil down to "Why can't I be a communist and say the N-word?" /r/GenZedong Bunch of "Dengists" who unironically support North Korea.

Anarchists [ edit ]

/r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut Polar opposite to law enforcement support subreddit /r/ProtectAndServe (which whackers and wannabes are particularly fond of). While it does fairly thoroughly document cases of police brutality, it comes with an incredibly deep undercurrent of hatred, paranoia, and conspiracy-mindedness towards law enforcement "roving gangs of militias instituted by local warlords we call sheriffs." Also often calls for violence against cops, jurors, and their families [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67], doxxing jurors and cops [68] [69], and has an overall extreme tendency to talk about violence against cops. They also engage in the promulgation of conspiracy theories around the 1993 Waco Siege that the FBI/ATF deliberately killed the Branch Davidians in their compound [70] [71] [72] and frequently post content from Fake News[73], Ludwig von Mises Institute[74], the Daily Mail, Globalresearch [75], as well as other Crank websites. /r/Anarchism Edgy kids who spend most of their time enjoying stories of police officers being attacked/killed for being "fascists".[76] Has a reputation for being extremely overdramatic and incapable of handling views that deviate even slightly from their own.[77] This has effectively scared off many of the more reasonable posters and left behind only the most extreme posters. While they can talk a big game it is increasingly just nihilism and misanthropy hiding behind anarchism. Some users got tired of the constant "edginess" and founded /r/leftwithoutedge for a place to discuss leftist politics without constant bloodthirst. In retaliatiation the worst parts of /r/anarchism founded /r/leftwithsharpedge (see below). /r/LeftWithSharpEdge Ever wonder what a leftist version of /pol/ would look like? This thankfully tiny (and short-lived) sub was practically founded on the idea of sending death threats to other reddit users, particularly to less violent leftists, and spent most of its time fantasizing about killing everyone not quite as radical as them during the inevitable "revolution"[78]. Was hilariously and unsurprisingly discovered to be all bark and no bite however when a self-described police officer confronted them in their own sub and they quickly grew confused as to what to do and revealed they would not act on their convictions unless there was no chance of personal risk to them.[79]. Now banned, the last straw was likely being caught writing songs about murdering and cannibalising another reddit user.

