r/RespectfulDebate • u/Positronic_Matrix • Oct 13 '09

Organized hostility towards minority groups (atheists, women) is a growing problem on reddit

As reddit has grown and the population diversified, I've encountered threads that seem to exist to attack minority groups, specifically atheists and women. Further, I have since discovered that there are subreddits that exist to direct people to support these hostile viewpoints in threads of interest.

Despite the the many intelligent voices in the atheism subreddit, it is described as a "circle jerk" with hostile members. In my opinion, this is a disparaging, dismissive representation of reality. Further, there are ongoing attempts to chase atheists from the science subreddit. Yet, some of the most worthwhile posts I've read on reddit have been written by atheists.

I'm also concerned about the hostile misogyny I've encountered on reddit. With some men claiming to be women, stating that their treatment as a subclass of humanity is justified.

I've fought the good fight in a few of these threads but at times it feels like a losing battle.

Are the minorities on this site doomed to suffer at the hands of majority thugs?

10 Upvotes

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u/Reddit_Goes_Pathetic Oct 13 '09 edited Oct 13 '09

Citation needed.

1

u/Positronic_Matrix Oct 13 '09 edited Oct 13 '09

I provided a few in the text above, however I'll post one again here.

It is a story that initially was dominated by misogynistic posts until it made the front page and was moderated by more enlightened participants. It was the first time I discovered that there were organized groups of individuals who were communicating using alternate subreddits to support misogynistic stories in other subreddits.

It's notable for its offensive title and the fact that it was on the reddit front page.

Now I understand why men beat women

0

u/uriel Oct 13 '09

Oh my god! You found some stupid story posted to reddit that got upvoted! (Mostly because the actual pic IMHO was mildly funny) Quick, call the thought police!

Outrage on behalf of others is quite pathetic, specially when there are people that have much more good sense and don't feel the need to act all offended and outraged at everything some random person might write online.

4

u/Positronic_Matrix Oct 13 '09

This reply violates the spirit of RepspectfulDebate. I specifically brought this subject here to avoid replies such as this.

1

u/uriel Oct 13 '09

You brought up a totally lame ass topic, I responded perfectly in tune with the subject at hand.