Has the political spectrum on reddit shifted?

Tl;dr: have there been any writings, surveys, or studies on the political composition of Reddit shifting in large communities?

I logged out of my reddit account a while ago but still browse some subreddits without logging in and have recently noticed more far-right rhetoric in general. I’m curious to know if others have seen this trend or, even better, wrote about it or documented it. Some examples I noticed were r/sweden and r/exmuslim. These are two communities I used to frequent often and both of them now have descended into more upvoted far-right rhetoric of the “deport them all!” caliber.

I have a feeling (from my own experience browsing these communities) that such content used to be quickly addressed and downvoted, and both of those subreddits don’t tend to ban people on the fly nor overmoderate. Sometimes I see threads with the same title (likely posted by the same person) on both the subreddit and the corresponding lemmy community where the difference in opinion and the general political leaning is obvious.

So, not to succumb to my own biases, have there been any writings, surveys, or studies on the political composition of Reddit shifting in large communities?

fantoski,

“r/sweden and r/exmuslim” lol.

snek,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

Yes?

Omega_Haxors,

Nah it’s always been that shit, it’s just a lot of people have jumped ship leaving less to dilute the outright pedo-nazis who frequent the place.

spez,

Red means more REDdit ads and stuff. They are more likely to give me money.

DigitalJacobin,

I hate to be the one to say this, but Reddit has always had a major issue with reactionary, hivemind politics and it’s only gotten worse over time. This isn’t new by any means.

HobbitFoot,

It’s always been bubbling in Reddit. My guess is that the recent loss of mods has probably allowed for alt-right mods to replace those who left, which is affecting what is presented in general.

Astroturfed,

I think the demographic of lemmy is more of the people that fled. Which means on average the site would of shifted a bit right and less in love with Linux. The few times I’ve poked my head in there the last couple months it’s been for sure less well moderated. Which means a lot more hate speech and right wing bullshit.

harmonea, (edited )
harmonea avatar

have there been any writings, surveys, or studies

If this is your core question, I suggest putting it somewhere up top; people will get halfway through your post, find something they want to respond to, and just respond without realizing you're not looking for anecdata.

But no, there's nothing like that as far as I know. And I feel this sort of thing would get a lot of play from ex-redditors, so I agree with the other guy that recent shifts would have been too recent to have been analyzed.

(As far as anecdata goes, I've always found subs that focused on a location instead of a topic had a more prominent conservative presence, as location subs bring out a lot more fierce rhetoric as people feel they're defending their homes from perceived threats.)

HelloHotel,
@HelloHotel@lemmy.world avatar

Just checked mine.

Normal, small town resonable political posts next to, “This womann canadate has a plan to undermine your safety” and a badly conpressed photo

snek,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks for the advice.

Interesting observation about the location subs. I haven’t particularly observed it myself.

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

The potential shift would be caused by the API changes, so a bit too recent for studies to get any meaningful conclusion of.

That said, I don’t think that the user demographics changed so much yet. Sure, lots of mods and tech-inclined users migrated out, but those were a small minority in Reddit anyway. Instead I think that the “alternative right” (i.e. neonazi - let’s call a duck a duck) in the site are getting a bit louder, as the ones kicking them out are not there any more.

In the future however I do think that you’ll get a change in demographics in the site, as the neonazi going rogue will make other people leave.

snek,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

What if the neo nazis keep it diluted and watered down enough? I don’t see how “mild Nazi content” would make people leave, especially since they may have accepted it as part of Reddit. Maybe by the time they leave, UX on lemmy apps would have improved and they can transition more easily.

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

I think that diluted Nazi content would still make some people leave. Just not as much as otherwise would.

And odds are that they wouldn’t. They think that they have some mission like “redpilling” the “woke” and the “normies”; they want proselytism for exponential growth.

Blamemeta,

I just went on reddits /all for the first time in months.

It looks about the same to me.

snek,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

Unfortunately eyeballing it is never enough. Now with scraping reddit becoming more problematic, how could we measure such changes?

ares35,
ares35 avatar

majority of the users who left were probably tech-inclined or left-leaning, then add to that the loss of moderators and what remains is piles of shit.

TheAgeOfSuperboredom,

It’s a total guess, but my theory is that people on the right are tolerant of enshittification and may even find it appealing, while the rest of us just leave. This seems to be the case with Twitter, so maybe Reddit is following?

simulacra_simulacrum,

I reached my tolerance of how shitty the Reddit feed has become pretty recently and I’m on the anti-authoritarian side of things so it’s an interesting theory.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

God forbid anybody sees something they don’t like on the Internet. Ignore, block, mute and roll on.

snek,
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t give two fucks what people say. I’m more interested in the dynamics of this. As others mentioned, it may be that right wing idieology is more tolerant to enshitification or apathetic towards it.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

You seem upset

Critical_Insight,

A quick look at your 16 hours ago created profile, and apparently this is what you do; act obnoxious for attention.

Why? And I’m not talking about saying controversial things, but the acting shitty part.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Reddit got greedy and I couldn’t use my app. So when my favorite app was released for this platform I jumped on it. I don’t feel I’m acting “shitty”. I have unpopular opinions. Especially on reddit.

chicken,

You haven’t expressed your opinions here though, just thrown around snide remarks. If you have opinions, why don’t you share them instead of offering unsolicited advice or speculating on what you imagine someone’s emotional state to be?