/r/Anarcho_Capitalism "To denounce the evil of truth and love..." They have never been anything besides pseudo-intellectual bigots. /r/MillionDollarExtreme The official Subreddit dedicated to the Alt-Right sketch comedy group of the same name. Whilst it was already filled with racism, homophobia and transphobia from the beginning, things really started to take off after the controversy surrounding the groups TV show airing on adult swim, as many of its' members had been caught having ties to the Alt-right. At it's peak, /r/MDE had reached over 44K followers[80]. After the troupe's channel was terminated from YouTube, /r/MDE was subsequently banned for violating Reddit's TOS regarding violent content[81]. /r/ActualPublicFreakouts Ostensibly created because /r/PublicFreakouts had too much content with people not acting hysterical enough. In practice, it contains nothing but out of context video clips of black people acting violent, and comment sections full of blatantly unmasked racism. Also encourages posters to have a flair that shows their political alignment, an odd feature for a sub that theoretically should be apolitical. /r/AntiPOZI Dedicated to fighting "Cultural HIV".[note 4] Popular among white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, homophobes, and red pillers. This subreddit has received Reddit's newest punishment of quarantining, meaning that users must opt into it, users must have a verified email, and the logos are replaced with caution signs. /r/altright An alt-right subreddit... that was actually shut down by Reddit management on Febuary 1, 2017 after calls for doxxing the man who punched Richard Spencer. [82] /r/average_redditor This subreddit split off from r/AverageRedditor after complaints that moderators were not letting users be racist enough. To the surprise of no one, the subreddit's content had absolutely nothing to do with "redditors," instead focusing on mixed race couples, anyone with a viewpoint left of Hitler, and LGBT+ people's existence. Massive overlap in userbase with r/Coomer, r/ConsumeProduct and r/bruhfunny. Banned on March 5, 2020. /r/bruhfunny A satellite subreddit of iFunny's far-right community, bruhfunny used memes to peddle fascist viewpoints under the typical guise of "irony," somewhat similar to the r/frenworld approach. Contained connections via moderation and userbase with /r/average_redditor. Quarantined in 2019 and one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[83] /r/Bruhtopia Alt-right subreddit related to r/bruhfunny, but far more blatant in their goals and beliefs. General hate subreddit. Users of the subreddit call themselves Bruhtopians and treat the place as if it's an ethnostate. User and mod overlap with r/Coomer, r/average_redditor, r/DebateAltRight, r/bruhfunny and r/ConsumeProduct. /r/Coomer General alt-right subreddit with an emphasis on the idea that the pornography industry is a Jewish conspiracy intended to emasculate white men and promote race mixing. Subreddit name originated from the /pol/ "Coomer" Wojak meme which has come to mean anyone who does not buy into their bullshit. It was full of the typical racism, transphobia, homophobia, glorification of violence, etc that you find in alt-right circles. Banned on March 5, 2020. /r/ConsumeProduct Anti-consumerism from a fascist perspective. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[83] /r/DarkEnlightenment Reddit's playpen for Neoreactionaries. ("Today In Science: The negroes sure are uppity today.") /r/DebateAltRight Self-explanatory. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[83] /r/DebateNazism If you think Hitler sounds like he was pretty bad but you don't want to jump to any conclusions, these guys are here to help. /r/DebateFascism "Debate amongst fascists is welcomed, and critiques of fascism (as well as those just curious) are encouraged to ask questions." Unlike actual fascism, this fascist subreddit loved free speech![84] Banned for posting violent content.[85] /r/European As of May 12, 2016, the subreddit was quarantined (only viewable by registered users who wish to see it, among other restrictions), creating much outrage and calls for, you guessed it, a migration to Voat. Banned for being unmoderated.[86] /r/Physical_Removal A place where Ancaps fantasised about throwing Socialists out of helicopters. Ultimately banned on August 15, 2017 following the tragic events of the Charlottesville white nationalist rally.[87] /r/HardUnpopularOpinion A place for unpopular opinions that are so reactionary and discriminatory that the regular unpopular opinion subreddit (which itself is infamous for harbouring a ridiculous amount of reactionary and discriminatory ideals) denounces them. This should give you a sense about how toxic this community is. /r/PublicHealthWatch Had a fairly classy-looking design, and instructed its users to "post examples of redditors spreading disease or promoting behaviours which are dangerous to public health". In practice, this means they linked to Reddit posts describing what they deemed to be acts of depravity by who they deem as "degenerates"...which totally wouldn't lead to harassment, as if the rules they display to cover their ass are to be taken seriously. The groups they deemed "degenerate" included paedophiles. Such a revulsion to paedophilia is definitely understandable...only they treat LGBT people with the same amount of scorn. With post titles like "The Jews have finally decided to drop the anti-'hate' and anti-White shit, and have become productive comedians", it's fairly obvious what kind of people its target audience consisted of. Not particularly well-known, but earned its spot here for its truly sickening nature. Not surprisingly, it is now banned. /r/ShitNeoconsSay A place where Fascists would lambaste Neoconservatives and other Right-wingers for not being fascist enough (Refer to cuckservative). Filled with antisemitism, racism, homophobia and talk of white genocide. Nick Fuentes videos were often posted there. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[83] /r/smuggies What started as a meme subreddit to post r/coaxedintoasnafu style parodies turned into a place to post strawmen for the alt-right to target. Common enemies included "cuckservatives," anyone left of center, ethnic/racial minorities, and LGBT+ people. It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[83] /r/The_Europe European nationalist version of r/The_Donald. Arguably more far-right than the aforementioned subreddit due to the blatant focus on skin colour and "white culture" which outweighed that seen on r/The_Donald. Banned at the start of March 2020. /r/WhiteRights Two flavours of white supremacist. One arguing the Holocaust never happened, the other arguing the Holocaust did happen, and it was the best thing ever. /r/AganistGayMarriage A place so insanely idiotic that they couldn’t even spell the phrase “Against Gay Marriage” correctly.[88] Even more hilariously, a pro-gay marriage Redditor noticed that they were registered as “AganistGayMarriage” and decided to create r/AgainstGayMarriage as a pro-gay marriage subreddit, in order to prevent them from creating an anti-gay marriage subreddit with a correctly spelled name. It was banned in September 2019. [89] r/homophobes A subreddit filled to the brim with well, homophobes. Banned in September 2019. r/frenworld A subreddit dedicated to memes of Pepe the Frog. Posts consisted of Neo-Nazi dogwhistles[90] sugarcoated in baby-speak. Banned in June 2019 for glorifying or encouraging violence. r/epicairconditioners A subreddit that was ostensibly about discussing air conditioners. In reality, it consisted of extremely poorly hidden Neo-Nazi talk. Banned in October 2019.

