r/NoStupidQuestions
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u/[deleted]
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Nov 14 '22
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Why is r/politics fully left wing? Answered
Not asking as a right wing guy or anything like that, just curious why the sub supposedly about 'Politics' is 100% just stuff that is pro-left?
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u/a-horse-has-no-name Nov 14 '22
The responses in this thread are generally assuming everyone on reddit is from the United States and answering the question as if the contributors to r/poilitics are representative of the kind of punditry you'd see on FOX or NBC. That's wrong.
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u/Meisterleder1 Nov 14 '22
The overton window in the US is shifted WAY to the right so anything that would be considered "left wing" in the US would be considered "center" in most of Europe while everything that would be considered "conservative" in the US would be very far right in most of Europe.
To give you an idea: Bernie Sanders would be considered center to moderate left in Germany and a lot of the things he's asking for have been passed by center left/right coalitions quite a while back and are perfectly normal for most of Europe.
It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.
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u/Kayneesy Nov 14 '22
r/politics is only about the US. I doubt anyone from outside the US would visit that sub
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u/Meisterleder1 Nov 14 '22 edited Nov 14 '22
I do and am not from the US. Quite a lot of people that are not from the US are interested in US politics actually. For one because they will also (unfortunately) end up affecting the rest of the world but mostly because it's like watching a really bad car crash. You just can't help but watch the carnage as it unfolds before your eyes, watching in disbelief. And it also makes you feel A LOT better about your own situation, kind of like trash TV. "Well ... At least we are not like THOSE guys!"
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u/ContributionNo9292 Nov 14 '22
Sweden checking in. I comment there frequently.
Like it or not, your batshit crazy domestic politics affects the rest of the world.
Take climate change, not really known to respect international borders. One party wants to pretend it doesn’t exist and if it exists it is not that bad and if it that bad there is nothing we can do about it.
Take Ukraine, one party is openly discussing ending the support to Ukraine.
The list goes on.
The reverse is also true with EU politics. USB-C decision for example.
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u/Primordialpoops
Nov 14 '22
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As a non American, most left leaning american politicians would be too far right for even some of our right wing parties. Reddit already leans left but so does the majority of the western world
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u/DeliriousHippie Nov 14 '22
I'm also almost amazed about leaning to 'left-wing'. I'm from Finland and our biggest right wing party is more left than Democrats.
Nationalize all, or almost all, corporations.
Make yearly limit for income.
^Those are real far left opinions. Not these:
Tax billionaires
Universal healthcare
^Those are standard in most countries.
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u/pdxbator Nov 14 '22
Omg exactly! I'm an American who has lived in Germany at points in my life. Not a single German friend I know wants to get rid of their universal healthcare or social safety net. It's because they are empathetic. As far as I can tell republicans are just assholes and don't care about anyone.
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u/4CrowsFeast Nov 14 '22
Canada use to be like this. Now Trumpism has been adopted by most our conservative politicians
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u/Stock_Rush2555 Nov 14 '22
Right? politics skews American "left" because america equates good ideas and progress with being "left"
Conservatism is retarded. Time moves forward. So should we.
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u/a-horse-has-no-name Nov 14 '22
This is the actual answer. People are talking about "echo chambers" within their own communities, but reddit is a global institution, which means that viewpoints are going to consider non-Americans as well. So OP's insistence that r/politics is "left wing" is bugged because it includes commentary that is considered completely centrist views from more socialized societies like Canada, UK, France, or Germany.
Also, reddit skews young, and as demonstrated recently, young people skew more progressive.
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Nov 14 '22
There are places FAR more right wing than america, non-american includes every part of the spectrum
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u/OrSomeSuch Nov 14 '22
Yeah but American right wingers don't welcome comparisons to the middle east
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u/UnlikelyAssassin Nov 14 '22
This is only true for economics. For social issues, a lot of the left leaning politicians in America would be way to the left of most parties in Europe.
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u/Redqueenhypo Nov 14 '22
For real, stuff like “the Romani are people” is probably considered a far left opinion in a lot of Europe
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u/Meisterleder1 Nov 14 '22
Out of curiosity: Could you name a few of those issues and the stance of democrats on those?
