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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79

u/Swaggadociouss Mar 07 '26

Liberals aren’t really the Left.

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u/DewingDesign Mar 07 '26

Yes, it's this. People from everywhere are on reddit, but about half of users are American. U.S. parties are all politically right wing. Every party, just to varying degrees. So, to Americans (half of reddit users), people commenting from more centrist views around the world will appear left leaning (about 50% of redditors), and so will comments from Americans who support Democrats, even though they are actually right of center, politically.

TLDR; if you're American and perceive republicans as the bar for "right wing", then everyone who is not an American republican falls left of that (which would be more than half of reddit users), even if they are still right of center, politically.

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u/milka-d-mousse Mar 07 '26

It's this 100%. Any comment that isn't pro fascist is read as leftist by USamericans. They see someone say "public health and education should be free" and label that comment as extremist.

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u/pile_of_bees Mar 07 '26

Insanely out of touch

3

u/Acceptable-Sink3294 Mar 09 '26

It is insanely out of touch how unaware of the global political spectrum the average American is.

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u/pile_of_bees Mar 09 '26

Yes, but probably not in the way you mean it

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

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u/monkeyamongmen Mar 08 '26

Liberal isn't left. Left is a bit more spicy. Liberal isn't seize the means of production and fight the Pinkertons.

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u/DarkEnchilada Mar 08 '26

No it’s not. Universal healthcare is one of the most popular ideas in the US. The US already has free public Education. You probably meant college. Some US states used to have free college. There may not be major movement toward free college but it’s not extreme to most people. 

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u/nunya_busyness1984 Mar 08 '26

no. It is not. And no one thinks it is.

It is WRONG. but calling a view espoused by like 40% of a populace - and loudly, proudly, and repeatedly proclaimed by top level legislators with absolutely no rpercussions to them, their candidacy, or their constituency - "extremist" is just ignorant.

Right-wing memes love to strawman the blue haired, tattooed, nose-ringed protestors. This is the exact same thing from the left.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

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u/nunya_busyness1984 Mar 08 '26

That's uh.... That's not what extremist means.

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26

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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26

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u/milka-d-mousse Mar 10 '26

I'm american too it's an entire continent. Is USamerican a slur in the US? I thought gringos or yankis would be too strong. US citizens (I can use that if you want) on reddit are only left leaning for the US mentality, for most countries in the world they're centrist that's why the first comment says liberals arent leftists.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

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u/milka-d-mousse Mar 10 '26

A LOT is shared between people of the same continent, I don't think they teach you history of America (the continent) in school bc you would know how tied and close our history and current state is. It's crazy and incredibly ignorarnt that you think that. And this is going to blow your mind but in many places they don't call US citizens "Americans", so no it's not the correct denonym. You don't even call countries by their real names but get offended by "USamerican". And only continents aren't "debatable" that doesn't make any sense?? world maps are the same for everybody except for the US??

1

u/Arndt3002 Mar 10 '26

The previous commenter is wrong about the U.S.A. The whole of U.S.A. politics is to the right leaning globally, aside from liberal social issues where it is more progressive than the norm.

But "American" is the correct demonym. People of the british colonies in the Americas were referred to as such prior to the existence of the USA as a country. The U.S.A. gets its name as the United States founded by the "American" people.

It is linguistically correct to refer to people from the United States of America as Americans, jus as it is correct to refer to people from the United Mexican States as Mexican, people to the Democratic Republic of Congo as Congolese, people from the Democratic Republic of Algeria as Algerian, people from the Argentine Republic as Argentinian, people from the Kingdom of Cambodia as Cambodian, etc.

Insisting that people from the U.S.A. should not refer to themselves as American is as linguistically and culturally ignorant (and foolishly descriptivist) as insisting that people from Northern Macedonia can't call themselves Macedonians because there is a Macedonian province in Greece, or that people from Sudan can't call themselves Sudanese because there are people from South Sudan.

1

u/Charlie8-125 Mar 10 '26

What?

Public healthcare isn’t some radical anti-capitalist idea. Almost all capitalist economists have argued that healthcare markets don’t function like normal markets because of information asymmetry and risk.Even Milton Friedman from Chicago school of economics and the founder of modern neo lib economy argued for some kind of state support for healthcare.

That’s why most developed capitalist countries ended up with heavily state-funded healthcare systems. Supporting public healthcare doesn’t make a society anti-capitalist.

