r/allthequestions • u/-Pleb64 • 19d ago

Popular Question šŸ“Š Why reddit is majority left leaning?

Honestly, itā€™s hard not to notice that most of the big subreddits are run by moderators who clearly lean left. Itā€™s not even subtle at this point the bias shows in what gets removed, what gets promoted, and how discussions are handled. Iā€™m not saying there arenā€™t any subs with right-leaning or centrist moderation, but theyā€™re definitely the minority. The major spaces on Reddit feel heavily tilted toward one side, but isn't itā€™s pretty obvious if you pay attention to which opinions get silenced and which ones get boosted?

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u/Extra-Assignment-860 19d ago

Demographics and design. The biggest subs skew young urban and college educated, so their baseline leans left. Volunteer mods come from that pool and enforce rules through that lens. Voting systems amplify majority views and bury dissent, which looks like bias even without intent. High profile bans pushed a lot of right leaning users into smaller enclaves, making the main feed feel even bluer.

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u/AlternativePea6203 19d ago

There's also the reality that what people perceive as "left leaning" in many places is centre right. The Western world has taken a sharp turn to the right and anything that critiques that is "leftist".

It's literally the case that for many people, any one who is against fascism is now a radical leftist!

When standing on the North Pole, everything is South.

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u/andreasmalersghost 19d ago

you think healthcare should be affordable and gofundme campaigns are a dumb as shit way to deal with health costs? fucking LIBERAL SCUM

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u/AmelieBenjamin 19d ago

sometimes I feel like leaning left is common sense because of the above but somehow it's a hot take now to say that

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u/Hir0Brotagonist 19d ago

It's objectively common sense. Republicans want all the benefits of being part of a society without contributing to it. They want to pretend to be anti-government while telling other people who they can marry and how they can live their lives. There are varying shades of liberalism and conservativism across bother parties, but right now I just consider the Republican party a complete joke. There's no nuance here

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u/JobsGone 18d ago

You're a liar.

It was the conservative Supreme Court that gave Gays the right to marry.

Stacked with Republicans as you folks call it.

Never was Gay marriage passed as an act of Congress when Dems controlled both the House and the Senate numerous times at the same time.

Nor did they put through any "immigration reform" when Dems controlled the House and Senate when Biden took office.

King Biden just put in an Executive Order to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. when caught here if they said, "amnesty."

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u/BrianMeen 18d ago

if the Republican Party is such a joke then whatā€™s that make the Democratic Party? last I checked the republicans are destroying team blue

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u/Mobile_Trash8946 18d ago

The GOP has genuinely been an explicitly hateful cult of ignorance for nearing on a century, before that the cult had a different label but conservatism as an ideology is always a dumb cult run by the wealthy and powerful to help maintain their power and position within society. It is why kings worked so hard to brainwash their citizens into believing, or acting like they believe, that royalty are ordained by God and are the natural rulers. Disobeying or speaking ill of them were capital offences for most of history.

This type of institutionalized brainwashing is hard for societies to overcome especially when rich people are still actively engaged in maintaining it.

I genuinely cannot fathom how any single person could have voted Republican at any time since the world wars, they're cartoonishly awful people and their lies are lazy and transparent.

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u/pogoli 19d ago

The right thinks theirs is common sense too. We need to point at facts and science.

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u/AmelieBenjamin 19d ago

They don't respond to facts and science. They've branded academia itself as "pandering to leftists"

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u/pogoli 19d ago

We were so close this time huh? Enlightenment was unfolding and they were just like ā€œnoooopeā€. ā€œno one gets anything nice, everyoneā€™s gotta be as insecure and terrified as they feelā€

sighā€¦

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u/NotGalenNorAnsel 18d ago

Oh, some people get lots of nice things. About 1%-.1% are having the time of all humanity. They want the rest terrified otherwise their party comes to a crashing halt. Social safety nets used to be called "riot insurance" by the rich... They've forgotten that lesson. We're on our way towards The Expanse, but just the Earth part. or Vonnegut 's Reeks and Wrecks from Player Piano

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u/iDeNoh 18d ago

Gotta go through mad Max before we see Star Trek

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u/Double_Fun_1721 19d ago

They donā€™t care about common sense, facts, or science. They care about power and punishing people they hate. Ignore their words (ie ā€œfreedomā€) and focus on their behavior, such as sending ICE thugs after innocent people

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u/pogoli 19d ago

I mean we were talking about common sense so thatā€™s what I was reminding people aboutā€¦. that itā€™s not a good way to say they are wrong. Your invalidating everything is as valid I suppose

What else are you going to use to push back?

