FUCK REDDIT

[Solid Snake]

Man whoever signed Obama up for that Reddit interview thing should pretty much feel like a fucking asshole for daring to have the President of the United States legitimize that cesspool.

[Loyal]

Man whoever signed Obama up for that Reddit interview thing should pretty much feel like a fucking asshole for daring to have the President of the United States legitimize that cesspool.

Histrionics aside, not especially.

To quote TotalBiscuit: [Reddit's a shithole, but] it's a useful shithole. Disregarding its faults, Reddit has an enormous userbase, and one that already tends to lean rather liberal to begin with, thereby providing a receptive audience for a bit of Q&A that even today has people talking about it. Ignoring the Reddit demographic (insofar as such a word could be applied - hivemind mentality aside there are a lot of viewpoints present) would be a mistake.

Regardless of your stance on the subject of Reddit as a whole, whoever brought up the idea of Obama doing an AMA likely got/deserved a raise.

[Solid Snake]

To say I vehemently disagree with TotalBiscuit -- whoever he is -- would be something of an understatement.

No matter how large or how useful or how 'liberal-leaning' a base of individuals Reddit caters to, they are privileged, egotistical, bigoted, abusive assholes -- not to mention passive enablers of criminals and sociopaths.

If you have integrity, you don't legitimize those people no matter how strategically beneficial it may seem.

[Satan's Onion]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

Man whoever signed Obama up for that Reddit interview thing should pretty much feel like a fucking asshole for daring to have the President of the United States legitimize that cesspool.

I could just about see them genuinely not knowing, or assuming that it had been cracked down on after Anderson Cooper got on reddit's collective ass about it. A lot of reddit is pretty innocuous, like r/stormfront (no seriously, you can click on that, it's genuinely okay) or this fan-made game based on an episode of Community.

The problem is partly structural: reddit is set up so that it's hilariously easy to make your own insular little community, and the moderation is so openly apathetic about cracking down on horrible shit that creepiness is allowed to fester and thrive in these seedy little corners of the place, while most people would have no idea. After all, it's not happening in their subreddits.

However, as far as I can tell, one of reddit's absolute biggest problems is cultural. On the whole, reddit has a conception of free speech that comes from a place of pretty much all of the societal privilege--for them, "free speech" basically means "speech without consequences (for them)" because that's the only kind they've ever really experienced. And in reddit, those sublimely oblivious assholes have created a series of gargantuan echo chambers to reinforce all their worst qualities--which, shock of shocks, includes terrifyingly predatory creepiness and bitter misogyny. And when it's brought to their attention that they are being creepy and predatory and generally horrible--well, you get exactly what we've been seeing here for the last few days.

[Loyal]

No matter how large or how useful or how 'liberal-leaning' a base of individuals Reddit caters to, they are privileged, egotistical, bigoted, abusive assholes -- not to mention passive enablers of criminals and sociopaths.

And they are voters, worth exactly as much (electoral college aside) as any one of the privileged, egotistical, bigoted, abusive assholes fanatically attached to the Republican party. Can't forget that.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Loyal

And they are voters, worth exactly as much (electoral college aside) as any one of the privileged, egotistical, bigoted, abusive assholes fanatically attached to the Republican party. Can't forget that.

One can understand the logical reasoning behind a certain decision and still choose not to condone it. Logical behavior can be ethically impermissible.

[stefan]

Originally Posted by Magus

I actually know little of Reddit--is it basically 4chan/b but with a falsely sophisticated air about it, what with their interviewing presidents and celebrities?

Reddit is basically what happens when someone takes the concept of 4chan and removes anything remotely redeeming about it.

Let that sink in for a few moments.

Originally Posted by Loyal

Reddit has an enormous userbase, and one that already tends to lean rather randian to begin with,

fixed that for you. The absence of mainline conservative ideals does not equal liberal leaning, Reddit falls firmly into the smug, short-sighted "fuck you got mine" Internet Libertarian camp.

[Ryong]

Originally Posted by stefan

Reddit is basically what happens when someone takes the concept of 4chan and removes anything remotely redeeming about it.

Let that sink in for a few moments.

I'd like to add in the giant ego issues people in there tend to have due to "the frontpage of the internet" with what you said added in.

[Premmy]

They would say he was a child pornographer, when all he had done was spearhead the distribution of thousands of legal photos of underage girls. They would say the fact that he created a subreddit dedicated to Hitler meant he was anti-Semitic, when really it was just trolling. (Brutsch says he's got Jewish blood himself: "If you see a picture of me, I'm about as Jewish looking as they get.")

This is funny to me because it's basicaly a troll saying:"But, what if my trolling is successful? THAT WOULD BE HORRIBLE!"

[Loyal]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

One can understand the logical reasoning behind a certain decision and still choose not to condone it. Logical behavior can be ethically impermissible.

And when integrity produces results (on a regular basis or - in politics - at all) I'm sure it'll be the thing to do. Until then,

If you have integrity, you don't legitimize those people no matter how strategically beneficial it may seem.

I think we can do without citing fairytale as rhetoric. Not that I disagree it'd be NICE, mind you, but let's assume for the purposes of the discussion that people in these kinds of positions tend to prioritize satisfaction with the end over satisfaction with the means, and probably got there in the first place by assuming this philosophy.