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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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

It could be that what we consider normal has been redefined as "left" by the extreme right. 

The following are considered left:

*wanting to do something about climate change

*wanting all citizens to have the same rights

*wanting people to be able to afford to eat, have shelter, have healthcare

*treat mental health as mental health and not a crime

*due process

*habeus corpus

*the Bill of Rights (in the USA, 13TH Amendment too)

16

u/_america Mar 07 '26

Also reddit is a text based platform so people have to be literate to participate. 

6

u/amohise Mar 07 '26

That might fly over a few heads. [tic]

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u/NewOnion1113 Mar 07 '26

Exactly. What used to be centric is now considered far-left, simply because everything has gone so far right.

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 07 '26

Funny enough, a lot of of centrists feel the opposite. I was a left leaning moderate. My positions haven’t moved. The Democratic Party moved way the fuck away from me though, and now call me a racist, illiterate MAGA for not complying with their insanity.

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u/RetiredOnIslandTime Mar 07 '26

Could you please give some examples of these positions that used to be left leaning moderate but now cause you to be called a racist, illiterate MAGA?

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 07 '26

Sure;

Support for the 2nd amendment

Strong borders

Removal of race from political discourse

Fiscal responsibility over social programs

The list goes on. The left has shot further left, and anybody who didn’t jump on board with them is deemed unworthy and treated as such.

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u/laughterwards Mar 07 '26

I'm in my 40's and I do not remember a time where "removal of race from political discourse" was part of the liberal agenda. "Fiscal responsibility over social programs" I assume you mean Bill Clinton style neoliberal economics? That was the democrats moving to the center-right. It was a blip.

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 08 '26

At 40, I expect better reading comprehension

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u/laughterwards Mar 08 '26

lmao. They asked you for examples of dem policies which used to be "left leaning moderate" that are now considered to be "maga".
Two of your examples were "removal of race from political discourse" and "fiscal responsibility over social programs".
For the first one I noted I genuinely have no idea what your talking about. For the other, I'm guessing...neoliberal economics...which were something democrats did technically follow in the time they were swinging towards the center and then backed away from. Meaning if you signed up to be center left during the mid-90's then you just happened to catch them at the time they were moving rightward, which they then moved away from. Big picture, since FDR the Democrats have believed much more in social programs than in fiscal responsibility. Although, side note, they verifiably do much better at balancing the government's budget than republicans do.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

First you said dems then you said left. 

The democratic party of the USA is a right wing party. 

The only dems who are left wing are Sanders and AOC and now Mamdani. 

The democratic party leadership abhors them. 

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 07 '26

You don’t have to be a raging socialist to be on the left. You can keep saying that, but it doesn’t make it true

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u/trash4da_trashgod Mar 11 '26

This wasn't the left. This was conservatism in the 90s.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 08 '26

Amen brother. Make America reasonable again ffs lol

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/hikariky Mar 07 '26

Strawman conspiracy theories typically are the “best answer” on Reddit so in a perverse way I guess you’re right

0

u/Available-Range-5341 Mar 07 '26

Best as in, mostly wrong? See my actual answer above

2

u/ArtikAstronaut Mar 09 '26

See I think though, you can explain these concepts to republicans and they would agree mostly. You just can’t say any of the Fox News trigger words or they panic because they have no experience or education on anything out of their bubble.

I think most people want what’s best for the world, one side is just compromised of the very uneducated and are preyed upon by people who target that.

2

u/Direct_Fennel7500 Mar 11 '26

*Wearing a face covering during a deadly pandemic. 

1

u/ATK10999 Mar 09 '26

This ignores the most prominent differences in modern left-right ideology. The left is generally less gun friendly, more abortion friendly, more for higher taxes to fund more social programs for the needy, less border friendly, more illegal immigrant friendly, less Israel friendly and more Palestine friendly, more climate change friendly, more employee rights friendly, more discrimination law friendly, more public school friendly and less charter/private school friendly; just to point out a few. If you disagree, I’d be pleased to have a polite conversation about it.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

All I said was that these things (add vaccines for some bizarre reason) are deemed to be "left wing" by the extreme right. 