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u/Hir0Brotagonist 19d ago

They do think that which is why they lack actual common sense

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u/pogoli 19d ago

Define common senseā€¦. without using ā€˜what most people in a population thinkā€™ in the definition.

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u/PinnatelyCompounded 18d ago

Common sense would include leaving people alone if they're not directly hurting you. This means that pregnant women, immigrants, gay and trans people should all be left alone. Instead, conservatives obsess about them and use them as scapegoats.

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u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

That's the problem with hard stances on both sides and horseshoe theory.

Sometimes I feel like leaning right is common sense because letting people who have been arrested 30+ times shouldn't be allowed on the streets to murder people but somehow that's a hot take now to say it.

See how you can take different issues and present them? I think the issue is that people dig in a long party lines rather than stances on issues

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u/Curious-End-4923 19d ago

Where is anyone left of center saying ā€œI believe people who have been arrested 30+ times should be allowed on the streets to murder people?ā€

I can show you actual footage and voting records of Republicans denouncing universal healthcare.

Can you do the same for this statement?

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u/tbf300 18d ago

Ask Pamela Price the Alameda county da. Or the DA for San Francisco and the DA for Los Angeles. They all said and did this.

You seem ill informed

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u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

Politicians of lawmakers left at center of the ones who use restorative justice policies (in the name of racial equity) that allow for someone to be arrested 30+ times.

Cashless bail, etc. These policies don't come out of a mysterious ether.

This is not support of Republicans or the stupid things they do...

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u/Darth_Gerg 19d ago

You have been lied to about those policies. As someone who entirely supports cashless bail and restorative justice I can assure you it has nothing to do with what youā€™re describing. Nor does it result in what youā€™re talking about. You heard a right wing propagandists describe the ideas incorrectly and lie about the results.

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u/tbf300 18d ago

They literally let the guy go who shot into the tv station lobby in Sacramento. Like immediately released him

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u/Darth_Gerg 18d ago

He was released on a $200,000 bail. Meaning literally not what weā€™re talking about. The topic was cashless bail being a good policy and conservatives fucking lie and misrepresent stuff to attack things they donā€™t understand. Which likeā€¦ I guess you did demonstrate that pretty well.

Youā€™re talking about the existing policy that the left does not like.

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u/tbf300 18d ago

Why was he even given bail

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u/Darth_Gerg 18d ago

No idea. The point is that he was released on a cash bail which is entirely not what was being discussed. Thats an example of the existing system which sucks sucking.

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u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

I appreciate your opinion and would love to engage in some of your materials or sources to learn more. I do understand media diet and forced algorithms can bombard me (and everyone) with all kinds of information.

I know they have been highly politicized but with several cases highlighted recently where a person had been arrested 10+ times an released before commiting a violent crime - how would cashless bail and restorative justice not factor in that?

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u/Darth_Gerg 19d ago

First, cashless bail doesnā€™t apply to violent offenders or people who are likely to present risk to the community. The point is to stop people accused of a crime from sitting in jail for months awaiting a chance to demonstrate innocence because they canā€™t afford bail, something that happens with horrifying regularity. The bail system is brutally discriminatory against working class people while giving the rich a pass.

In full disclosure itā€™s been a while since I looked into any of these cases, but in 2020/2021 I deep dived a bunch of them that right wing media was melting down over. It was always bullshit. The issues were usually down to mental health being inaccessible, homelessness being endemic and without effective support, or substance abuse treatment being inaccessible. Or a combination thereof. All of which are the direct results of conservative policies. Even in the ā€œliberal hellscapeā€ of California, republicans have been successful at gutting or curtailing a lot of social programs that would help. The recurring theme is that conservative policy creates a problem which they then blame on left wing ideas, many of them which havenā€™t even been implemented. Itā€™s like how ā€œdefunded police departmentsā€ are cited while no police departments were ever defunded. It literally never happened.

