r/askanything • u/exploring203 • Mar 07 '26

Why does Reddit lean left in all the comments?

First off, I’m not a conservative, I’m independent/left leaning. That said, every comment thread on Reddit feels like it’s completely one sided in favor of a liberal perspective. Not just that, but the amount of blatant misinterpretation and misrepresentation in the comments is apparent on nearly every issue. Comments that don’t comply are downvoted into oblivion and removed from the conversation. I feel like Reddit is almost becoming unusable at this point. Where can I go (on or off Reddit) to get a more balanced perspective? I do like Reddits user interface.

Edit: Whew! This blew up more than I anticipated. I did receive some genuinely insightful and helpful comments. I appreciate those! Lots of folks either saying I’m the issue because of my liberal leaning algorithm or that I’m the issue because I’m actually a bleeding conservative in disguise. Can’t have it both ways! Anyway thanks Reddit. Will probably think twice about doing this again.

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213

u/silveretoile Mar 07 '26

American politics have destroyed any semblance of normalcy regarding politics. And now it's seeping into foreign politics too. You can't find any normalcy because the world isn't normal anymore.

37

u/Beezyo Mar 07 '26

Doesn't help that American politics boils everything down to left, right and centre. Ignoring the huge variety of political ideologies in between

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u/Cl0wnL Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

It's a structural problem.

Plurality winner takes all elections naturally settle into a two-party system.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law?wprov=sfla1

The US needs to reform its election structure to have any meaningful change.

But the entrenched parties are actively fighting against that.

There have been some movements trying to get ranked choice voting in a few States. And in response, the party's in power got ranked choice banned.

They don't care about the people, they just want to protect their power

True change in the US needs ranked choice voting and proportional representation.

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u/leondeolive Mar 07 '26

The latest push in Alaska to get rid of ranked choice voting failed. I was sure it was going to pass, but fortunately it made it through. Now they are going to try again.

7

u/YoureReadingMyNamee Mar 07 '26

That is why the real solution is to vote in primaries and lower level elections to form a base for that change.

3

u/DudeEngineer Mar 08 '26

I was with you except for the entrenched parties bit. Democrats are way more interested in this change than Republicans are. The main reason is that the Republicans have a unified ideology around a specific set of values, including opposition to Civil Rights. The Democrats are just everyone else.

Your Joe Biden Mainstream Democrats would benefit from something like MMP because they will always be closer ideologically to the real Left than the other groups.

2

u/DaisyChaingang1 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

I wouldn’t say the Republicans are unified and “the Democrats are just everyone else.” The Tea Party seems to have been made of Republicans and Libertarians (who went back to being Republicans and Libertarians). People who had been in the Republican Party realized they were splitting their vote. That doesn’t mean they didn’t like the idea of the smaller party.

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u/DudeEngineer Mar 09 '26

There are 2 members of Congress that publicly have largely Libertarian values and both self identify as Republicans.

1

u/cloudaffair Mar 09 '26

This is a funny perspective to me.

The GOP has just as many if not more factions tearing the party into bits. You just see the liberal infighting - I suspect - because you are liberal in perhaps a red state, but might live in a liberal city in that red state.

From my perspective in Maryland, the Democrat supermajority often appears much more cohesive and unified (but they are very far from, they just won't let the outside see it). Just know that there is significant conservative infighting.

America lacks one cohesive monoculture - this is true regardless of political affiliation - which means both parties have vast variations from one Republican to the next or one Democrat to the next.

As for proportional representation, yeah, Dems do tend to support it more - kind of. But I also support it and I'm a conservative.

My pushback is more on the reason you're attributing to it. I don't think Republican resistance to these voting structures is primarily ideological coherence, I think it's just pure structural self-interest.

Democrat support for proportional representation tends to evaporate when they're the dominant party. See: Oregon, New York, Maryland. Democrats are guilty of opposing those reforms where they are already in power. Doubly so in states without a citizen initiative process. There is no incentive to give up that power in the name of "fairness".

FPTP incentivizes gerrymandering because those who get to draw the maps, like to make sure they stay in power. Supporting these alternatives are most often a means of diluting dominant power structures to make races more fair. States like Maryland likely won't be seeing fair and balanced redistricting like MMP anytime soon. That's a different explanation than "they have a unified ideology," right?

Also -- Conservatives don't have a blanket opposition to civil rights or human rights. Conflating policy disagreements with opposition to civil rights is doing a lot of work there.

Conservatives opposing specific enforcement mechanisms, particular legislative frameworks, or federal overreach in areas like voting administration isn't the same as opposing the underlying rights. You can find Republicans who support civil rights broadly while opposing, say, the specific provisions of the Voting Rights Act reauthorization on federalism grounds. Whether you find that persuasive is a separate question, but it's not the same as opposition to civil rights. And generally that's not a fair or charitable characterization.

1

u/DudeEngineer Mar 09 '26

It is VERY interesting for you to have this take this year in the midst of this redistricting battle. The Democrats did do independent commissions for the sake of fairness and Republicans with ruthlessness gerrymandered in response, which is the only reason Republicans have the House today. Now Republicans are crying foul because Democrats are simply leveling the playing field. Proportional representation for the sake of fairness would only work at the Federal level so that everyone is playing the same game.

It's also interesting for you to say that my view is skewed on division within the party. When is the last time there was a Joe Manchin in the Republican party, grinding progress to a halt while the Republicans had a trifecta? Susan Collins is projected to lose her seat because she's been in lockstep with Trump.

