Comment on As of today, I have stopped using Reddit entirely.
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 4 hours agoResorting to hyperbole weakens your argument not mine.
I have not said it was a leftist utopia. When reddit started it was community based. We built these spaces ourselves and they reflected our ideals, and that’s what made them good and what drew people in. It’s the same thing a lot of leftists say they want, not just online but in government, in business, everywhere. Cooperatives. Voting systems where our votes actually matter, instead of smoke and mirrors covering for a small group of elites.
Then as these sites got bigger, corporate interests started rolling out features that slowly took those structures apart, and we didn’t even notice. Every change favored the company. The community lost control over its own content and its own spaces, and in its place we got an overseer, a mod in charge. And a lot of these mods act like abusive police with their authority. Unchecked power, no accountability, punishing people however they want. That’s everything leftists say they’re against.
Think how insane it is that people here push for democracy everywhere else, but when it comes to our own digital spaces they just accept it, and do not even catch that contradiction.
Doomsider@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I was there from the start on Reddit. I saw how my left leaning views were accepted, then eventually rejected, and finally demonized. I remember peacefully talking about Linux for years then getting constantly brigaded by Winbros. Don’t think I wasn’t there. I left, I was not banned. It was definitely heading that way though.
Before Reddit it was forums, Usenet, IRC, BBS, etc. We definitely need to return to simpler times where everyone isn’t corralled into the same place to be propagandised to. I stopped Meta during the pandemic when I saw them spread misinformation on purpose to divide people. It is clear major platforms are a cancer on our society.
Democracy is a window dressing for control by the wealthy at this point. We definitely need to fix things, but we need to take a long hard look at what we have and why we have it first.
You are correct, we should take back our digital space. That is why I am here. That is why I am trying to replace corporate services with a homelab.
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Thanks. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one with this attitude even if we disagree on things. I don’t know how things should be but I know this isn’t it. I think we need to deconstruct a lot of things on the left including these spaces to understand how they took it over and took control.