Free speech absolutists [ edit ]

/r/SubredditCancer Basically /r/WatchRedditDie, but thinks reddit is already dead (even though WatchRedditDie came after it). Filled with your typical whataboutism, lolcows and scaremongering.

/r/Reclassified A subreddit where reactionaries mourn the "Loss" of their favorite Hate-subs after getting banned or quarantined and come up with ban evasion alternatives.

/r/DeclineIntoCensorship It's literally ALL THE SAME

Miscellaneous Ultra-nationalism [ edit ]

/r/chodi Takes its name from a Hindi word which roughly translated to "to fuck". Absolute degenerate sub which should have been banned right from the start. Hides under the banner of "free speech" to promote Hindu nationalist ideas. Rampant Islamophobia and homophobia, believes that the LGBTQ+ community is left-wing propaganda. Has called for purging/ethnic cleansing of muslims from India and they all share a boner for the fascist prime minister of the country.

/r/sino CCP apologists, most of them American-born. Also known to decry Asian women race-mixing, a la /r/aznidentity (above). Promotes Tiananmen and Uyghur genocide denial.

Extreme misogyny [ edit ]

/r/mensrights One of the top gathering points for MRAs, because they really needed more of those. Notably, /r/mensrights was flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center in a report about online misogyny.[112]

Essentially full of outdated anti-feminist conspiracy theories, their contest to find the worst woman on the planet, and whining about any joke ever made with men as the punchline, while contributing fuckall to any gender debate. RationalWiki also annoys them. /r/Incel Short for Involuntary Celibates. /r/incels was an offshoot of the forum r/ForeverAlone and functioned as /r/truecels, just under another banner as they moved following a quarantine. (r/truecels had a banner of Eliott Rodger. Can't imagine why nobody wants to sleep with them!) There's nothing to understand other than these people want to fuck virgins and have constructed their entire worldview around wanting to fuck virgins. This new pet theory is white women are conspiring to have as many mixed-race babies as possible. If there's any place more cartoonishly evil than the Red Pill, this was it. Was banned in April 2017, only to be replaced by r/incels, which was then taken down in the following November and replaced by r/braincels, which itself was quarantined in September 2018 and banned a little more than a year later. /r/PhilosophyOfRape Also exactly what it says on the can (Better described as rape advocates). View only if you place no value on your sanity and faith in humanity. It, among other horrors, thinks that raping a 6-year-old is justified.[113] Was taken down in 2015. /r/MGTOW Men Going Their Own Way: Another prominent part of the manosphere, a subreddit which purports to be a community of men who have decided not to pursue relationships but is actually a hub of misogyny. Got the quarantine hammer 1/31/2020. /r/PussyPass A sub-reddit devoted to whining about how "pussy-owners" (read: cis women) get a free pass on certain things, often cherry-picking as a result. /r/PussyPassDenied As above, with a side of fetishizing violence against women (ostensibly in self-defense). /r/FemaleDatingStrategy A subreddit that claims to offer dating advice to women. In reality, it essentially advises women to pick partners who exist only to serve them and do anything for them, as well as shaming people who like BDSM, pornography or those who have an Open marriage[114]. The subreddit also bans transgender people.