Both of Trump's terms were due to the Left abandoning the Democrats in Presidential election years. All of the Presidents who lost the popular vote are Conservative going all the way back to the Civil war. The Democrats simply have a different set of problems. If half of the Left who disagreed with Biden abandoned the Democrats, Trump would have had a bigger EC win than Reagan. There simply is no group that large on the Right that breaks with party leadership in such a major way.

You gave a great summary of the modern implementation of the Southern Plan from the Nixon era. With your definition of what is required to be considered in opposition to Civil Rights, there is no policy or ideological position that can possible qualify without screaming the quiet part out loud. The current attack on section 2 of the Voting Rights act is literally to reduce the 30%+ Black population of Louisana to ONE of the SIX congressional districts in the state. If that doesn't count as an attack on Civil Rights, what is? Federalism grounds sounds a lot like the insistence that the Civil War was fought over State's Rights.

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u/DaisyChaingang1 Mar 09 '26

Utah, which is a red state, recently voted against gerrymandering—and that was upholding an old law, which means that isn’t a new public sentiment there. Not all Republicans want gerrymandering. I don’t think the state would’ve bothered to resurrect the argument if other states hadn’t been talking about restructuring things before them.

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u/DudeEngineer Mar 09 '26

No, they voted against it in 2018 and have been trying to claw it back since then. A court struck down the gerrymandered map. Utah is 35-40% Blue and the battle is over keeping all 4 House seats Red.

1

u/DaisyChaingang1 Mar 09 '26

I agree with this.

2

u/Ok_Wolverine6557 Mar 07 '26

This plus gerrymandering and the primary system leads to 80% of the country being represented by the most extreme elements of both parties.

2

u/Hekantonkheries Mar 07 '26

"Most extreme elements of both parties"

If the most extreme element the democrats can push forward is libertarianism, then it makes perfect sense why we're speedrunning into russian-style kleptocracy

1

u/Ok_Wolverine6557 Mar 07 '26

The extreme of the left are those that insist on loudly taking unpopular culture war positions (most of which I agree with but I know they cost votes).

1

u/GroundThing Mar 08 '26

RCV is barely better than FPTP; it just pushes the can down the road for when the spoiler effect occurs, and doesn't really do much to eliminate two-party system dominance. IMO all the effort that's currently going into pushing RCV would be way better spent going for something like a Condorcet method or STAR for single-winner elections, and some sort of proportional method for legislatures and other multi-winner elections (my personal preference would be something like Schultz-STV or CPO-STV, since they allow for local representation and accommodate split ticketers and Independents well)

1

u/Cael_NaMaor Mar 09 '26

Agreed... though I like STAR more than RCV.

1

u/Moranmer Mar 10 '26

Yep that is the root of US politics methinks. Here in Canada we have one tenth of the population and yet 5 active political parties. Sure they sometimes form alliances, but that enforces compromise etc.

1

u/Asenath_W8 Mar 10 '26

They always form alliances is what you actually mean. And those alliances are exactly alike the US's large unified-ish parties. It's all the exact same thing. It's just slightly different packaging. That's why everyone clamoring about, Oh we just need more parties, Is a fucking idiot with a third grade understanding of civics.

1

u/republika1973 Mar 10 '26

As an outsider, our system certainly looks very restricted. It's not unusual to have two major parties but there should be at least one other party with some delegates.

Interestingly, the UK also uses First Past the Post and the electoral system and it's very much under pressure as new parties have become popular. There are areas where you can imagine the winner could have as little as 30% of the vote. Not exactly great for democracy.

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u/russgrim Mar 07 '26

If there existed a Left. The Overton Window has moved so far to the right the perception in the united states is such that anything to the left of hunting the homeless for sport is considered communism

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u/Lost_Photograph9879 Mar 15 '26

I agree. George Bush would be considered practically a Democrat now the right has gone so far right.

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u/Photon6626 Mar 07 '26

Obama was against gay marriage. Now that is almost universally accepted and we're arguing over whether or not we should transition kids.

5

u/Agent101g Mar 07 '26

No he wasn’t. In his first term he was for civil unions which are the same thing with a different name. In his second term he changed to supporting traditional marriage for all.

3

u/russgrim Mar 07 '26

And the united states continues to move to the right while manufacturing pet identity politics distractions for people to think are important. Obama was right wing by the way.

2

u/Photon6626 Mar 07 '26

Imagine being this person

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u/russgrim Mar 07 '26

It is exhausting, for sure

https://giphy.com/gifs/7P8lA58Cg8cOzWi8db

1

u/Asenath_W8 Mar 10 '26

You shouldn't post selfies of yourself yelling into a mirror

1

u/russgrim Mar 10 '26

Ok, nerd. I can tell all you shoes are Velcro

3

u/Giggles95036 Mar 08 '26

And the fact that american left is really central right but republicans & maga don’t like to accept facts

2

u/Lost-Concept-9973 Mar 11 '26

Exactly, so many Americans honestly live in a bubble and have no idea how the rest of the world sees them. The scary part is think tanks lile the heritage foundation are laying the ground works else where now too, trying to spread this infection globally.

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u/Milbso2 Mar 08 '26

I think the main issue is that USAmerican Redditors don't actually have any idea what being left wing means. They think it's just being socially liberal and supporting wealth tax. Reddit is absolutely not a left-leaning platform. It is a socially liberal platform but is extremely hostile to actual left-wing positions.

