[copsarebastards]

Nor do they have the obligation to protect the delicate sensibilities of any person on the internet who feels "triggered".

The conflict here is that most of Reddit's users want Reddit to support free speech, while advertisers don't want to risk their brands by juxtaposing them with hate speech. Of course it's not about "rights", but Reddit's struggles are largely motivated by the fact that they're trying to keep everyone happy when that is an impossibility.

[ambler0]

"trying to keep everyone happy when that is an impossibility."

This is something I think we can all agree upon.

There's no need to denigrate people who may feel triggered or are offended, though. Reddit just needs to decide what's most important to them. If they want to give a platform to anyone, regardless of how vile their speech, that's totally fine! But, they should not also expect widespread adoption of their site. Most people are not vile and will be happy to move along to less hateful pastures.

[copsarebastards]

> There's no need to denigrate people who may feel triggered or are offended, though.

I think that's a misrepresentation of my opinion. I have nothing against people who feel triggered or offended. Frankly, a lot of the jokes on Reddit offend me. What I think is ridiculous is to try to force people to change what people are allowed to say just because you're offended.

Re: triggers: at a point in my life, there were certain sounds and words that could trigger me. But what I did was I fixed it: I got therapy and I avoided situations where I was likely to experience those things. I didn't go around trying to force everyone to participate in the treatment of my illness.

There are people who have immunodeficiency diseases that mean being around other people without a mask is dangerous to them: a sneeze could kill them. But we don't make everyone everywhere wear face masks to keep them safe, even though they have a much stronger argument for protection: a trigger word at worst causes you to go into mild shock or have a panic attack, while an infection is likely to kill someone with an autoimmune disease.

Of course there are places where it makes sense to limit free speech to inoffensive material. Rape support groups are a good example (and there are subreddits for that). But at least in its heyday, Reddit was a platform of communities, and that's most effective when you let those communities choose their own rules.

> But, they should not also expect widespread adoption of their site. Most people are not vile and will be happy to move along to less hateful pastures.

...like most subreddits?

This is what I really don't understand about this discussion; I feel like 99% of the people arguing about how bad Reddit is have little or no experience with Reddit. Most subreddits don't allow hate speech.