TERFS [ edit ]

/r/GenderCritical In theory, GenderCritical is a "radical feminist subreddit to discuss gender from a critical perspective." In practice, it's a breeding ground for trans-exclusionary radical feminism. The subreddit has no unifying opinion other than a strong dislike and distrust of trans people, especially trans women. [note 5]. The stickied post is a "peak trans" thread, in which people can talk about their bad experiences with certain trans individuals and how it made them turn on all trans people.[115] GC cites a handful of fringe doctors and scientists when defending its positions. Some GC users even go as far as arguing that the acceptance of trans people is actually a conspiracy created by surgeons, doctors, Big Pharma, and/or the makeup industry to make money. Most users of GC are otherwise liberal and don't have an issue with lesbians or gay people, but most of them do look down upon bisexuals and as stated above, trans people.[citation needed] It was one of 2,000 subreddits banned for promoting hate speech on June 29, 2020.[83]

/r/TrollGC

Essentially, where TERFs express their incredibly hateful and/or incredibly misinformed opinions about trans people through incredibly cringey memes. Along with several other TERF subreddits, it was made private in June 2020 in response to the banning of r/GenderCritical. If you attempt to visit it, you will be met with the caption "You can’t call a man a man anymore but you better treat him like one, with all the deference and respect he demands". Banned in July 2020 for promoting hate.

/r/LGBDropTheT Consists of people who support dropping the T out of the acronym because why not close the door behind you once you get your rights? Users casually ignore that the movement was started by black trans women and defend themselves by saying that being transgender isn't a sexuality and that they aren't transphobes, yet there are countless posts of users outright saying they hate trans people. A lot of users also express distaste towards bisexual people as well. Banned in July 2020 for promoting hate.[note 6]

/r/itsafetish A TERF subreddit dedicated to promoting the transphobic and pseudoscientific concept of autogynephilia/autoandrophilia, the idea that trans people have a fetish for being viewed as members of the opposite sex. Bascially, the entire subreddit is a collection of screenshots of posts made online by trans people taken wildly out of context, which are then used to say that all (or atleast, the majority) of trans people are fetishists. Along with several other TERF subreddits, it was made private in June 2020 in response to the banning of r/GenderCritical. It was then finally banned in July 2020 for promoting hate.

Religious extremism [ edit ]

r/Catholicism Basically opposes anything the Pope is trying to push forward that is loving and accepting, in favor of traditionalist approaches to doing things that involve force, violence, hatred of Muslims, etc. Doesn't like Jews very much. Avoid at all costs.

/r/TrueChristian A sub for very conservative Christians created because they denounced the more mainstream Christian sub, /r/Christianity, for being too moderate/liberal and thus not truly Christian. Unsurprisingly rabidly homophobic (while insisting it's not and if you point it out well then you're the real bigot!) and sometimes (though not always) anti-Catholic.[116]

Very far rightists [ edit ]

/r/Prolife Made up of the most hardline of the hardline pro-lifers and often compares abortion to the Holocaust,[117] doesn't support exceptions for incest and/or rape, and often doesn't even support abortion rights when the mother's life is in danger. "Pro-life" indeed. </sarcasm>

Mixed [ edit ]

/r/AgainstDegenerateSubs As the name suggests, an Alt-Right equivalent to /r/AgainstHateSubreddits

/r/arabfunny Arabfunny is a meme subreddit which revolves around making parodies of low-quality social media content produced in the Middle East and South Asia. The posts that are being parodied are often seen as absurd and emulating a fever dream by foreigners, which is a valid point of view to take. The subreddit was originally a largely harmless ironic meme page. Unfortunately, the mod team and ownership of r/arabfunny has historically been vehemently racist and the subreddit has gone through multiple upheavals of leadership. As a result of the aforementioned, many posters on arabfunny display genuine racism and a common trope is to roleplay as Jew-hating Muslims due to apathetic moderation. Additionally, the meme format that the subreddit is centred upon creates an easy target of ridicule.