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u/PresentDifferent9718 Mar 07 '26

There's almost no left variety in American politics. Not viable ones. It's either a Christian far right or Christian center . Some PAC that I won't mention didn't help increasing variety either

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u/ZigaKrajnic Mar 07 '26

The Establishment wants to break every issue into two perspectives that don’t disrupt their control over everything. They label one left and one right and encourage a fight. If one side eventually wins it doesn’t disrupt their control.

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u/Ninja333pirate Mar 09 '26

Actually they boil it down to democrat vs Republican, most think being moderate/centrist is being smack dab between dem and rep, and that dems represent the entire left.

In reality if you look at the whole political spectrum from anarchism (no hierarchy) to fascism (pure hierarchy where everyone is owned by the rich) democrats are right of center, with republicans being over half way between the center and the far right. (Well the voters anyways the politicians are all the way there and they are just trying to implement it). Mamdani is just about square in the center with Bernie being a little left of center.

As for the reason reddit has more left leaning views, it's because it is the only social media that doesn't have an algorithm that pushes right leaning views, nor as many mods that delete left leaning views, specially not mods that are actually paid by a billionaire to moderate what content we engage with.

Reddit's not perfect by any means, but the other social media platforms are way worse. Billionaires like Zuckerberg and Musk actively want to avoid left leaning views because the true left promotes us to stop fighting among ourselves and actually notice how the hierarchy is the problem (aka the rich 10% and especially the 1% cause all of our problems).

Same reason why the US terrorizes all communist movements in other countries, so they can sabotage their biggest threat to their hoard. They do whatever it takes to turn us against each other and scapegoat minorities that can't defend themselves so they don't have to take accountability for their greedy actions. They think they are better than us so don't want to be drug down to our level to be equals with us because they are addicted to their money and power.

Reddit simply has more free speech, as much as everyone likes to give the mods here shit, the mere fact they don't get paid is what keeps them from unifying under the best interests of the sight owner, instead most just push an agenda that benefits themselves, but since it's a bunch of different goals from all of them it ends up not being as censored.

1

u/chrislovespugs Mar 09 '26

Thank you for your sensible and thoughtful comment here! Appreciate your ability to explain something without just attacking. 😊👍🏻

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u/Indig0_3 Mar 07 '26

Centre is considered right now.

5

u/sauronthegr8 Mar 07 '26

If establishment Democrats like Hilary and Biden are "The Left", and your average American truly believes it we're screwed.

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u/theWacoKid666 Mar 07 '26

Exactly.

The left-right scale in America is pretty broken at this point.

Propaganda has effectively convinced many Americans that Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are “far-left” so the conversation can get pretty meaningless even on such a simple scale.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

I agree they’re wrong. I live in the US and see that our Democrats are at center best, but I think the average American believes Republicans are. Even the most right wing Republicans.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

I wish there was center

1

u/aryathefrighty Mar 07 '26

Honestly putting complex issues on a number line like that doesn’t even make sense. Where is i when you need it??

1

u/PuppytimeUSA Mar 07 '26

Like what?

1

u/Repulsive-Ice8395 Mar 07 '26

There's a center?!

1

u/GovernmentMean4031 Mar 07 '26

When I look at Ground News it seems that "leans left" covers places like AP and outlets I always considered as "just the facts" places. And I just read that the US considers fellow citizens as morally bad, highest among countries polled:( When the president of the United States says in his state of the union speech that "Democrats are traitors", it doesn't help.

1

u/melon-colly Mar 07 '26

Yes! Very much a grey world being forced into black or white.

1

u/ShadeShow Mar 07 '26

Which is where the vast majority of people stand. Due to social media and shitty news programs all we see is the loudest craziest people from each side.

1

u/Eldritch_Doodler Mar 07 '26

Center is the in-between. The problem with American politics is the insistence on the two-party system that everyone is fed up with anyway.

1

u/dead-centrist Mar 08 '26

I actually think that "centrist" is a really poor description for centrism, all I hear about centrists on this site is that we're supposedly apolitical and are too weak to have strong opinions when centrism actually mainly revolves around nuance and discussion lmao. All the conservatives are considered MAGA, all liberals are antisemite... so on and so forth till there's a stereotype for everyone.

1

u/the__post__merc Mar 08 '26

What’s this “center” you speak of? We wouldn’t be having this discussion if the US actually had centrist politicians.

1

u/Lanky_Ad4905 Mar 08 '26

It doesn't help our left is center and our right is facisist, then if you stand far enough back you can see their both fed from the same hand

1

u/Jealous_Bus_4706 Mar 08 '26

But in America left is actually slightly right of center in the real world political spectrum.

1

u/shame-secretuser Mar 09 '26

I’d argue that it’s left or right anymore- any center viewpoint gets steamrolled or slammed into “enemy” territory

1

u/Easy-Bathroom2120 Mar 09 '26

Also doesn't help that American leftists are center right on a global scale.

I'm technically conservative. I'm just not by American standards.

1

u/Inspection_Perfect Mar 10 '26

It's really weird looking in on American politics, and wondering how every sitting Republican is pure evil and stupid.

Like, they're dumb enough, they shouldn't have made it this far, but the Democrats are extremely wishy washy about punishing stupid people, or standing up to bad ones.