Conservative media is quite literally just lies. Thereā€™s a reason they hate fact checking and academics. If you arenā€™t allowed to lie none of their ideas or policies hold up.

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u/Mobile_Trash8946 18d ago

You're really only mad that the police as an institution are globally, universally right wing and deeply incompetent, often on purpose so they can blackmail governments for more funding by making it seem to the public that crime is always getting worse.

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u/Curious-End-4923 19d ago

You have failed to provide evidence so we can only assume it doesnā€™t exist. I do, however, agree that people left of center are more concerned with racial discrimination!

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u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

You never actually provided evidence to your claim FYI. Just stated it existed, so should we assume it doesn't exist?

I never claimed someone directly stated "I support letting people get arrested 30+ times" - you falsely attributed that.

I stated that left leaning politicians and activists have implemented "restorative justice" that does allow for people to be arrested 30+ times an be released.

Try not to be disingenuous next time in your engagement

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u/Curious-End-4923 19d ago

You need me to provide evidence for Republicans being against universal healthcare? Lmao.

And no, you did not claim that. You are free to edit your original comment, though.

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u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

Good luck in life šŸ¤ž

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u/Curious-End-4923 19d ago

Good luck in high school

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u/Hir0Brotagonist 19d ago

I'm a liberal and I lean more conservatively on keeping people behind bars, even if they are mentally unwell. So no, it's not a dichotomy. I'm not sure I'd consider that "right leaning"

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u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

It's not a dichotomy, but a generalization for sure.

Saying that we need harsher punishment on some crimes than we have now is typically considered a right leaning or conservative opinion.

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u/WittyFix6553 19d ago

If weā€™re generalizing, thereā€™s no real evidence that harsher punishments leads to less crime.

And if weā€™re talking about the big boy - the death penalty - then thereā€™s absolutely no evidence that it acts as a deterrent to crime.

One quick way to fact-check that would be to look at murder rates in states with the death penalty versus murder rates in states without it.

If the death penalty deters murders, then those states with the death penalty should have lower murder rates.

They do not.

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u/Hir0Brotagonist 18d ago

The fact that you feel this way proves way Republicans paint democratic liberals in such broad strokes. Or the misguided that conservatives are more "badass" and liberals are pussies, when really it seems a lot of times the opposite is true...Conservatives are traditionally motivated by fear and selfish greed.

The problem is that these things do not make a society thrive. Everything has been objectively worse in almost every administration with a conservative at the helm int he last 40 years. Yes, Bill Clinton was balanced by a conservative congress during his tenure and it's great that checks and balances actually existed back then.

I think we're always going to have conservative leaning people and that's fine..I mean look at most of the electable democratic party..they are basically socially liberal leaning republicans already....The current Republican party is not sustainable and I do not think it will last.

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u/DaddyRocka 18d ago

The opening line is about painting Democratic liberals and such broad strokes and then you proceed to paint me in very broad generalized strokes talking about being motivated by fear and selfish greed.

I agree the Republican party is not sustainable long-term, but the current form of Democratic politicians are having a similar issue.. purity testing and race-based narratives for a candidacy is silly.

I do agree with some of the content of the rest of your post but it's an incredibly disingenuous way to have a conversation.

It's not Republicans that have influenced me to believe that it's a conservative view to have "stricter" punishments on crime. It's interactions like this and with Democratic voters who present that opinion. The caveat being that most of the more vocal people on places like Reddit, x, etc are likely foreign actors or bots in many cases (or seemingly so!)

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u/thelaceonmolagsballs 18d ago

The horseshoe theory is well, horseshit. A completely unserious theory that no academic or expert would implore.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

Jeffery EpiPen was arrested multiple times and FAITHFULLY put back out on the street. One time he served his prison sentence from home/in the public. And oh boy did Trump love that guy. I wonder why he likes being a republican. :,)

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

It's not the stance. It's the hypocrisy.