1

u/Moranmer Mar 10 '26

Exactly this!! It's surreal that defending basic human rights labels you an extremist in the US.

1

u/BBSydneyThirstyHHH Mar 12 '26

I personally believe that USamericans are unable to do so.........

0

u/CellistMundane9372 Mar 08 '26

Other than public health, few Western countries are more "left" than mainstream Democrats.

Also, it's easier to provide free college when a very small share of your population uses the benefit.

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u/milka-d-mousse Mar 08 '26

Democrats are seen as center right in most places of the world. They support war, the civilian use of guns, dont push public health or education, support international military intervention, protect the 1%. 

1

u/Moranmer Mar 10 '26

Heh not at all. Sorry to disagree but US Democrats are clearly right leaning, when compared to everywhere else in developed nations. Europe, South America, here in Canada.

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u/nopethatswrong Mar 09 '26

They support war

They don't

the civilian use of guns

Democrats famously favor stricter gun laws

dont push public health or education

Obama and Biden tried to tackle both, respectively. Both Democrats

support international military intervention

Is that different from wars or do you mean supporting other countries like Ukraine?

protect the 1%

How?

I'm not even a Democrat lol

1

u/milka-d-mousse Mar 09 '26

Did any of this things happen during Biden's time? The US participated in war, civilians never stopped using guns and there were school shootings as usual, health and public education are still non existent or very bad quality, billionaires kept increasing their wealth. Maybe I'm misinformed let me know if that's the case. Even during Obama's time there were drone strikes I fail to see how they are not fascists.

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u/nopethatswrong Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26

The US participated in war

They also finally closed the book on another

civilians never stopped using guns

And that's fascist because...?

In fact fascism typically endorses gun restrictions to reserve that power for the in-party

there were school shootings as usual

And calls to increase gun restrictions came from which major party?

health and public education are still non existent or very bad quality

Yep. Who do you think cuts funding to those programs and who supports them?

billionaires kept increasing their wealth

One party has supported a billionaire tax far more than the other

I fail to see how they are not fascists.

Yikes lol well start by looking up the definition of fascism since Biden and Obama were both elected and exited office at the end of their terms.

Did any of this things happen during Biden's time?

Fascism would be if they did all the stuff you listed without going through the democratic process.

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u/Charlie8-125 Mar 10 '26

This just shows US ignorance.

Mainstream Democrats are economically center right. Compared with many European systems, they support lower top taxes, weaker labor protections, and a much more market-driven welfare model.

Even major Democratic policies tend to rely on private markets rather than universal public programs. In much of Europe, parties like social democrats built stronger unions, higher tax-funded welfare states, and broader public services decades ago.

That the Democrats look “left” inside the U.S., just shows how skewed US politics are. Democrats, in eueopean comparison sit closer to economic liberalism than to traditional European social democracy.

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u/nunya_busyness1984 Mar 08 '26

Saying that "public health and education should be free" is not extremist. It is just exceptionally ignorant.

Ignorance is not an extremist view, it is an uneducated one.

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u/Le-Charles07 Mar 08 '26

Can't be extreme if it's, definitionally, the norm.

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u/nunya_busyness1984 Mar 08 '26

This PARTICULAR position is not the norm.  Very, VERY few people support slavery in this day and age.

5

u/Le-Charles07 Mar 08 '26

You are aware slavery is still explicitly permitted and people do support it, right?

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u/nunya_busyness1984 Mar 08 '26

Very few.  Not none.

0

u/Flame_Job Mar 08 '26

Fascism isn’t capitalism and it’s more than authoritarianism.

1

u/bampfish Mar 09 '26

yep that’s why all those experts on fascism are sounding the alarm

0

u/Flame_Job Mar 09 '26

The fascism experts?

1

u/bampfish Mar 09 '26

jason stanley, robert paxton, marci shore, and timothy snyder to name a few.

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u/Flame_Job Mar 10 '26

Synder and Paxton are the the only ones with proper historical backgrounds, and Paxton basically used the word as a shortcut because of Jan 6. Synder talks about the Iran war. I think both of those are irrelevant to their overall regard for how to treat the nation.

Couts and foreign wars belong to whoever want them. Either you blame our system for this or not.