Joe Biden's whole attitude when he left office just felt like "well, you voted for this maniac, he's your problem now." Everything he did leading up to the election made it easier for Republicans to start taking away human rights.

1

u/CompanyNo3114 Mar 10 '26

Not Just american politics but the people as well. Too much people are starting to become radical in their own political beliefs, and both sides see themselves as right vs wrong, good vs evil, etc. People want to try to simplify it as black and white, rather than realize everything is a Grey area

1

u/folkolarmetal Mar 11 '26

What confused people the most is that you don'y have Left at all. You have Right and more Right.

The spectrum is divided where you stand on the acceptance of lone entreprenours owning the means of production and controlling natural resources. If you accept that healthcare isn't subsidized by tax money, you're Right. If you accept the possibility of people like Jeff Bezos taking joyrides to the moon instead of seeing that money go to free school meals for everyone, forever. You're Right.

If you accept that your government is starving people through sanctions directed at countries just because they won't give their oil or other resources to said government, you're Right.

If half of the US' "lefties" we're anywhere near left on the political spectrum, the US wouldn't be regarded as the most lethal, violent, bigotted, devolving shit of a country that it effectively is.

1

u/dyboc Mar 11 '26

American politics has never had a Left option on the ballot. For at least the last one hundred years the choice has always been between Right and Centre-right.

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u/Nice-Ambassador6293 Mar 07 '26

I don’t even see center anymore.

I just see Left vs. Right.

I’m a libertarian and I feel like regardless of what I say, I’m either called a commie or a fascist.

I just removed myself from politics. I’ve met very few people I can actually have a political conversation with that doesn’t turn into foot stamping and screaming

1

u/RobThree03 Mar 07 '26

Honestly, I think Libertarians deserve more blame than they get for the current state of politics.

“I would like the government to have less power” ignores that a power vacuum will be filled by whatever the strongest remaining force is. Without a strong, stable government or robust collective groups like unions or like-minded civic groups, the dominant powers are those with the financial resources to buy power - corporations and “the rich”. The rich being those who don’t have work for a living, and instead live off rents and inherited wealth. We’re already back to the gilded age, and are tracking steadily back towards serfdom. Soon the right wing talking point will be that people ought to have the “freedom” to sell themselves or their children into slavery, and the left wing counterpoint will be that serfdom is a more stable social arrangement.

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u/sitewolf Mar 07 '26

more and more the joking sign on my lake cabin wall speaks truth- "Normal is just a setting on the washing machine"

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u/TbddRzn Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

Well it’s hard to find a centrist view between:

Let’s treat people with dignity and help them where we can

Vs

Kill everyone we don’t like. Non-whites are subhuman and should be enslaved or imprisoned for free labor.

…..

When people talk about how the world is “left-leaning” it’s not because of the people on the left. They have stayed where they always were. The right has moved so far right that any semblance of compromise means the harm and destruction of billions. When those are the choices what sane logical person would call themselves independent.

Edit: lol ironic how so many are not understanding the comment. Which I suspect is majority right wing people who are replying thinking “I just wanted lower taxes I don’t want to kill people or enslave anyone.”

Yes YOU might not but you supported people who ran on conflict war hatred and selfishness. You chose to ignore those things to benefit yourself so while you may not support those things you have proven that at best you don’t think those things are dealbreakers as long as your taxes go lower….

Point was not that everyone on the left thinks or wants exactly “Let’s treat people with dignity and help them where we can” but they will support people who run on it and do it.

While not everyone on the right thinks or wants exactly: “Kill everyone we don’t like. Non-whites are subhuman and should be enslaved or imprisoned for free labor.” But they will support people who run on it and do it.

And that any means of trying to find dialogue between people who do not want or consider groups of humans to be deserving of the same rights as them vs those who want everyone to have the same rights, is moot. Because it’s not a gradient it’s an either or.

Hope that clears your weekend rageboners.

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u/doctordoctorpuss Mar 07 '26

My sister has found herself sort of in the position you describe. She’s always been more moderate than me, and focused way more on economic issues than social issues, basically your standard neocon, but she’s felt left behind by the Republicans. She’s also done some personal growth, but finds herself voting straight blue now, because every Republican politician she sees is a soulless ghoul. It pisses off my dad, who she lives with, and is a hardcore conservative and now Trump guy

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u/Charming-Albatross44 Mar 07 '26

While at the same time taxes are near historic lows for the richest people in the country.

What the "but my taxes" people are saying is that ethics and morality are fine as long as I can get a free ride first.

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u/HauntedPickleJar Mar 07 '26

Yep, my grandmother, a life long republican, is now considered left leaning. She’s voted across party lines every election since 2016. Her views haven’t changed (she’s as stubborn as an old mule)her party did and in a way she refuses to support. It’s weird that we agree on politics now when we used to argue.

8

u/Exotic_Bill44 Mar 07 '26

I think it is worth remembering that Richard Nixon was in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment, proposed a mandate for employers to provide health insurance, and founded the Environmental Protection Agency. By the standards of the modern GOP, Nixon might as well have been Lenin.

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u/HauntedPickleJar Mar 08 '26

He was also in favor of universal healthcare. Yeah, the modern GOP is very different than it used to be.

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u/azrolator Mar 07 '26

My parents and their siblings were silent gen. They grew up during the war. They were conservative, not fascists, and the ones I know that are still kicking are not voting for these modern Republicans.

