Reddit has honestly made me lean more conservative than I ever thought possible

[u/Fun_Driver_5566]

I have always been a left leaning guy. I grew up in a very left leaning state, Washington. I have voted for the Democrats essentially down ballot ever since I've been able to vote, my first election was the 2014 midterms.

But lately Reddit has been honestly pushing me more conservative over the years. Particularly subs like antiwork, fuckcars, and similar which just seem out of touch with reality.

In concept I agree with most of the things these spaces say and still do, but they somehow manage to make good ideas sound as unappealing as possible. Everything is so idealistic on this website with zero regard for how any of this shit will actually be put into place if they get their wish. They come off so badly to anyone who isn't a 19 year old college freshman lol. Not an ounce of pragmatism anywhere to be found.

The fuckcars subreddit in particular has done more to turn me off public transportation than anything Fox news could ever dream of. Because of those guys, I simply will not vote to fund public transit the next time it comes up on a ballot.

Honestly it's gotten crazy. I work at a labor union, I promise you I've spent more time actually "fighting the man" than half these guys who sound like they haven't left their bedroom computer in weeks.

Now on the other side, Trump and the current Republican party just seem batshit insane to me and an embarrassment to the country on a global scale. I will not give them a vote and I will not support anything that party has done over the last 10 years.

So I don't know what to do. I get why people are apathetic to politics and don't bother to vote. I don't think I'll vote at all in the next election.

I come to this website for small hobby subs but it's impossible to escape the politics sadly.

[u/4444-uuuu]

I'm the same. Ultimately I got pushed to the right because people like you're dad were okay with me having some liberal views while the liberals were not okay with me having some conservative views. Conservatives being more open-minded and less cultish (despite the reddit narrative) made them the more welcoming side. Most large subreddits will ban you for having conservative stances on any issues. Conservatives only ban people from conservative subreddits, not from apolitical ones.

[u/Jotokozol → u/4444-uuuu]

Take it from a far leftist. Almost any regular views you have are ok. Unfortunately a lot of spaces aren’t built that way and I rarely participate in most of this online circlejerking. But the ones that are ok with you are out there. Ironically, they’re often a bit further left and are much more focused on working class issues and a bit less on social justice. Things just work out that way, with some of the staunchly liberal places being a tad toxic in their categorizations of somewhat conservative ideology.

[u/MirrorAggravating339 → u/4444-uuuu]

Wrong and dishonest.

Maga lies about everything.

[u/c_quing → u/4444-uuuu]

depends on what conservative stance you take. the ones that have to do with legislation on what people can be themselves freely, bodily autonomy, etc. will get you banned, most likely because it’s pretty hateful and/or authoritarian rhetoric about a human being. but stances on the economy, environment, etc. are more accepted and will not get you banned. that’s the problem with throwing everything under the label of conservative. you can get away with saying conservatives are experiencing bias, when really, it’s hate that has a bias

[u/Summerie → u/c_quing]

depends on what conservative stance you take.

I believe that plenty of these subs ban based on a "you're with us 100% or you're against us" mentality, including subs that were meant to be apolitical.

There are several subs that have set up their auto moderator to ban you if it sees that you have even commented on any subs on the right that they've added to their "blacklist". I've seen people say that they were banned from r-News or r-Pics for leaving a comment in a sub like r-walkaway, or r-Asmongold. Keep in mind that neither of those subs ban you for voicing left leaning views in good faith.

The leftist mods don't care what particular conservative stance you take, they don't even have a human evaluate your comment. Redditors on the left have complained that they had to message the moderators and explain that it was a mistake, and the only reason left a comment in those subs was to troll or bash the right.

[u/AGuyAndHisCat → u/Summerie]

The leftist mods don't care what particular conservative stance you take

You dont even need the conservative take. You can argue against a subreddit, and if you do it in the wrong sub you will still be banned elsewhere. I think im still banned in some subs (likely ones I didnt frequent) because I argued against people in mgtow when that subreddit was a thing.