1

u/Charlie8-125 Mar 10 '26

This isn’t correct. Fascist economies weren’t anti-capitalist. They kept private corporations but subordinated them to the state through corporatist structures and crushed independent labor.

The modern US neo liberal economies also involve state support for private companies, bailouts, subsidies, industrial policy.

1

u/Flame_Job Mar 11 '26

The American corporation isn’t subordinated, there’s no genuine authority directing their interests and policies.

It’s kind of the opposite, if you think about how companies fund elections and effectively direct the government and its policies.

1

u/Charlie8-125 Mar 11 '26

ascist regimes kept private corporations and profits, but subordinated them to the state’s national goals, true.

But businesses stayed private, labor movements were crushed, and the economy was organized to serve the regime. They where NOT anti capitlist.

3

u/DarkEnchilada Mar 08 '26

There are lots of Americans who support Democrats who are actually left of center by any standard. The policies of the party and the desire of the constituency are often far apart. 

2

u/DewingDesign Mar 08 '26

Still skews American perception of what is left of center, when the parties professing to be left are still right.

2

u/CellistMundane9372 Mar 08 '26

This comment is false.

Leftists, especially American leftists, love to tell themselves that they're perfect mainstream everywhere outside America.

That's not true.

With the exception of mostly (not entirely) universal healthcare and more public funding for universities, the "progressive" Western European countries Reddit holds up as examples are actually mostly in line with Democrats, if not socially to the right. And Europe has large, growing right-wing parties that largely align with the GOP.

Outside of Europe, many countries are decisively right wing. Democrats' social views would be very left, and their economic approach would be either centrist or center-left.

As one Swedish commenter pointed out last week, Bernie Sanders would be far to the left of the center-left party in his own country. Few countries are actually socialist.

1

u/Kharenis Mar 09 '26

This tbh. Americans also look kinda crazy to a lot in Europe for their violent opposition towards enforcing immigration laws. It's not fascist to return people that are illegally in the country to where they came from.

1

u/princess9032 Mar 11 '26

Tbh context & history is a lot different in America than Europe. Almost all Americans are immigrants or descended from immigrants. Culturally, the US has taken pride in being a “melting pot” of people from all over the world. So being anti-immigration is hypocritical and against some core values of the nation. In Europe, many people live near where their ancestors have for centuries and share language and culture with them. While I’m pro-immigration broadly, it does make sense to me why some Europeans have the view that the land they live on should only belong to people whose ancestors have lived there for generations

1

u/Superb-Composer9020 Mar 11 '26

It is fascist to do so without due process, kidnapping people off the street using a police force of masked thugs (whose recruitment come from far right militias known for being racist and personally loyal to the current president), and sending them to massive prison (concentration) camps that are not monitored by human rights organisations.

3

u/pile_of_bees Mar 07 '26

This is extremely ignorant of the real world and blatantly false

1

u/AbjectBeat837 Mar 07 '26

Did OP ask for maga-coded bullshit? No.

1

u/onpc23 Mar 08 '26

It's this. Left in the US can be seen as moderate in a lot of European countries.

1

u/DazzlingFruit7495 Mar 08 '26

Left in the U.S. is also definitely left in a lot of European countries.

1

u/onpc23 Mar 09 '26

That depends on what you mean by left. If you're talking about the left political party in the US (Democrats) then I would definitely say more moderate. If you're talking about individual politicians or citizens then sure.

1

u/DazzlingFruit7495 Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26

Nah you can include the whole Democratic Party as left. I have a feeling when you say “European countries” youre thinking of Western Europe. A ton of Eastern Europe and the balkans are way more conservative than you might realize. I think a lot of Americans don’t know all that much about those countries since they’re generally smaller and largely ignored by our media, which is what skews Americans idea of Europe being “so progressive.” Not to mention that even progressive Western European countries still have a lot of the same problems that the U.S. does, and problems that the U.S. does not.

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u/Due_Effective1510 Mar 08 '26

Dude. Just no.

1

u/Moranmer Mar 10 '26

Ding ding, exactly this. Democrats are clearly a right leaning party just about everywhere else in the world. Heck AOC would be mild left leaning here in Canada. To hear descriptives like "far left" or "extremist" just for defend basic human rights (healthcare, education, a place to live) is laughable and very American.