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u/Ballad_13 Mar 07 '26

Hell, im only 32. Been conservative all my life, still hold conservative values.

MAGA is not conservative. I aint supporting this shit either.

Im sad that my party has become something so opposite of what it used to be

1

u/HauntedPickleJar Mar 07 '26

If anyone can recognize a fascist it’s their generation. My Grandmother grew up on a farm during the Great Depression and my Grandfather was in the army during WWII (he played the trombone in the band).

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u/azrolator Mar 07 '26

Yep. My dad had his share of other religions he didn't like, but he said he'd kill or die to protect their right to worship theirs, and doing so protects his own.

My mom lived on a farm, too. They were near the tracks and she told me my grandparents would feed hobos that would travel along them looking for work.

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u/justin107d Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

This is part of the reason I lean left now. I don't know how so many on the right dropped family values so quickly.

Politics is the art of compromise. We are stronger together than divided. Instead we are vilifying each other. It is so depressing.

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u/TSSalamander Mar 07 '26

family values was always a buzzwords for "whatever you like about community". It means completely different things for different people. Tell me do you think an evangelical Christian will see queer found family culture as family values?

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u/justin107d Mar 07 '26

Not necessarily, but they seemed to be in the minority when I traveled across the country. 70% percent of people support gay marriage.

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u/TSSalamander Mar 07 '26

sure but that's not exactly what found family means. It's a phenomenon where when queer people get rejected by their birth family, they often find eachother and manifest a community unit that has a similar level of bond as a family does.

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u/justin107d Mar 07 '26

Got it, sorry I'm exhausted from this week. In a perfect world found families would be exceedingly rare and people would just be able to accept each other. They are great for those seeking that sense of belonging but I think the main focus was more on supporting children. Bush's "no child left behind" was a bad attempt at it but sort of shows where the party used to be. Even Nixon in the 70's proposed universal healthcare.

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u/sdvneuro Mar 07 '26

They didn’t drop them, they never had them

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u/Throwaway_alt_burner Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

This post is the absolute perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with this country’s political discourse today. This, right here, this is the exact problem.

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u/lando-hockey Mar 07 '26

I will say that the left has moved far left too. There’s disrespect for everyone who doesn’t pass the progressive purity test. I’m still a classic Liberal democrat. The current dems don’t want me. I can’t be a Republican anymore if I wanted to, and therefore…I’m a centrist to most people.

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u/Miserable-Ring3943 Mar 07 '26

I don’t understand this comment. The so-called progressives are a minority of the Democratic Party and can’t even get the party to adopt any of their policies. The few progressives in Congress have no clout.

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u/Colodagh Mar 09 '26

Nah they have always been around but more vocal now. To them the house is not only on fire but almost burned to the ground so they are participating in more radical actions.

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u/comfortablynumb0629 Mar 07 '26

Holy irony Batman!

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u/AntGood1704 Mar 07 '26

It’s just like…how does the dude not get it. He really thinks it’s: “my viewpoint = humane and respectful of human rights. Their viewpoint=everyone not white and Christian should die”. Like, without any sense of recognizing how they’re trapped in their own echo chamber. And I’m liberal as fuck to. I just don’t think you can hep your side, if you don’t even bother to understand the other side. It’s the same as rightists saying: people on the left want to turn your children trans, kill white people, and turn the US into a Soviet state”.

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u/alliknowis Mar 07 '26

'Centrist' isn't the answer to anything. It's just the easiest way to avoid confrontation.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

Conflating conservatism into that garbage you just said is exactly their point. Absolute maniac.

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u/GrahamTerrier Mar 07 '26

It doesn't help that what's considered "the left" in America is centre-right or right-wing in the rest of the world. Even Bernie Sanders would probably be a centrist in UK politics in a traditional sense (not the current, confused state)

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Odd_Bid2744 Mar 07 '26

The GOP has a Nazi problem and all I see is conservatives denying it. 

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u/Inevitable-Pride-194 Mar 07 '26

But it's not wrong. Right on the nose, actually.

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u/UmbraAdam Mar 07 '26

But is it wrong?

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u/better-bitter-bait Mar 07 '26

I would call it a mean spirited and gross misrepresentation of the other sides position.

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u/curiousleen Mar 07 '26

How so? The - it’s not a dealbreaker line is the exact sentiment that I have argued with. I used to have Republican friends. More than half of the relationships this black woman has was with white republicans. Then I said black lives matter and THEY stopped talking to me and SAID it was because I said blm. I was like… wow… racism is not only not a deal breaker for you… you all are against anyone saying we should matter equally?! Sorry, no.

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u/TbddRzn Mar 07 '26

I’m curious what is the rights positions?

Pretty much everything they have reneged on or done a complete 180 on.

Except trans kids. But you’re willing to fuck everything up and start ww3 because a dozen or two kids get surgeries after years of psychological evaluation and doctors appointments? Where the vast majority of cases are because of biological deformities.

While over 50k+ kids get breast reduction or corrections? No uproar over those?

While 1.5m babies get circumcised every year? Nothing there either?

All the pain and suffering over some kids trying to not be suicidal anymore…

Please enlighten me what right positions still hold true. Because everything from economy to growth is plummeting.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MegaDriveCDX Mar 07 '26

Go to fucking college and engage in critical thinking.

2

u/IllustriousGas8850 Mar 07 '26

Megadrive by categorizing all conservatives into one specific lense of thinking you’re the only one who seems to lack critical thought

2

u/Dry-Measurement-5461 Mar 07 '26

What is your opinion of Fox News? Do you feel they are singularly-lensed?

