[Aurornis]

> Its fully astroturfing. The trick is to implement non-member/non-flaired rules to block most folks from the discourse.

The number of subreddits that do this is small. Hardly representative of typical Reddit behavior.

Everyone knows by now that /r/conservative isn’t a real subreddit because it’s “flavored users only”.

However, too many people make the leap from “astroturfing exists” to “everything I don’t like is astroturfing” way too quickly. It’s right up there with accusing people you disagree with of using ChatGPT or being paid shills.

The truth is, a lot of subreddits are the way they are because that’s just what Reddit’s user base thinks, not because a shadowy cabal is making them say those things.