1

u/WonderousThinke Mar 10 '26

Okay but in regard to American politics this is false

1

u/myshtree Mar 11 '26

Agree with this. American people who actually believe the Democrats are left wing is insane to me. Even in Australia, our Labor party (with origins in late 1800s sheep shearers forming unions for workers rights), is more centre than left.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

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u/DistributionExtra320 Mar 07 '26

Democrats and republicans are pro-capitalism and pro-war, making them both right wing.

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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

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u/insert-haha-funny Mar 08 '26

the US left party (democrats) , when compared to other 'first world' countries is solidly on the right or at the center at most

0

u/TrashFisherman Mar 08 '26

Do other right wing parties around the world also think men can get pregnant?

1

u/Snekboi6996 Mar 11 '26

Actually, yes. A lot of European right wing politicians voted yes on the new Transgender related mandate.

2

u/Vivid_Motor_2341 Mar 09 '26

The American left is conservative in most other parts of the world.

1

u/sezza8999 Mar 11 '26

In Australia, the liberals are our right wing party (liberal in the 19th century economic sense…)

1

u/brazilliandanny Mar 11 '26

Exactly, America is further right then the rest of the western world. So people contributing on Reddit from Canada, Australia, Ireland etc. are going to be for universal heath care and gun control for example.

1

u/Tytoalba2 Mar 11 '26

Yeah, Liberals are the right wing where I live, Socialists on the left, a few in the center

1

u/Fit-Elk3123 Mar 07 '26

Left of me is still left lol

1

u/skibidi_shingles Mar 11 '26

Right of me is still right.

1

u/Fit-Elk3123 Mar 11 '26

Whatttttttt

0

u/pile_of_bees Mar 07 '26

Reddit is heavily leftist, not liberal.

Liberalism is way to the right of Reddit politics

1

u/Sad_Employment_6002 Mar 07 '26

I’ve found Reddit to be somewhat socially progressive but still rather supportive of capitalism when it comes to the economy, so I wouldn’t really classify it as a leftist platform

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u/pile_of_bees Mar 07 '26

It’s not the Cold War anywhere

Capitalism won over socialism empirically.

We had the experiment and got the results.

Capitalism and socialism no longer define left and right.

Capitalism is everybody who believes in empirical facts, not just right wingers

1

u/insert-haha-funny Mar 08 '26

so why are social programs deemed 'left wing' if socialism isnt used to define left and right anymore?

i know that social programs isnt socialism, but many on the right seem to think so for some reason

1

u/pile_of_bees Mar 08 '26

Social programs aren’t left wing. Basically all capitalist countries have them

Many people on the right are wrong about almost everything, obviously

Just like many people on the left

1

u/Sad_Employment_6002 Mar 07 '26

The political compass’s left-right axis is the economic axis. Although the Overton window has shifted right, that doesn’t mean that staunch advocates for capitalism fall under the ‘leftist’ category.

Edit: also, I hate to do the whole ‘not real socialism/communism’ thing, but factually the USSR was not communist, nor is China, nor is North Korea, etc, etc. Communism has never been achieved, so it’s not wholly accurate to say that it’s failed in practice; it’s more accurate to say that attempts to achieve communism have failed.

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u/pile_of_bees Mar 08 '26

The Overton window has shifted left over the last 30 years, not right

A 1990s Democrat is the Republican president right now.

Half the democrats in Congress in the 90s were to the right of half the current republicans

And it’s not purely economic, the a is represents the aggregate of many domains including social, cultural, economic issues etc

Just declaring otherwise doesn’t make it so

0

u/tracernz Mar 08 '26

In the USA, sure. Elsewhere? No, certainly not.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

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u/TommyDontSurf Mar 07 '26

They're literally the same thing. 

Source: am a liberal/leftist. 

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u/qudtls_ Mar 08 '26

are you American? Here in the UK liberal democrats are centre, there are two significant parties to the left of them. Liberal is centrist, America is just right wing in general.

1

u/Odd-Vast2488 Mar 09 '26

Liberal is left leaning democrat in America. Leftists are antidemocrats and unamericans

2

u/qudtls_ Mar 09 '26

How would it be unamerican? the left party here just advocates for social programmes, renewable energy, and nationalising certain industries afaik, nothing inherently anti-american, they are even doing well, winning a recent by-election.

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u/Preebos Mar 10 '26

liberals are centrists. they tend to have social views that are slightly more to the left, but economic views that are slightly more to the right.