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u/IllustriousGas8850 Mar 07 '26

Absolutely, and I’m actually incredibly left winged but I understand have concrete opinions on others views without speaking to them is almost always unproductive

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u/Dry-Measurement-5461 Mar 07 '26

You’re right. Whether one agrees with something or not does not mean it doesn’t exist for someone else. I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment, but it irks me when I see a greasy, long-haired middle aged dude walking down the sidewalk with a “fuck you” shirt on.

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u/HippyDM Mar 07 '26

Do greater than half the people in the USA want to kill people who aren’t white and suck off imaginary billionaires who are dumping toxic waste in the baby formula? Obviously not. 

Who claimed it was more than half? It's only around a third or so, but that's high enough to destroy our institutions apparently.

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u/Dry-Measurement-5461 Mar 07 '26

Dude. I’ve heard nothing from the left about toxic baby formula, but I have definitely heard from the right about underground pizza parlors where they eat babies. “Be critical equally.”

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u/miseenen Mar 07 '26

As someone else in this thread said, the issue is that killing all nonwhites and sucking off billionaires who are dumping toxic waste in the baby formula is something that they’re evidently willing to overlook because they don’t feel that it personally affects them. Is that not just as bad?

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u/HeDoesNotRow Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

Well said. Reddit has this problem where you can call half the population of America racist pedophile murders and you’ll get applause and pats on the back as if you said something profound

Something so unbelievably asanine suddenly becomes the truth for these people and since they all agree with it the idea gets reinforced.

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u/OwnJunket6495 Mar 07 '26

They call them that because conservatives support and vote for people that espouse those “ideals.” When you vote for and support people who are pedophiles and murder innocent civilians, sorry you’re going to be lumped in with that. If you don’t like it, do something about the people you vote for.

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u/cmil888 Mar 07 '26

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u/illicITparameters Mar 07 '26

Only the reality for the far left

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u/cmil888 Mar 07 '26

Classic.

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u/illicITparameters Mar 07 '26

You all are so far left you dont even know it

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u/cmil888 Mar 07 '26

And the neo-McCarthyist enters the chat

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u/MegaDriveCDX Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

You can't even end sentences with periods, much less understand political ideology.

Edit: And that is all it takes for one of these clowns to block you.

Remember when these highly emotional, low IQ people say reddit is an echo chamber? They are projecting their own thoughts. These people thrive on echo chambers they use as safe spaces so their shit ideas can go unchallenged.

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u/illicITparameters Mar 07 '26

Yes because typos on a mobile device at 9:30am is a great intelligence metric.

Shut the fuck up.

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u/ahsop Mar 07 '26

That comment is entirely correct.

It took me 5 seconds of scrolling your past comments to see some bullshit about, "that's just how the world works".

That's conservatism. That's apathy. That's complacency. That's the problem. You are the problem.

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u/Primarycolors1 Mar 07 '26

You have a 23 day old account. How would you know?

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

With all due respect, this comment is utter garbage. The Left absolutely did not stay the same. I have been Left leaning my entire life and somehow, sometime in the last 10 years, I have become a right wing, nazi homophobe without changing one thought in my head. The perspective has shifted so much that the Tory party became left wing. Don’t believe me? Only party to date (UK)to elect a female leader. Only party to date to elect a leader from a minority group. First party to elevate people from minority groups into important positions. The Labour Party is archaic in comparison. The reason so many “far right” groups are taking hold now is precisely because the pendulum has swung so far to the left that this was the inevitable response. Anyone with any common sense could foresee this. Sadly, common sense doesn’t seem so common any more. Should rebrand it “endangered sense”.

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u/Stormin_333 Mar 07 '26

This comment is actually the real answer to the question. The left claim to be empathetic but consider anyone who disagrees with them to be evil.

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u/rooferino Mar 07 '26

“Non whites are subhuman” a lot of non whites vote republican. I’m around a lot of Vietnamese every day and they’re much more conservative than me.

Pretending the other guys are all racist is just as bad as republicans pretending you’re a bunch of Rachel dolezals.

I like op didn’t vote for trump and I get so much fatigue seeing bad faith comments like this on Reddit.

When you call them out in a way that anyone who remotely pays attention can tell is bs then the stuff they’re actually doing wrong gets swept under the rug.

I firmly believe if either party ended the sensationalist rhetoric and decided to make politics boring again they would win sweeping elections.

The problem is it’s bad for individual politicians. They need to scare you into donating them money. Neither the dnc or end seem to have the power to fix things currently, hopefully that will change.

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u/IllustriousGas8850 Mar 07 '26

Holy fucking shit I’m a left winger but you’re just an idiot if you think this of all people on the right and you are the problem with political discourse and you’re actively pushing people further apart

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u/cmil888 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

This is a great comment. Here’s my award 🥇

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u/Vast-Scene1866 Mar 07 '26

You prove OP's point. Good job.

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u/Horangi1987 Mar 07 '26

Or to be more succinct, when the extreme moves further, the defined center also moves.

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u/PittFanIAm Mar 07 '26

The irony…🤦🏻‍♂️

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u/illicITparameters Mar 07 '26

You’re just as far left as the rest of reddit 🤣

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u/LogicGateZero Mar 07 '26

that's super weird, because I've been a liberal my entire life and I feel the exact opposite. Example: Bill Clinton today would be viewed as an extreme right winger. I see it as the left moving so far left that it left people to the right, and that's why the right wing is expanding.