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u/Drum_100704 Nov 14 '22
As an American it fills me with so much frustration whenever an American "centrists" complain about Democrats "moving further left."
If you were actually a centrist you would LOVE that the Democrats are moving to the actual fucking political center
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u/myTABLEStheyreFILTHY
Nov 14 '22
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The pretension in this thread is unreal.
The truth is it’s liberal because Reddit is a mostly liberal demographic and the voting system of Reddit is conducive to creating echo chambers. Polarized people think they have a monopoly on morality and drown out any voice of dissent because they feel they have an imperative. It’s not just liberals, it’s human nature.
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u/itsjusttts Nov 14 '22
Anthropologists might argue that this is how societies began to form
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u/Fit-Anything8352 Nov 14 '22
I thought that was when you took control of the food supply and started charging everyone for it, and now you're suddenly rich and control the local government and start employing people to work for you.
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u/GracchiBros Nov 14 '22
The Reddit voting system (well, peoples' misuse of it) creates an echo chamber effect where people that hold the majority opinion get top visibility and and attracts others that hold such opinions while those with unpopular opinions in that sub get hidden and dissuades others that share that view.
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u/thevoiceinsidemyhead Nov 14 '22
The states is so right wing that views that would be seen as right wing in other countries are still considered left leaning to americans...
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u/Sewati Nov 14 '22
In This Thread: a bunch of people who conflate democrats & neoliberal capitalism with leftism. the two are not the same. at all.
in most of the world, American Liberals are right-wing. capitalists are by definition right wing.
bring up some explicitly anti-capitalist talking points on r/politics... like actual left wing/leftist thought… do that and see just how “left” that subreddit isn’t.
hate to break it to you, you are a right wing guy if you think democrats/US liberals are leftists.
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u/Konukaame Nov 14 '22
I'd ask you to define the terms first, because I don't see anyone in there pushing "fully left wing" politics. It's center, maybe center-left at most.
I'd call "fully left wing" positions like outright communism or socialism, which gets no real traction either there or anywhere in the US. And no, Republican hyperbole that calls every tax communist, and every government program socialist don't count, because that's delusional.
So, again. What is "100% pro-left" in this context?
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u/THE_R3D_HOOD Nov 14 '22
Mods straight up ban anyone with divergent views.
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u/FoundationNarrow6940 Nov 14 '22
Yeah, I commented on a post about a drag queen who was arrested for having child porn on their computer. This drag performer was also mentoring a child who was doing drag. One poster was confused about the term "drag mom".
Apparently a "drag mom" is typically an adult man who mentors another adult man about drag. At least, that's what I found from google. No idea if that is the typical use of the term but it seemed to be the case.
I said that this time, the "drag mom" in question was mentoring an actual child - all facts of the case - and I was banned for "alt right propaganda".
I shared no divergent views, no anti-drag or anti-trans views, nothing more than informing someone that the term "drag mom" usually refers to a mentor of a drag performer, and this time it happened to be a child, so the term "mom" was oddly fitting though a bit confusing.
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u/KeyEntityDomino Nov 14 '22
People generally know more about social issues than fiscal/economic ones. I THINK most redditors are millenial/gen z. The majority of these generations (including myself) lean left on social issues like abortion/trans rights/healthcare. I think thats why r/politics is the way it is. Not enough people are equipped enough to discuss fiscal/economic policy, otherwise I think you'd get more variety in political leanings.
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u/Billbobugger Nov 14 '22
It's tough to be right wing here because of the rules! No hate, bigotry, hateful speech, proselytizeing and all talking points that appeal to the ideological always "right"
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u/Skrungus69 Nov 14 '22
It seems more way more centrist than left wing to be fair. Although mabye im reading too much into the whole overton window thing in america.
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u/a-horse-has-no-name Nov 14 '22
It seems more way more centrist than left wing to be fair. Although mabye im reading too much into the whole overton window thing in america.
This is correct. The left wing in America is considered wholly centrist accepted views in most other countries.
In the USA, saying "everyone should have free healthcare" is considered wildly left-wing, whereas in Sweden, it's just normal because they've had it forever.
