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by gfwhuuku 2698 days ago
I welcomed that change. They had handpicked a few left-leaning subs like that one. I also remember there was one about feminism. I believe that was a bad idea, to position themselves like that. Maybe it was a good idea when reddit was a niche website. Now, as far as I know, they simply have an algorithm that shows the most popular posts of all subs, except a few ones that are banned (like the popular the_donald, a sub for supporters of Donald Trump). I'm not saying that I like the idea of a blacklist or that it is the best solution, but it's better than a whitelist.
1 comments

/r/the_donald should have been closed a long time ago, due to their users and their mods breaking the rules (hate speech encouragement, mainly) that the rest of subreddits have to respect. Reddit has a dark incentive to keep it open, because it's a very popular community that helps Reddit make money, via ads and Reddit Gold.
Go read r/politics comments for 5 minutes and then go read r/the_donald comments for 5 minutes, then come back and tell me which subreddit has the most hate speech. Also let's not forget that r/politics mods sold the subreddit to Shareblue for $2 million.
Challenge accepted.

The current top comment on the current top post on /r/politics [1]:

>David Frum said it best this morning on NPR, his call for unity isn't actually a call for unity, he's demanding that everyone to support him and his policies.

The current top comment on the current top post on /r/The_Donald [2]:

>Schumer looked disgusting. Glasses at the end of his nose. Very disrespectful.

The politics comment might be biased but it is a least a political opinion worth discussing. The comment on The Donald is at best a childish insult and while I personally wouldn't call it "hate speech" I wouldn't be shocked if it was some form of antisemitic dog whistle. I think you are showing your own biases if you think those two subs have a similar level of discourse.

[1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/anf6vn/trump_will...

[2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/anf6ov/i_see_sc...

It's a reference to a classic Trump tweet: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/14958910416893952...

(Edit to the guy below: I'm not saying I disagree with you, just adding some context.)

The disgusting and disrespectful portions might be a reference, but it was the "Glasses at the end of his nose" line that jumped out as a potential dog whistle. The response with 25 upvotes that talks about Shumer's "sniveling nose" also doesn't help.

I know that politicians getting criticized for their looks is just part of the equation and Trump is a big victim of that. However it is a little different when you are criticizing a Jewish person's "sniveling nose", especially in a community that is routinely accused of being hateful and antisemitic.

EDIT: This comment is being heavily downvoted, but I am not sure why. Like I said in my original post this wouldn't meet my personal definition of hate speak. However is it really outlandish to suggest that a community that has been accused of antisemitism might be signaling their antisemitism when their criticism of a Jewish person is the most stereotypical physical characteristic of the Jewish people?

The antisemitism accusation is completely over-the-top ridiculous. Trump's own daughter is a Jew. Trump moved the embassy to Jerusalem, and not one democrat showed up for the ceremony. There are a couple openly antisemitic members of congress now, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Louis Farrakhan hasn't even been disowned.

This is a case of projection if there ever was one.

How many Trump tweets can be classic? I’d wager you’d try to give this context for any reference to any Trumpian thing. Which dilutes it meaning anything.
Do you have a citation for the $2M figure? I tried searching a bit. All I found were random sites saying roughly the same stuff conspiracy subreddits or sites were saying.

I’m not saying something didn’t go on, but if something did happen, where did that number come from besides “anonymous source[s]”

Cite?