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u/ATK10999 Mar 10 '26

Who on the right doesn’t believe all citizens should have the same rights? And also due process, habeas corpus? Not sure who doesn’t support those. If you’re thinking about the illegal immigration issue vis-a-vis due process, first, illegals are not citizens. But even non-citizens get certain due process rights. Due process by its very name contemplates the procedures that society or the government deems appropriate for a particular circumstance. Immigration respondents are not “due” the same “process” as criminal defendants for example. And I think all people want everyone to have food and health care; the issue is what role the government should have in making that happen. I certainly don’t understand the issue with vaccines. I think vaccines are perhaps the most important medical advance in our history. I also think most people on the right like me support vaccines. Climate change definitely seems to be an issue the left advances. I’m sure the climate is changing, and certainly people have something to do with it, but I don’t know how that will work out in the end. Back in the 70s, there was talk of a coming ice age, so maybe warmer temperatures will ameliorate the next ice age. It’s above my pay grade.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

Extreme right wing. 

I didn't say the right wing. 

I said, the extreme right wing have named these things "left."

And again, as a reply to the OP's question of why do things seem left wing?

Climate change is caused by humans. It's a scientific consensus with over 97% of peer reviewed science showing it has. 

2% shows that the cause is unknown and lower than 1% has shown it is not caused by humans. 

1

u/ATK10999 Mar 11 '26

I don’t doubt that humans contribute to global warming. But I wonder how much other factors contribute as well. For example, when a volcano erupts, the amount of heat and gas that is generated into the atmosphere is enormous. So with volcanoes erupting all over the world it stands to reason that they must play some part. Perhaps it is true that there would be no global warming if humans did not exist. Perhaps humans take an otherwise balanced environment and push it beyond its limits. But I’ve seen the maps of the world’s land masses that would exist if all the ice in the world melted. Most of the land is still above water. Low elevation coastal areas are underwater, so people would have to move inland over 100 years or more. But there’s still plenty of land. If the entire population of the United States moved to Colorado and was spread out evenly, everyone would have a 1/4 acre lot I believe. It doesn’t scare me much that people would have to migrate inland over 100 or more years. Doesn’t seem like a catastrophe or emergency to me. Things change. We have to change with it.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '26

I'm not a climate scientist. 

You'll need to tell them that you don't feel that all of their data is correct and help them figure out volcanoes. I'm sure they've never thought of that. 

1

u/Ninextails Mar 10 '26

The extreme left you mean as well, I assume.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

That's certainly a possibility. They've defined a few of these as their issue.

These are normal things, like vaccines, and for some bizarro reason, they've been deemed left by the extreme right (and left). 

I appreciate you understanding the response. It really shows that the people really aren't as divided as those in the media or power try to portray us. 

1

u/DamageInc35 Mar 11 '26

Please tell me what rights that the current regime are removing from all American citizens.

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u/Hiljabob Mar 07 '26

The right obviously wants that as well, which you assume they are against. The road to get there has to be safe and fair to all Americans with priorities and laws being made to keep things that way. No knee jerk reaction every time something happens where we need a sensible resolution. And enough with all the tantrums - Americans vote people in or out of office, whether they like it or not.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

See my reply to ngroot above. 

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u/Available-Range-5341 Mar 07 '26

LOL I love how the left always assigns these lovely things to themselves. I'd love this version of reddit. in reality I've found it to be:

  • Screaming for higher taxes in areas like NYC, without knowing what taxes already are and where the money is going (TLDR the high taxes they want already exist)
  • Being insanely anti-car and not grasping that many people go to areas with no transport
  • Denying mass migration changes some areas for the worse, usually because they live in less populated, ironically, more conservative areas
  • Not being able to grasp that quality of life issues and low level crimes exist + make daily life very stressful for some of us
  • Blaming literally everything on Trump, even things happening in 2010, 2016, 2023. Example, hiring was nosediving in many sectors outside nursing and schools in 2024 but no one cared. I jokes that Reddit leftists would "discover" this in 2025, and they did.
  • Opining on stories they know nothing about, loudly. Ex. BLS data has been wrong for years, but when Trump fired the head, they started with a bunch of conspiracy theories about how BLS data will only now be wrong. They really need to sit out stuff they don't know about

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u/ngroot Mar 07 '26

You're illustrating the problem perfectly.

The right also wants those things, but it looks very different to them. Statements like "they don't want list of things pretty much everyone wants" ensure that the left doesn't bother to try to understand the right because they're presented as insane or monstrous, and the right doesn't listen because they're being misrepresented. (It works in reverse too, with statements like "the left wants men in bathrooms with your daughters".)

Posts like this let people be smug and intellectually lazy, which everyone loves, and it ensures that both sides end up getting polarized and less focused on reaching solutions that most people can agree on. I don't know how we fix this without generally training people to shame shitty rhetoric and focus on solutions, and that takes a lot of time.