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u/thesaltwatersolution Nov 14 '22
British person here. Just want to say that free health care and abortion aren’t issues here. We have them and it’s all good. Our Conservative government passed through gay marriage rights when David Cameron was PM. America Democrats seem pretty centre slight right leaning to me.
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u/ben505
Nov 14 '22
edited Nov 14 '22
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Reality has a liberal bias. Conservative ideas typically do not stand up to scrutiny and are frequently rooted not in facts or evidence but by religion and more abstract concepts rather than best policies for most people. This is a fact, and idk if you’ve seen someone post something factually wrong on the internet but it doesn’t go very well. This makes the internet a not very safe space for conservatives, they have to carve out more intentional echo chambers to reside in.
And because in the US, “centrism” is actually on the right so folks like you get co fused and think everything is liberal.
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u/BreathAgreeable2604 Nov 14 '22
When the right gets back to actual politics then maybe you'll see more of them.
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u/roygbivasaur Nov 14 '22
“Why is r/politics so centrist and people don’t like the modern GOP platform of hatred and suppression of personal liberties?” is the actual question here, and it answers itself. They have run the past 3 elections on platforms that the majority of people in the US do not agree with if they actually read and discuss them.
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u/Surviving2021 Nov 14 '22
Why does this same question pop-up every week? Karma farming? Trying to start something? Rule of thumb for asking a question is to see if it was asked before and read that first.
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Nov 14 '22
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u/ScaryMonsters721 Nov 14 '22
Nope. Reddit, as a whole, is only superficially left-wing and just supports like smoking weed, free healthcare, and maybe LGBT, which might as well be considered communist incarnate in the US, even though these stances are considered moderate by most countries or standards.
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u/Hyi10 Nov 14 '22
Its weird, I find this with loads of different forums I am on - cycle forum - left wing, AV forum - left wing, motor forum - left wing etc etc
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u/idontwannabeatwork Nov 14 '22
Because any dissenting opinion gets down voted to oblivion or banned. I was banned for bringing up hunters laptop on a story about his laptop. Perm ban for misinformation....turned out to be true.
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u/dangercdv Nov 14 '22
There are a ton of subreddits that are fully left wing. The problem is that so many mods are, and they push out opposing ideals. r/WhitePeopleTwitter and r/News are two that are embarrassingly far left for some reason as well. I say that because they will regularly post lies, photoshops, or propaganda pieces that make the right look bad and even when one of their own calls it out for being false, they get banned. I personally was banned for pointing out lies in both, and not even in a negative way.
Im fairly center and ive noticed the left wing LOVES their echo chambers. If you have different politics, they will kick you out. The right has a much higher tolerance for it and love to debate you more than anything, but left wing people stay away from them. This has lead to polarized subreddits. This is of course a generalization and not representation of everyone on either side.
Its also a pretty good example of why you should be getting any sort of news from multiple sources that are on both sides of the fence.
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u/czarczm Nov 14 '22
I don't think it's that Left Wingers love echo chambers more, there is probably little difference if you take into account the whole population of "leftists" and "rightists". The phenomenon probably occurs more online in places like Reddit because of its strong left lean, it kinda forces you into two corners. When someone gets heavily scrutinized on an opinion two things happen in a place like this you either double down without much thought and find a place no one will actively fight you on the things you say, OR if you choose to continue to exists in a space like Reddit which largely disagrees with you, you probably come up with ways to defend your beliefs.
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u/Newsdriver245 Nov 14 '22
There are also no shortage of other places for right wing to hear what they want to hear outside of Reddit.
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u/clemjonze Nov 14 '22
Reality leans left. That’s why. Plus we’ve all been banned from conservative subs for daring to question the status quo.
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u/Helpful_Praline493 Nov 14 '22
Posts from r/politics are generally fact checked within hours either by mods or users and those that aren’t deleted by mods are usually nuked by downvotes.
Left wing debate uses more peer-reviewed sources of citation than right wing debate (who focus usually on a single source) and fact checking favors left wing/left of center information because of this.
The sub is also populated largely by <45 years of age Americans, who lean a little under 60% liberal and make up most young voter bases and a large percentage of online interaction on social platforms. Conservative values are declining with each youth generation and a large portion of conservatives are middle age or elderly and do not use Reddit or are quarantined either by choice or by mod action to the conservative subreddit.