/r/AverageRedditor A meme subreddit for mocking the “Average Redditor”, except their definition of an “Average Redditor” is everything /pol/ hates. Filled with the usual, Transphobia, Anti-Semitism, Alt-Righters, etc.

/r/circlejerk Originally a subreddit parodying the meta, over the years they had developed a view that anyone who criticizes America, Trump, the GOP is only doing so for karma, ignoring the spaces where such subjects are highly praised and upvoted. Many posts contain the overused "orange man bad" phrase co-opted by conservatives and also has a large group of users overlapping with right-leaning spaces. There are some genuinely funny posts that satirize the userbase in general, but there are much better alternatives that achieve the same mission. Tread carefully.

/r/DeuxRama The bastard lovechild of /r/Drama and 4chan's /pol/. Founded during one of /r/Drama's many private phases by people who weren't allowed in, it quickly turned into an edgy meme sub and was taken over by people who got banned from /r/Drama. Got axed in the summer of 2020, shortly before the great banwave.

/r/Drama The bastard lovechild of 4chan's /b/ and /r/SubredditDrama (or at least it was such until August 2020, when the admins banned /r/Drama from linking to any Reddit urls). Begat the now-banned /r/DeuxRama. Has occasionally made mainstream news, most notably when its users put on their Sherlock Holmes hats and debunked a fake nude of AOC. We aren't making this up.[118]

/r/GamersRiseUp Originally a spin-off of to a sub that actually knew what it was doing, r/GamingCircleJerk. It was originally people making fun of angry anti-SJW gamers by making memes about them. But, it was invaded by actual alt-right gamers and bigots in late 2019, and the sub was no longer satirical in nature. Popular memes included Joker memes[note 7], “We live in a society”[note 8], “Gamers Rise Up”, memes about the n-word, 13/50, memes about hatred of women and minorities, transphobic memes, and many more bigoted and pro-alt-right memes. It was banned on the 8th of March 2020.

/r/LegalAdvice Proof that legal advice should never be given on the internet. A large number of their moderators are cops, which leads to severe downplaying and censorship on police related violence and issues. Similarly, the subreddit has issues with an "in-crowd" of Quality Contributors who are given preferential treatment when it comes to giving advice, even if said advice is completely wrong. On the other end, the people that post on the subreddit tend to either ask how to get away with actual crimes or ask for situations where the best advice that is given is "talk to a lawyer".

/r/UnpopularOpinion A "free speech" subreddit where people can post "unpopular opinions". Popular topics on the subreddit include anti-LGBT, fat people bashing, far-right conservatism, anarchism, and religious fundamentalism.

/r/Misanthrope A reddit dedicated to, well, Misanthropy. Infamous for being infested with edgy kids, nihilists and extreme "doomers" who believe that humanity is made of horrible, heartless beings and promote the erradication of humanity, either by sterilization or more extreme methods. Outsiders are usually "greeted" with scorn for not "realizing" the horrible waste of oxygen they are and defending an existence that, in their minds, is made pure of hate, evil and suffering. The most extreme members take the misanthropy to another level, and not hate only humanity, but life in general and would wish that all the "pain" to end.

/r/cocaine A place where people post pictures of cocaine and talk about getting high on cocaine. Yes, really. /r/heroin Like /r/cocaine, but for an even harder drug. /r/meth Like /r/heroin, but for an even harder drug. /r/opiates A strong contender for "most depressing large community on Reddit." Contains very little useful advice on harm reduction or for people who want to get clean. Has previously played host to scammers, including an especially nasty blackmailer who earned users' trust, got their personal information, and then extorted them with threats to expose them as addicts to employers, partners, etc.[119] The mods started running a tighter ship (by online opium den standards) after this incident, but the rules meant to protect users continue to be broken. /r/wouldyoufuckmywife A place where men post nudes of their wives and wives post nudes of themselves.