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Because they will receive the same down votes whether I put energy into a quality post or not.

chicken, (edited )

Here is a surefire solution to that problem if you are accessing Lemmy through a browser:

  1. Install Ublock Origin
  2. Open the dashboard (click the icon, gear button on bottom right)
  3. In the ‘My Filters’ tab, paste the following lines of code:

<span style="color:#323232;">sh.itjust.works##span.ms-2
</span><span style="color:#323232;">sh.itjust.works##span.me-1
</span>
  1. Click ‘Apply Changes’

With this, you can no longer be downvoted and are free to put as much energy into a post as you want. If someone wants to let you know they disagree, they can do so, but will have to use their words.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Hm. Didn’t know that was possible. Although I use the boost app on Android to access Lemmy.

chicken,

I’m not sure whether anything similar can be done on mobile. It is genuinely difficult to be seeing vote scores and not be affected by them, but I really do think they are best ignored as much as possible. The effects on comment visibility barely matter; unless it’s a top level comment in a large thread, people are still going to see it, and even then they will end up seeking out the dissenting views. If people let fear of derision stop them from speaking their minds, no one will see what they actually think, which is a shame.

Outtatime, (edited )
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

It is a shame. I spent almost a decade on Reddit and over the years I saw it devolve into madness.

I quickly learned no matter how much time and energy I spent trying to create a quality reply or post I was attacked, down voted and in some cases straight up banned for having a different opinion.

For example, I replied to a comment in the world news or politics subreddit that said “I disagree with you”. I was banned for trolling. Trolling! It was after that I just gave up all hope for having any kind of sane discourse online. I started with Usenet back in the 90s so I’ve seen the decline since then. I hate it.

Critical_Insight,

I think Lemmy is better than Reddit in a sense that you can see both up- and downvotes. If my message gets +7 / -30 points, at least I can still see that not literally everyone is opposed to what I’m saying. On Reddit, it would just say -23 points, and it can feel like the entire world is against you.

If I say something I believe to be true, then it doesn’t matter if I get a ton of hate for it, especially when no one even makes a serious attempt to argue to the contrary. I have something to say, so I put it out there and move on. For instance, if I say something like “I can’t help but feel bad for this Russian dude in the drone video whose face just got blown off,” and I get downvoted to oblivion for it, my first thought is not “maybe I’m wrong,” but rather “damn, these people are cold and cynical.” I might be losing my hope for humanity, but at least I’m staying true to my beliefs.

I try to be respectful, even towards people who act in a manner that I don’t appreciate, including you. I could’ve made a much different reply to you acting a bit shitty here and further provoke you to come back at me with a nasty reply, but I didn’t. No matter how crappy social media can be nowadays, I try not to be one of those people making it worse.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Thank you.

I guess my app doesn’t have that feature yet.

No matter, you guys are beginning to turn me around for the better. Sorry if I came off shitty earlier. My mind was already made up that this was just going to be another Reddit shit fest.

Critical_Insight,

All good, man!

chicken,

I still use Reddit, but I unsubbed from the world news, politics, etc. subreddits years ago for this reason. There has been a clear decline over the years, but I think a lot of this is artificial, especially anywhere focusing on political discussion. Anyone who can’t tolerate talking like a propaganda bot shuts up or leaves or gets some kind of stockholm syndrome, because there are groups of activists who think they can achieve their goals by enforcing that. And to be clear I’m not saying this is just left wing activists, you could see the same sort of decay happening on 4chan for instance with right wing activists who have that same mindset.

But because it is artificial, so is the impression that everyone really thinks like a propaganda bot. Maybe some of them do, but I think for the most part they have just been conditioned to feel uncomfortable speaking in public spaces online without a lot of anxiety and attention on speaking the way the bots and activists have narrowly defined as acceptable. Any time you go to a private space, or a smaller, less popular space, there is a noticeable difference. So personally I think there is cause for hope.

snek, (edited )
@snek@lemmy.world avatar

Lemmy hasn’t been around for a long time but I feel like this doesn’t happen here. Maybe it’s time to give lemmy a chance?

That story doesn’t make sense though, seems like some idiot banned you if this is how it really went. Did you appeal it? I mean… I would appeal it before totally giving up hope.

Sorry I thought you meant the world news community, not the subreddit. Sorry you got banned on Reddit, it is super dumb. I got banned from r/feminism and then shadow banned from a few more feminist communities many many years ago for talking about my own experinece as a girl who put on Hijab at age 11/12 and took it off at age 17. They told me I was “promoting a symbol of oppression” and told me to fuck myself when I appealed it. Good job feminist mod for kicking the brown girl down!

Ever since I joined Lemmy I’ve had fewer negative psychological effects from Reddit. People here seem more patient and appreciative of thoughtful answers. I really think it would benifits you to give it a solid try and say your opinions no matter how unpopular.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Thanks for sharing that. It seems you understand what I’m talking about since you dealt with it.

I’ll give it a chance and see if it’s better than Reddit. Thank you

TheFogan,

I’d say less that right wing ideology cares about enshitification one way or the other, but what they do care about… is the ability to not be sensored for hate speech. With less mods, and the remaining mods having worse tools.

Apollo,

God forbid anybody reads what they are replying to on the internet!

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

God forbid anybody sees something they don’t like on the Internet. Ignore, block, mute and roll on.

OP is asking if the political spectrum on Reddit shifted. OP is not asking “please tell me what you expect me to do”.

Also note that the concerns against certain discourses on the internet aren’t just a matter of “I don’t like this”.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Well maybe you should have answered them

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

Well maybe you should have answered them

Other users already answered it.

And you’re missing the point - this sort of “I assume that you don’t know what to do, so let me boss you around” is obnoxious and unproductive, please don’t do this unless requested or in a position to do so.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Oh yes sir!

Apollo,

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/05a70bfb-8143-4739-ab21-57b8d15ae5bc.webp

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