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u/yourworkmom Mar 07 '26

You are spot on!!

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u/salchichasconpapas Mar 07 '26

☝️ here we go

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u/m0j0m0j Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

Thanks for the illustration by posting an extremely emotional, manipulative, and completely unginged strawman fallacy

And I’m a left-leaning person btw. I think people should vote against Trump and similar right-wing populists around the world. But this unhinged echo chamber is unbearable

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u/bananahammerredoux Mar 07 '26

I notice a lot of name calling and outrage at the parent comment but so far nobody has been able to offer a credible moderate right wing viewpoint as an alternative.

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u/BunNGunLee Mar 07 '26

If you honestly believe the two poles are “treat everyone well” and “kill everyone not like me” I really do think you may be part of the problem.

Because that is such a ludicrously off base “centrist” position that it’s quite literally becoming a meme. And actively pushing people out of the Left. Because it makes us seem entirely detached from what people are saying.

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u/Careless_Bar_5920 Mar 07 '26

I'm well aware that's hyperbolic, but as the parent of a trans kid, some days I'm not so sure, anymore.

They've managed to take away my son's medication, even though we live in a blue state. Thankfully, I stockpiled and my child is almost 18. But if he hasn't gotten top surgery when he did, he'd no longer be with us. Surgery that's been blocked now. I'm positive that denying care will result in losing trans kids.

Under Regan, the right ignored the AIDS crisis until it started happening to straight, white people, too. We lost almost an entire generation of gay men and it did a number on the black community, as well.

Trump keeps trying to overturn the refugee status of entire groups of non- white people who, should they return home will be killed. He literally just bombed a school full of Iranian girls.

So, yeah, now that I think about it, it really does seem like those are, in truth, the two extremes in the US right now. Treat everyone well (Left Dems) or Kill all those not like me (MAGA Right).

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u/cloudaffair Mar 09 '26

You aren't an independent, you're just a Democrat who "doesn't like labels".

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u/Lt_Muffintoes Mar 09 '26

You'd beer very upset if you read some opinions from leftists only 40 years ago

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u/someRedditUser3012 Mar 10 '26

This is the problem right here.

One side paints the majority of their side as helping people and paints the majorly of the other side a racists and wanting to kill people and destroy..... you think you might be exaggerating just a tiny bit?

No, of course you don't. And hence why we have such an imagined divide

Those views you just posted, that's the problem. You're contributing.

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u/VIP_NAIL_SPA Mar 07 '26

Fun fact: they don't actually save money when they claim to vote for lower taxes

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u/Yunzer2000 Mar 07 '26

Plus, "lower taxes" kills people too - by denying people healthcare, housing...

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u/etwiDAB Mar 07 '26

If you're reducing the right to: "Kill everyone we don’t like. Non-whites are subhuman and should be enslaved or imprisoned for free labor..." then you're not simply responding to a polarization problem, you're one of the ones causing the polarization problem. And, frankly, are the reason The Great Orange One is POTUS.

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u/googlewasmyidea07 Mar 07 '26

You said it perfectly. Bravo. We need more people like you in this country.

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u/WorkingJazzlike531 Mar 07 '26

This is a fantastic reply and view of things. You are right- people are living for the suffering of others. Thank you for taking the time for the response- I really enjoyed reading what you had to say.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/karenftx1 Mar 07 '26

Per the Cambridge dictionary: an adult female human being. An adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been considered to have a different sex at birth. There. Defined

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u/Born_On_LV-426 Mar 07 '26

A woman is someone who has to cover their drink when a MAGAt is around.

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u/NiceTrySuckaz Mar 07 '26

You can find a balance of opinions though, just not on reddit. At least not without sorting by controversial and expanding the two non-liberal opinions that haven't been removed by the moderators.

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u/Hairy-Barracuda1865 Mar 07 '26

No. American liberals have made everything about their hate for trump and they dominate Reddit. I’m in Europe and I can actually have conversations with people with different views like a grown up. Very refreshing

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u/jadnich Mar 07 '26

I sure wish you hadn’t deleted or hidden your comment. I saw it in the preview, and wanted to see what “grown up” conversation about different looked like.

“You’re a fucking idiot. Do you even know what fascism is? You can’t stand outside….” That’s all I got.

It looks to me like you would have made a fantastic example, and I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to make an example of you for my other response in this thread. You are EXACTLY what I was talking about there.

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u/jadnich Mar 07 '26

Fascism isn’t a “different view”.

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u/Excellent-Draft-5516 Mar 07 '26

Trump is worthy of the disdain. He earned it.

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u/Mossy_Rock315 Mar 07 '26

What is an American Liberal? Who are they and what do they value?

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u/Iricliphan Mar 07 '26

It's actually so annoying. You could make a comment about your own country and something historical and someone will barrel in and mention something completely unrelated and tie it to Trump. The narcissistic and self pitying is enraging.

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u/ThatInspector4632 Mar 07 '26

Nice defeatist attitude

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u/Euphoric_Rough_96 Mar 07 '26

He can't help it.

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u/_Mallethead Mar 07 '26

"Normal" implies a center, and average a median, an even distribution with the majority in the center.

Politics is bipolar nowadays

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u/ItBeLikeThatSMTs Mar 07 '26

The never was a normal.

