• Evkob@lemmy.caEnglish
    461·
    2 years ago

    This is actually something I think might be concerning in the long run. Reddit’s current direction has driven away a contingent of users who tend to share similar moral values; Lemmy’s userbase tends pretty left with a lot of content here being anti-capitalist and pro-marginalized groups. It makes sense that decentralized federated networks would be attractive to those subsets of users.

    What I’m afraid of is that this will create a vacuum in which Reddit becomes even more of a breeding grounds for right-wing rhetoric and propaganda without the presence of these users to balance it out a bit. I know that as a Reddit-addicted teen, I hovered dangerously close to some pretty disgusting ideologies. Thankfully I discovered some leftist communities which expanded my narrow worldview and veered me to a much happier path. I don’t think reddit as a platform will die, but I fear those communities might, and I shudder to think at what reddit could become without them.

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
      111·
      2 years ago

      There are always two things in combative balance when dealing with liberatory politics. They are the benefits of sticking around and having conversations about liberatory politics, and the costs of sticking around when there’s little to no productive discussion going on. Reddit, I do not believe, is currently in a place where anyone but the most anti-capitalist or anti-moderation advocates will believe that continued participation on the platform will remain beneficial. For me, I’m in the former super anti-capitalist group, and I no longer wish to provide monetary value to a platform that’s being run in a non-inclusive manner. I, however, am self-aware enough to realize I might be bailing from communities that could still benefit from discussion early, so I won’t hold it against anyone who still wants to stay there and keep fighting. Worth noting, the anti-capitalist and the anti-moderation free speech absolutist are not necessarily friends, and in fact probably aren’t.

      Anyway. The second position. The position where things are too far gone that the most beneficial thing to do is to leave and to advocate for leaving, and to advocate for external intervention. This is where I view Twitter as being. The benefit of staying on Twitter to keep it from becoming an alt-right echo chamber has evaporated, and the platform can no longer be saved from the abusive and exploitative owner and ownership group. By staying on Twitter, you are no longer helping guide conversations in a positive direction, you are only giving people a hook to keep them on a harmful platform.

      It’s hard, possibly impossible, to recognize where on the sliding scale of beneficial to stay and beneficial to leave any community is on. I don’t have a good sign-off for this. I guess all I have to say in conclusion is that it’s hard.

      • zxo@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        2 years ago

        Reddit just seems like it’s gone to shit recently, as I expected when they began killing 3rd party apps. But now that we have Lemmy, I don’t feel like I ever need to go back.

    • BeardedHusband@lemmy.mlEnglish
      15·
      2 years ago

      Yeah I don’t really think left nor right should be thrown in the mix. I don’t “reddit” much at all, but I’m def more right than I am left. I think it’s quite out of touch to believe Reddit is just right wing and is gonna get flooded with even more right wing people. In my experience I’ve seen more left wing on reddit. Maybe that’s just me. Or maybe our definitions of what really is right wing and left wing are a bit different. Idc much either way as long as I can see what I want online.