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u/Inmonic Nov 14 '22
It's less left than you think. United States politics are just so far right, that 90% of ideas seem like left wing ideas to someone in the US. In reality, and for the rest of the world, many of those ideas are centrist or slightly left. They might even be right wing ideas everywhere else, but are considered left wing in the US.
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u/_sealy_ Nov 14 '22
Probably due to the fact that it’s easier to stick around when people aren’t “shooting holes” through all of your conspiracy theories.
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u/JustBrowsing49 Nov 14 '22
Because of Reddit’s user base as a whole. Young, unmarried, online, social engaged. You don’t see many blue collar factory workers with a family on here.
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u/dbclass Nov 14 '22
Blue collar factory workers lean left, but I think American's definition of "left" is way too broad, to begin with. Even r/politics has huge arguments between liberals and leftists the same way other subs have liberal vs conservative arguments. r/politics is not an echo chamber, they're just not conservative. There are arguments between liberals and leftists all the time and people call out Dems on the sub all the time.
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u/littleliongirless Nov 14 '22
This just isn't true. Most of the subs I subscribe to that aren't TV or movie based lean older and are still left. In many of them it's because there's a higher international population, which means even further left than the US.
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u/frumpbumble Nov 14 '22
It's absolutely ridiculous how biased the sub is. The mods don't give an inch, unless you accept everything the most left of the left say you'll get mobbed and banned.
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u/sppf011 Nov 14 '22
People say this but even mentioning socialism gets you downvoted in most places on reddit
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u/hoosierlifter88 Nov 14 '22
Ever wonder if instead of the sub being ridiculously biased you just have ridiculously unpopular opinions?
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u/Concrete_Grapes Nov 14 '22
Since like 1988, republicans have won the national vote ... once.
The US (the primary country of residents of Reddit) already leans naturally leftish. The US house and the US senate get millions more votes for dems than republicans, even when the chambers end up near 50/50.
The political landscape is far more left than it appears at face value. The same 50 republican senators represent just 24% of the population, whereas the dems represent 75%--ya know? It's ALREADY that biased in real life.
And then you get to the internet, where you cant use the cult of personality, quick, glib insults to keep your presentation of ideas on their feet. The internet values a display of evidence (i mean, trolling too, sure, but ... not in political subs and threads and posts so much). This sort of thing HEAVILY biases the left leaning folks in nearly every possible way--all the fucking time--because the evidence of nearly everything in the political world DOES favor the more left side. When people study problems, the conservatives ideas just don't pan out. They dont work--or dont work as well as this other thing that the left has adopted as their ideas. So--often, when presented with the evidence, a person on the right will leave rather than have to change their opinion, or, turn to the personal insults and cult of personality thing, and get banned. How many times, have some of us broken down a deatailed explanation of some political thing and had the righty we're talking to say 'but clintons mentor was a klansman'--like, fuck dude, i dont give a shit about that and i dont know why you do, and it has no bearing on anything ever.
So, it's easier to ignore people that refuse to engage, cant bring evidence to engage at your level, or when they come, they subscribe to a cult of personality rather than an actual political stance.
So, they remove themselves, either because they cant admit they're wrong--wont drop the cult of personality shit (or wont stop from trying to pin one on you), or resort to insults that get them removed.
It's just ... the nature of the sides, i think. Systemic and personality wise.
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u/heisenberger888 Nov 14 '22 edited Nov 14 '22
TL;DR it is not, but fascists aren't welcome here. For an American or Canadian, I can see how these things get confused
Might not be a popular answer but it just isn't. I might assume you're writing this from an American perspective, possibly Canadian, and the fact is that in both countries there really isn't any strong leftist party and leftist politics are generally demonized, partially due to a linger paranoia created by the cold war. Remember that every person in the US and Canada over the age of 45 was told the communist might nuke them at any moment and were taught that the concept of communism and therefore, any far left policy, is inherently evil and somehow counter to our culture.
It's not though, it's just a different political ideology that places the value of human life and happiness over the extraction of maximum profit from all resources available.