Other controversies [ edit ]

Gullibility [ edit ]

Redditors, like most massive online communities, are known for being particularly gullible and easily sent into a frenzy. As many redditors are "passive content consumers" who only read the title and then upvote or downvote accordingly, without reading or participating in the comments, many posts with extremely misleading or false titles are upvoted to the front page of Reddit. It is common to see a highly upvoted article on the front page, only for the top upvoted comment in the thread to provide a detailed debunking of the article's claims. Reddit is at least as susceptible as the Twitterati to hoaxes about pet topics like Republicans, marijuana, gun control, Bitcoin, Feminists, workers' rights, and so forth.

In a well-known example, redditors fell for a hoax involving a user named "LucidEnding," who claimed to be about to use Oregon's right-to-death laws to perform assisted suicide. After redditors sent him thousands of comments and well-wishes, some users finally discovered his alleged mode of suicide (IV therapy) is not legal in Oregon. In the first of many incidents, Gawker writer Adrian Chen joked that he was behind the LucidEnding profile.[120]

Violentacrez, jailbait and creepshots [ edit ]

Violentacrez was a Reddit user responsible for creating and moderating many of the NSFW subreddits, including /r/jailbait and later, /r/creepshots.

/r/jailbait subreddit that was, from 2007 to 2011, devoted to images of "clothed" (often naked, but with no genitalia showing) teenage girls, often heavily sexualized and taken from Facebook or Photobucket pages without the subject's knowledge. In October 2011, /r/ShitRedditSays brought attention to the existence of /r/jailbait and the mainstream media got involved; after an exposé by Anderson Cooper of CNN, Reddit shut the subreddit down. A noisy portion of Reddit now despises Cooper for doing his job.[121]

/r/creepshots was a subreddit devoted to posting images of women taken without their consent. Although "upskirt" shots were later banned, hundreds were posted here. Notably, a high school teacher was arrested and fired after posting images of girls in his class on /r/creepshots. Like /r/jailbait, /r/creepshots was brought to the attention of the mainstream media by /r/ShitRedditSays and was later shut down during the public relations debacle involving Violentacrez.

Violentacrez posted hundreds, perhaps thousands of images to Reddit. He also regularly made outlandish comments about his sexual history, most notably claiming in an Ask Me Anything session that he had sex with his stepdaughter. In October 2012, Gawker writer Adrian Chen obtained Violentacrez's real identity, that of 49 year old Michael Brutsch from Arlington, Texas, from a disgruntled former friend who met Brutsch at a Reddit meetup and became disillusioned with his disturbing sexual behavior. Chen contacted Brutsch and informed him that he would be writing an article about Brutsch's online behavior. On October 12, 2012, this article was posted.

War were declared.

A subreddit devoted to criticizing, making fun of, and drawing attention to the ignorant and otherwise disturbing content that some redditors shower with upvotes. SRS users typically find upvoted comments, post them to SRS, and then make fun of or heavily criticize the users involved. SRS was originally designed as a subreddit to try and educate these users, but when those attempts were met with severe downvoting, the users decided to turn the subreddit into the "circlejerk" it is known for today. Because SRS is supposed to be a safe space for marginalized groups to talk without fear of downvotes, those who violate the circlejerk or attempt to argue their viewpoint find themselves swiftly banned, ostensibly to preserve the "safe space" for people who would get downvoted elsewhere on Reddit.[note 9] This practice tends to upset other subreddits, which typically have a much more tolerant policy on speech and are less likely to issue bans (Yes, even /r/mensrights has a better speech record than /r/ShitRedditSays), and users who believe they have been unfairly banned.