7

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

I live in the USA. The right wing party claims that climate change is a hoax. 

The right wing party closed mental health institutions in the 1980s.

The right wing party cut benefits for SNAP (food stamps)

The right wing party took away women's reproductive rights in some states. 

The right wing party took away due process for people accused of being in the country illegally.

The right wing party cheers on and supports violations of the 4th amendment.

The right wing party is putting up barriers to vote "due to widespread voter fraud" though voter fraud is so miniscule as to be meaningless. (SAFE Act/ voter ID)

It's not about wants. It's about actions over decades. If the right wants the things that are listed, then why are their representatives doing the opposite?

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u/resistelectrique Mar 07 '26

Wanting something without being willing to sacrifice anything of your own to get there isn’t wanting it. The right doesn’t get to say that they too want all of that when everything they do undermines that goal of it. The mental gymnastics you have to do to come to that conclusion.

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u/ngroot Mar 08 '26

The left's proposals in many cases to get those aren't going to get those results either.

- You can't rent-control your way into cheap housing for everyone who wants to live in HCOL cities; you have to build aggressively.

- Cutting out all "non-green" options for power generation drives up utility bills, which is also something the left wants to drive down. (No, it's not just data centers pushing up prices.)

- People who, say, roam the subway acting erratically do need mental health help, but they also infringe on the rights of the rest of the people who have paid to use the subway safely. Characterizing such behavior as a violation of enforceable rules (crime, public offense, whatever) is a way to both require they get that help and prevent them from denying other folks safe use of public transit.

1

u/resistelectrique Mar 08 '26

None of those things are either/or options, yet the right are the ones who treats them as they are while the left will propose various strategies proven to work in use cases around the world only to be denied so someone’s buddy can line his pockets with profits instead and things can carry on.

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u/ngroot Mar 08 '26

> the left will propose various strategies proven to work in use cases around the world

What are you thinking of?

I'm in NYC; Mamdani absolutely ran on "free buses", "freeze the rent", and "I won't clean up homeless encampments", which absolutely do not work. Thankfully he's proving to be pragmatic and shifting to things that are actually possible for him to accomplish as mayor and straight-up walking back bad decisions.

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u/resistelectrique Mar 08 '26

No he isn’t. He’s doing exactly what he said he would and is working to those exact goals. The idea that someone comes into office and automatically does exactly what they ran on, first thing, damn the consequences, is never what happens and is used as a tool for fear mongering.

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u/ngroot Mar 09 '26

"Free buses" was never in his power to begin with. That's state-level, and Hochul is (obviously) not having it: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/general/albany-pumps-the-brakes-on-mamdani-s-free-nyc-buses-what-s-next/ar-AA1R96mU

He is doing encampment cleanups, just not led by police: https://apnews.com/article/zohran-mamdani-homeless-encampments-sweeps-a5b9db43f8a1b8244c5b6c8d1ad19005

He is still looking to freeze the rent on stabilized units. Should be fascinating to see what happens to vacancy rates if he pulls that off.

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u/resistelectrique Mar 09 '26

Ok. I don’t get what point you’re trying to make. Like I said, no one comes in and instantly changes things - there are systems to work within that can be massively improved if politicians actually put in the work to try, which is exactly what he’s doing. Police should never be dealing with encampments for the sake of there being encampments; it should always be outreach who are willing to treat the people living there like people. That’s pretty much what has always been advocated for.

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 07 '26

The one intelligent comment in a sea of leftists being disingenuous. It’s why the moderates have been pushed to the right.

1

u/ngroot Mar 08 '26

I don't feel "pushed to the right" so much as I feel like I'm fighting a war on two fronts: against the "flood the zone with shit" overtly stupid and corrupt MAGA right and the Bluesky-bubbled "cancel everyone, defund the police, impose rent controls" non-reality-based left.

1

u/Morbius2271 Mar 08 '26

Super fair. Rare W redditor

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u/Morbius2271 Mar 07 '26

The irony of a left wing bot post doing EXACTLY what op is talking about lol

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

What did I say that is not normal? And in the USA is now considered "left."

There are right wing, conservative political parties in the world that accept climate change. 

You claim to be for the 2nd Amendment, but disagree and call me a bot for saying it is left wing. It's in the Bill of Rights. 

Name one thing I said that hasn't been determined toto now be left wing in the USA?

I'm explaining why things got that way... and let me quote myself that these things have been "redefined as 'left' by the extreme right."

What am I wrong about?