Also, I'll be honest that right wing ideology is kinda anti social. The whole ideas of self reliance and personal responsibility make it a bit less likely to turn to a place like Reddit for advice for conversation. I also find many people on the right dont like to interact with those who don't agree with everything on their political agenda and will attack you personally for it.
So with all of this, the Overton window has shifted farther and farther to the right in our society. To the point that, by many measures, inequality today is worse than before the french revolution, any immigrants are demonized and we have cut all the taxes for the rich and all the programs for the poor. In Canada at least we recently had a debate over whether the government can just take away a workers right to strike and legally force them to accept a contract with low pay.
When the right wing has gone so far right that they are pretty much, by definition, fascists, they tend to break the terms of service for plenty of social media platforms because their ideas are inherently violent or question the rights of certain groups of people to exist. So, since hate speech isnt allowed on Reddit, they're forced into 4chan and whatnot
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u/xMrBryanx Nov 14 '22
Left wing for American politics maybe. Left wing Americans are considered to be centrist in most actual left leaning countries. Now apply what actual left leaning people think on a global scale that uses the internet/reddit. It's easy for US conservative talking points to be downvoted and buried when lately they are; "Russia is right for invading, Abortion is bad lets ban it, They are coming for our guns, Trump will save us, Teach religion in schools and I'm anti Woke" Present better talking points and ideas that resonate on a global scale and this will change in time. The midterms in the US country was a prime example of this. Things just aren't resonating with anyone outside of conservative views. It's like playing metal for a bunch of Beatles fans and dead heads and wondering why people don't like it.
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u/john_modded Nov 14 '22
Reddit is majority left. If anyone presents a right wing idea it gets downvoted hard. So the right that is here usually keep their ideas to themselves
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u/mcagood1 Nov 14 '22
Just curious, is there a left leaning equivalent of r/Conservative?
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u/mikepoland Nov 14 '22
Because they ban anyone who posts anything even slightly right.
This I turns creats an echo chamber where they keep feeding each other leftist ideas. I was banned from a few subs I've never even been on because I am subbed to the Conservative subreddit(they made it clear in the mod message they sent when banning me).
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u/IGotBigHands Nov 14 '22
My guess is the mods are and they ban anyone who has a different view point. I’ve been banned from many subs because of different opinions. I wasn’t even breaking the rules or being rude.
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u/imreallybimpson
Nov 14 '22
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Admins are left wing so they ban anything/anyone who doesn't agree with their world view
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u/dan1101 Nov 14 '22
Because any conservative views get shouted down, shamed, and downvoted into silence. Which has led to the remaining conservatives becoming more resentful and defiant.
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u/Odd_Vampire Nov 14 '22
Because that's where the leftists hang out. (I'm a leftist myself.) Maybe at some point it was balanced and objective, but if so, it was so long ago I don't even remember.
Now it really is something of a propaganda echochamber. I participate in the sub, but I can tell.
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u/TheLaserGuru Nov 14 '22
Because the extremes of both parties want safe spaces where they don't have to think too much about their assumptions. Posting something mildly liberal in r/conservative will get you banned...posting something mildly conservative in r/politics will get you hundreds of down votes. They are both echo chambers for people that don't want discussion.
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Nov 14 '22
Yes but its like conservative is obviously gonna be a conservative subreddit, but /r/politics is supposed to be ''the subreddit for current and explicitly political U.S. new'' like it says on its page, but it is only left wing stuff. And theres /r/Democrats for the left. For me /r/politics is supposed to be the middle of both where you can discuss things with different views but instead its completely left wing and this was just weird to me and thats why i asked this quetsion
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Nov 14 '22 edited Nov 14 '22 •
[deleted]
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u/iama_bad_person Nov 14 '22
from a global perspective r/politics is squarely center.
Hahahahahahahaha
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u/LeanMrfuzzles Nov 14 '22
It is nowhere near the center. That's a lie.
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u/F4ur_ Nov 14 '22
And he mentions from a “global perspective”, which in reality means “Western World”. To think r/politics is squarely center in a global perspective is incredible naive
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u/hoosierlifter88 Nov 14 '22
The things you think are “left wing” aren’t actually that “left wing” at all.