This results in /r/ShitRedditSays being blamed for all manner of things by all manner of people in Reddit, such as vote brigading, publishing personal information on other users and conducting campaigns of harassment against other redditors. The fact that there is no definitive proof of an SRS-wide conspiracy for anything worse than cynical insults kept strictly within the subreddit itself[note 10] which is continuously emphasized by the admins of Reddit[122] does not seem to stop them being viewed as a mystical bogeyman or part of an even greater conspiracy encompassing the Reddit Admins (particularly former interim CEO Ellen Pao), who allegedly turn a blind eye.

One such conspiracy that seems to perennially pop up as proof is the doxxing of Youtube comedians Jon "JonTron" Jafari and Stephen "Boogie2988" Williams by someone claiming to be from the SRS IRC chatroom over their support of Gamergate, despite one of them (Williams) having had little to do with Gamergate at the time of the doxxing. However, the main piece of evidence claimed to prove this conspiracy is a screenshot of a now-deleted anonymous post on Pastebin (a service which anyone can post text to) signed with the SRS IRC address at the bottom of the page. No IRC logs, SRS posts, etc., have been found corroborating the allegation that it had been posted by members of SRS, and the style of the doxxing is more consistent with a false flag operation against SRS than a malicious act by SRS users.[123]

Another "safe space" for people, largely women, who are creeped upon or harassed via text/SMS or private messages on social media. Reddit's personal messaging system is one of their sources: that is to say, if a photo of yourself (no matter the context) goes to the front page — and you look any bit attractive to the hivemind — expect a veritable flood of sexual advances from a large number of the single 20/30-year-olds that inhabit the site.[124]

/r/fatpeoplehate, as its name implies, was set up for people who are so completely enveloped with rage about other people being fat that they have to post about it on the Internet, this obviously being a rational activity engaged in by only the most well-adjusted of individuals. Naturally, with Reddit management not caring about any shitty content on their servers (unless it somehow causes negative consequences to Reddit itself), it was allowed to live until the point it was determined that it was being used to harass other people both on and off Reddit and that its moderators were not banning users who were engaging in this behavior, which included harassing a fat person on a suicide support subreddit and mocking and attacking the staff of Imgur.[125] This, naturally, led to a huge conniption fit amongst the Reddit userbase, who was convinced that, as opposed to this being an expression of one of Reddit's famous few hard and fast rules ("if you're harassing people or brigading other subreddits, we will ban the shit out of you"), it was actually a "politically correct" judgment on the content of /r/FatPeopleHate itself. This, clearly, makes no sense, as Reddit left up myriad other subreddits that don't brigade while also being filled with all manner of racism, misogyny, and rape advocacy, as well as the non-FPH-affiliated /r/FatPeopleStories, which has not engaged in any harassing behavior of note (while, it must be said, also being somewhat lighter on the "hatred" aspect). At the same time, FPH's defenders also tried the old "but SRS brigades too" argument, which, as previously noted, doesn't work, because SRS doesn't brigade. SRS, however, did take credit for the banning on the basis that everyone would blame them anyway and that it was funny.

The end result of this was of FPH users creating new replacement FatPeopleHate subreddits (which were promptly banned). It also resulted in them invading existing subreddits such as two whale watching communities which were accidentally banned on suspicions of being FPH clones after FPHers started making threads there, and were later unbanned when the subreddits' moderators explained the situation to an administrator.[126]) With the administrators cracking down on any attempts to make a new FatPeopleHate subreddit, FPH users began posting obesity-related content to any and all other subreddits (which was promptly deleted).[127] When FPH users realized that their tantrum did not work, they began threatening to up sticks and move to Voat, a Reddit clone which promised a completely hands-off approach to hosting content and is, as such, beloved by racists, misogynists, etc. The general consensus was that they were more than welcome to do so and were encouraged to follow through. Voat's instability led the FPH users on a brief exodus to 8chan before returning to Voat as their site of choice to stew in their hatred. Not content with just ersatz reddit, a FPH member also created their own Imgur clones because Imgur had been removing FPH uploads; the first was called Slimgur (which was shut down after someone uploaded child pornography) and the current one is called SLiMG.[128]