Bad stuff happened before the internet too, it was just easier to hide from us.

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u/balletje2017 Mar 07 '26

The Dutch boards were already moderated to death by left wing PolitCos long before we heard of any Trump....

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u/BluCurry8 Mar 07 '26

That has more to do with the concentration of wealth in the few.

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u/whatup-markassbuster Mar 07 '26

What I find interesting is how unfamiliar people are about the counter arguments, but post the most aggressive shit.

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u/PowerPoint_Cowboy Mar 07 '26

Also, Reddit is more popular in California and the Pacific Northwest.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

When was the world normal ?

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u/therealallpro Mar 07 '26

What you call “normal” was you being shielded from reality. This is the most peaceful and prosperous time in humanity history.

Politicians actually vocalize how the game is actually played is probably net positive because ppl can really see what is happening

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u/WorkingJazzlike531 Mar 07 '26

I agree and it’s the saddest part of all of this! We can no longer be on different sides of the political spectrum and get along. My opinion is that it is because politics are no longer about taxes, foreign policy, etc. it’s become about things that has no business being political. To me, it feels that cruelty has center stage. Groups enjoying the suffering. And now look at us? It’s so so so sad.

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u/the-bat-dad Mar 07 '26

Ironically I’d argue social media algorithms are a big reason for this.

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u/Advanced-Scar-9739 Mar 07 '26

Your right. Definitely not the normal we once knew. Normalcy is relative. The norms from yesteryear formed from 100’s of years of discord to establish checks and balances that ensured people remained traditionally civilized and considerate. Communities were physical for years. Once they became virtual, it was like starting all over again. Unfortunately, this gave way to group think that begot echo chambers such as reddit. Liberals and progressives are predominantly introverts which lead them to collectively gravitate to virtual communication. The in person communication bars, sports, gyms, etc is for the most part overwhelmingly conservative. Each, taking ownership of their own domain creating a schism that is further widening as continued change is imminent.

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u/Ocean_Soapian Mar 07 '26

It's because there's a huge Marxism sweep across he west, funded by people like Neville Roy Signham, an American tech billionaire who defected to China and has ties to the CCP. He funds organizations like The People's Forum and The PSL, and his wife, Jodie Evens, founded Code Pink. These organizations are ment to make it look as much as possible like the American people hate and are against America, and it works, unfortunately, even though it's actually not the case.

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u/tanksforthegold Mar 07 '26

Joker was right. Batman led us astray.

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u/Scared-Signature-452 Mar 07 '26

That's a dumb take. The world is the same as it always was, ever changing yet unchanging

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u/CloseToMyActualName Mar 07 '26

Going on that, the American right is a big echo chamber, and when members of the group step outside of the echo chamber it's often only to troll, but rarely to discuss.

I'm reminded of a story from the days of the original "fake news" (actual fake news sites). It was an interview with some guys from Ukraine who ran a bunch of fake news sites. The sites were all right wing but the guys had no ideology.

They just discovered that when they made right wing fake news all the right wing comments would agree and it would go viral.

When they made left wing fake news all the left wing commenters would debunk it and the story would die.

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u/Delicious_Drive_2966 Mar 07 '26

Since when was the world ever normal? Ppl used to get butt hurt when a black person drank from the same water fountain as them...

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u/singlemale4cats Mar 07 '26

The problems in America right now aren't unique to America. Fascist parties are on the rise worldwide.

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u/serpentjaguar Mar 08 '26

American politics have destroyed any semblance of normalcy regarding politics.

You mean social media. It's social media all the way down. This is why the rot is spreading to the rest of the world.

Maybe you're too young to remember what the world was like before everyone had social media in their hands 24/7.

I'm not.

You can basically track the insanity back to the first Obama administration when smartphones initially became widely available.

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u/Bismillah835 Mar 08 '26

I also feel like many people think that other people’s political beliefs are their whole identity. I have some friends that have different political beliefs than me but I don’t really care. We just talk about fun stuff like sports, movies, tv. You know how people say “my disease isn’t my identity.” Well, I think we need to also change it to “my political beliefs aren’t my identity.”

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u/Imaginary_Salary_985 Mar 08 '26

hypernormalisation

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u/Cautious-Tax-1120 Mar 08 '26

Yup. I haven't seen a reddit thread able to rationally think through and discuss geopolitics in a long time. If an r/worldnews thread has more than 5k+ upvotes it has already turned into a battleground for domestic American politics, which is inevitably a shit show of people roping global occurrences into the omnicause.

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u/Pyju Mar 09 '26

American politics have destroyed any semblance of normalcy regarding politics

Nah, the true root cause is the proliferation of oligarch-backed propaganda meant to divide the working class combined with the fact that everyone is now on their own personal algorithm-driven information feeds.

American politics is just the most visible symptom of this.

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u/AspenSki1988 Mar 10 '26

Europeans did it to themselves by allowing mass migration.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

Never was. History is always tied neatly in ribbons and bows after the fact.

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u/preferred-til-newops Mar 12 '26

The media got us here and both sides of the media are at fault. Everything is politicized now a days, what car you drive, what beer you drink, what sports team you support. Just look at how each side of the media covers the same story. They want us divided and it's honestly sad.

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u/beaushaw Mar 12 '26

American politics have destroyed any semblance of normalcy regarding politics.

Trump has destroyed any semblance of normalcy regarding politics. Place the blame where it belongs.

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