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u/stolencatkarma Nov 14 '22
is supposed to be the middle of both where you can discuss things with different views
The GOP hasn't had a platform in years. Not really much to discuss
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u/WoodenPicklePoo Nov 14 '22
Yeah this is a lie. I am conservative, and criticize conservatives all the time in r/Conservative and I havent even been temp banned. If by "mildly liberal" you mean calling conservatives evil fascists then yeah you might get banned, and you should.
I also go to r/politics and while i dont get banned, its very obvious you are downvoted for anything even remotely conservative. In fact, I have no way of knowing for sure, but I would bet my left and favorite nut that its bots based on keywords. There's just no way downvotes can roll in as fast as they do organically.
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u/cascadianpatriot Nov 14 '22
I got banned from r/conservative for saying John McCain was a war hero and good conservative.
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u/davidmsterns Nov 14 '22
I got shadowbanned from r/conservative after saying conservative≠regressive. And outright banned from r/Republican for something trivial too. They're snowflakes.
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u/Elkenrod Nov 14 '22
Mods of a subreddit can't shadowban users, only Reddit admins can.
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u/WoodenPicklePoo Nov 14 '22
x for doubt. (i honestly have no idea about r/republican so i wont comment about it).
how can you even prove you were shadowbanned for a specific comment?
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u/headzoo Nov 14 '22
Mods can't even shadowban users. Only reddit itself can shadowban. Anyone saying they were shadowbanned for a comment is most likely full of shit.
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u/WoodenPicklePoo Nov 14 '22
dude is definitely full of shit, i just wanted them to prove it (which, I know they cant).
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u/ThiccBananaMeat Nov 14 '22
I'm not a bot. Why don't you share your opinion and I'll let you know if I upvote or downvote?
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u/WoodenPicklePoo Nov 14 '22
I'm not a bot.
sounds suspiciously like something a bot would say.
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u/LazySyllabub7578 Nov 14 '22
I got banned by saying we should encourage Muslims to own guns.
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u/Guilty_Coconut
Nov 14 '22
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Because it has standards for bullying, lies and human rights.
When you enforce honesty and kindness, you automatically force out most of the right wing. For the most part, it is not possible to defend right wing ideas honestly.
Also, it’s a perspective thing. More than 50% of redditor aren’t american and for a big part, the entire political spectrum of the world, even the far right, is to the left of the democratic party
Most of the world hopes for the democratic party, not because they’re left (because they’re not) but because they’re the lesser evil of two completely rotten parties
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u/0hip Nov 14 '22
Try post anything conservative and you will be banned. Mainstream conservative positions are called hateful and banned very quickly by the mods.
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u/size12shoebacca Nov 14 '22
Some mainstream conservative positions are hateful though... that's why they get called that.
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u/QanAhole Nov 14 '22
I think there's now so much right wing propaganda that just making any logical comment is labeled as "leftist" even if it's common sense. At this point it's people with a brain and then conservatives
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u/atomicpete Nov 14 '22
It has to do with the Trump voters that ruled Reddit back in 2016. Any wiff of conservative thought is now either banned or down voted until non existent.
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u/samjohnson2222 Nov 14 '22
Why?
Probably because most people don't like the fascist, racist agenda. Also because the right has no real agenda when it comes to governing for all the people. Hell not even their own people. You think they give a shit if their voters can't afford to go to the doctor,hospital or afford their medication?
They run on the same shit. Immigrants, guns ,gays and Christian religion.
No care on really improving the conditions that people all people need improvements on.
Other than drilling a shit load of oil wells to see just a few cents knocked of a gallon of gas.
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u/mikey_weasel Today I have too much time Nov 14 '22 •
The subreddit invites those with strong political views to participate.
Now reddit in general leans left and the way reddit works with upvotes/downvotes pushes out divergent views.
Like lets say that at a point there are 60 left and 40 right people voting, the pro-left post ends up at +20 votes and the pro-right post ends up at -20 votes.
Now this happens for a while and the right-leaning people get frustrated with the downvotes and migrate elsewhere.
So right now its more like 90 left/10 right, so anything right wing is buried quickly.
(yes its much more complex than this but just simplifying).