link to original reddit post by /u/goingbankai
#Disclaimer: more of a meta post
I think it's always a good time for a reminder that it's important to stay on track. This subreddit rarely needs it (as one of the few decent subs I still visit) but I think it's good to say anyways.
Often I've seen users get bogged down in responding to trolls or low-effort posts, and obviously I've done this at some points myself. It's in a sense the main feature of /r/Shitstatistssay and related subs. I can't really think of many less productive uses of time, even if you're trying to blow off steam. In my entire time on reddit (sad to say almost 8 years now) I don't think I have ever changed someone's mind significantly about an issue.
I've had some success changing peoples' minds in real life situations, since at least that's face to face. I've even convinced a few of my friends to watch podcasts with people like Michael Malice (on Rogan) or think about reading books like The Law. I do not think that's happened even a single time online from any discussion unless the person basically already agrees with me.
There are absolutely some places on reddit where you can begin to bring people towards a more libertarian/voluntarist/ancap view of the world. Not one of those (imo) is one that has people with views outright antithetical to the ideology to begin with. In my view if your goal is to try to convert people on reddit, the best places to look right now are the subreddits that are against government response to COVID. They won't be full of people who think that the government is doing a good job to say the least.
Instead of reddit or social media in general, it's best to try to convince people to adopt better habits irl. And not just by going up to them and arguing constantly about politics, but by being a good influence first. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is a classic that you should be able to find easily (search for a pdf) if you really need any guidance on how to influence people. Obviously arguing with them online isn't at the top of the list.
You don't even need to push people towards anything ideological necessarily. It's just as important to get people to adopt good habits, particularly those that align with libertarian ideals. One that I'm a big fan of is open source software and getting people to use it. Talking to people about degoogling is a pretty easy thing for me these days, since I live in AU and there's more government regulation (shocker) that would force Google to pay news companies. It's topical and easy to tell people about alternatives in a way that isn't shoving an ideology down their throats. Tech is probably the easiest thing to discuss anyways, considering how much of peoples' lives end up being lived online these days.
No idea how to end this so I'll throw in some good resources to show people or look at yourselves, many of which are already on the sidebar
Good resources:
https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/
the sub's G&B starter pack but in particular: I, Pencil by Leonard Read and War, Peace and the State by Rothbard
Wikipedia's list of open source software
Alternativeto, a website to help give user-based alternatives for software
Linux Mint and Zorin OS, two linux distributions intended to be easy to use for new users