On April 1, 2019, the moderators of the /r/Games subreddit made an, ironically, completely serious post to the subreddit[129] announcing that the subreddit would be locked from posting and commenting for the day, in order to shed light on what they perceived to be serious issues regarding behavior and postings of many of the users in the subreddit. As expected whenever they are called out on their actions, users ran to their respective subreddits[130][131] to complain about how being locked out of a subreddit they probably never used for 24 hours is a complete and utter injustice. Hilariously, and what can only be described as pure, unadulterated irony, The r/pcgaming post concerning the matter ended up being locked by the sub's moderators because, as they put it, the comments and behaviour being demonstrated in the thread were literally proving r/Game's arguments right about toxicity in gaming culture.

In a similar fashion, the moderators of /r/BlackPeopleTwitter, a subreddit about funny and relatable social media postings from people of colour, made the announcement that they were closing the subreddit to only black Redditors, requiring photo proof in order to participate[132]. This was done in an effort to bring attention to the level of racism, both casual and direct, that was being shared on the sub. It went over about as well as one would expect. Before the reopening of the subreddit and the follow-up post from the BPT mods,[133] dozens of threads from white users angry about the announcement sprouted in the more toxic parts of Reddit,[134] including the creation of a brand new subreddit titled /r/SubForWhitePeopleOnly, which was swiftly "quarantined" by Reddit admins from the level of racist and white supremacist material that immediately sprung from it.

The best of Reddit [ edit ]

Thankfully, the particularly notorious subreddits tend to be in the minority (although the users who favour them do occasionally leak). The long tail of Reddit is an amazing place. The nature of how communities and networks form has led to a great number of subreddits on a bouillabaisse of topics, from hometowns (e.g. /r/Boston, /r/PeoriaIL) to home countries (/r/De[utschland], /r/Australia) to interests and hobbies (/r/DIY, /r/books) to fandoms (/r/ASOIAF, /r/TheWalkingDead). The better of these include:

See also [ edit ]

4chan

TVTropes

Boston Marathon Bombing, in which Reddit was instrumental in spreading false information about the culprit

DCinside

Notes [ edit ]

↑ In a stroke of genius, SRS immediately claimed full responsibility on the basis that they were going to be blamed for it anyway ↑ (broken link) in action. See the redditors of /r/atheism in action. ↑ The minor issue of the founder not logging onto /r/atheism in about a year. Gotta keep current, y'know. ↑ The term "poz" is a corruption of the word "positive," as in "HIV-positive." ↑ TERFs and far-right transphobes often collaborate and treat each other as allies, despite the fact that little often unites them outside of their views on trans rights. In fact, in online spaces the two are often indistinguishable. As such, there were many far-right transphobes who would participate in the subreddit solely to join in on the trans bashing. ↑ The exclusionary trend started by this subreddit was continued in r/LGDropTheB (which has been made private), r/LDropTheG (which has been banned), and finally, the satirical r/VoidDropTheL ↑ Referencing the Batman villain, who tends to get idolized by incels ↑ Referencing George Costanza from Seinfield, oft combined with Joker memes to the point where the 2019 movie about the Joker included the line. ↑ It does sound a little harsh, and it and related subreddits have had their share of unpopular or in-poor-taste ban decisions , but we're dealing with an audience that tends to verge into boob jokes and dank memes within a short period of time (Particularly on default subreddits) ↑ In fact, the subreddit uses a automated historical vote tracking system in an effort to maintain transparency in preventing vote brigades ↑ One popular example involves Doge and his wife (who is actually Animal Crossing character Isabelle) being told by their child that they are trans. Not only are they both approving and accepting of their daughter's decision but they even refer to her by her preferred pronouns when in bed together later that night. Though this example was posted in the /r/okbuddyretard subreddit before doge posts were banned and users seceded to form /r/dogelore, it is still largely accepted by the community and is considered part of the "Doge Canon".