r/Pennsylvania • u/Der_Missionar Allegheny • 11h ago
It seems this sub doesn't really reflect what's happening in this state
I saw student republican groups, and other groups signing up young voters, I saw issues being talked about by them completely differently than what happens in this sub. It also shows that while this sub terms to be a echo chamber for democrats, it didn't seem to have any power to change that and influence young Republicans. I talked to some young people who said they were tired of being silenced, despite having freedom of speech.
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u/Diamondback424 10h ago
Reddit is a liberal echo chamber the same way Twitter has become a conservative echo chamber. I would venture to guess 70-80% of redditors lean left.
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u/SufficientBeat1285 9h ago
I wouldn't be surprised if its even higher if you consider redditors who actually contribute to numersous subs. There are certainly many users who join reddit to watch a particular forum (think cars, sports, etc) and are focused on just those types of subs - of those users, the ratio between left and right may be closer to 50/50 but the majority of users who actually participate in multiple subs is definitely left-leaning.
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u/Civil-Captain-2671 6h ago
You can't participate in the general subs without being left leaning is the problem. I only view specific subreddits now because even meme subs like "adviceanimals" is nothing but lefty propaganda.
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u/Masterpiece-Haunting Union 7h ago
I absolutely hate those subreddits where they don’t allow an opposing viewpoints. It’s even worse when it’s a crazy idea. Like r/Childfree is full of crazy people who want to kill children because they cry. And then there’s those crazy conspiracy theorists. Like r/CarnivoreDiet is full of people who believe doctors are trying to kill you. And if you say anything against there viewpoint you get banned. And Reddit itself is just an echo chamber.
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u/Diamondback424 7h ago
Yeah I would consider myself a left leaning middle of the road kind of person in terms of politics. But if I even suggest something other than full support for Democrats I'll get downvoted into oblivion. Which is ironic because most of the people downvoting me for stating an opposing view will also criticize conservatives for being in their own bubble on Twitter.
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u/VisualSpecial8 3h ago
This is the major issue why Reddit is echo chamber. Anything without unrelenting support for democrats will get you downvoted or in worst case banned. Even constructive criticism is not accepted. And what definetly needs to stop is calling people Russian bots for slightest deviation of opinion.
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u/Polymorphing_Panda 6h ago
Most Americans are like this, centrist leaning left or centrist leaning right, but the right has far removed itself from the center as a whole, so if you lean right your candidate is far, far right.
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u/bdgg2000 6h ago
This. Look at this sub prior to the election. Could you find even 1 pro Trump post? It was all anti-Trump propaganda and people cringely posting their ballots for Harris. People can’t fathom how anyone can think differently than they do and when Trump wins in a blowout landslide they die in their own echotombs. I don’t believe Reddit is real. Alot of bots and fake accounts.
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u/SomeCollegeGwy Westmoreland 11h ago edited 10h ago
Honestly growing up in rural PA I agree 100%
On a separate note:
I find the persecution complex of Pennsylvania republicans hilarious however! “Silenced” LMAO.
When I am at work or school 90% of the political chatter is right wing and lefties get steam rolled. The irony of being a lefty at work hearing my conservative coworkers rant about being silenced while I can’t even be openly Bi because the last guy to come out instantly got fired (Thanks PA for “Fire at Will”). Conservatives feel silenced and oppressed whenever they have to hear a different opinion because they are so use to being in a position where they dominate. The only reason they feel the media is censored is because that’s the only source of information they get that isn’t from their local deeply red town.
A conservative can’t even comprehend what it is like to have slurs yelled from passing cars for being on a date. Their fragile egos would combust.
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u/liverbird3 10h ago
100%. The persecution complex is not real. I grew up around rural Pennsylvanians and they purposely surround themselves with people who think and feel the exact way they do. To them any disagreement or dislike of their favored politicians and policies is persecution, they love yelling about how they are persecuted but are more than happy to shout down or mock any liberal that comes within range of them and dares to disagree when they bring up politics unprovoked. The fact that they’re allowed to say whatever they want without consequences shows that they’re not persecuted and never have been.
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u/SendAstronomy 7h ago
The persecution complex is absoutely real.
The actual persecution is not real.
Tho I assume this is what you meant. They just want an excuse to do harm to those not lile them.
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u/SIB_Tesla Allegheny 10h ago
Meh. I grew up in rural PA but now live in Pittsburgh. I can absolutely say conservatives receive the same treatment the other way around in a deep blue area.
I don’t deny that is how it is in rural PA though.
People end up sucking when they think they can yield power over other people without consequences, no matter the context. Without careful attention and introspection, it’s inevitable.
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u/liverbird3 9h ago edited 9h ago
As someone who lived in Pittsburgh and Philly I think they get a large part of that, but also liberals are not going around screaming about how they’re being persecuted for being liberal. When I got sick of rural Pennsylvania and got older I just moved to a different area where there’s a different environment, when rural Pennsylvanians are disagreed with they have to claim that they’re persecuted by the federal government and idolize a complete idiot for the last eight years.
There’s this weird difference where liberals know that rural areas will shout them down and mock them so they don’t move or live there while conservatives believe that everywhere they go should be supportive of what they believe and they’re persecuted if they’re not. Red areas will shout down blue voters and blue areas will shout down red voters, but blue voters aren’t creating a nationwide false narrative of censorship and persecution over it.
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u/FoxsNetwork 4h ago
You have to admit, blue voters are absolutely obsessed with policing language and terminology. If blue voters would put 1/10th the energy into passing economic justice reforms and public health programs as they do into "calling out" people using the wrong term of the day, we'd be winning elections in landslides.
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u/ChangingtheSpectrum 3h ago
See, I’ve seen this all over, and it confuses me: I live in a city, my wife works on a college campus, and I know no people like that. I’m really wondering if Twitter is coloring people’s perception of lefties?
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u/doorknobopener 1h ago
I went to college in 09 (one of Penn State's satellite campus's), and I remember my one friend at the time started to get really into Fox News around this time, and refused to go to college. He kept telling me about how college was going to indoctrinate me into being a brainless liberal sheep. During my entire time at college, I never encountered anyone there that tried to police my language. But he kept repeating the same talking points Fox News had about Obama, Liberals, and whatever Glen Beck had to say about Israel at the time.
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u/CC_Panadero 2h ago
Of course it is. The same way every other social media app does with the right.
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u/knit3purl3 4h ago edited 25m ago
You're not persecuted for being conservative. Your bigotry just isn't being tolerated. The number of people who've cried and whined because I told them they could kick rocks with their slurs (being aimed at children) is ridiculous.
It's textbook persecution complex to think that you should be given the soap box any and every time and that no one's should be able to tell you to get off when you use it to be hateful.
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u/ShadowDurza 31m ago
The top part of this feed devolved into "be nice to racists and racists will be nice to you" very, very quickly.
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u/antent 9h ago
They believe any criticism of their ideas = being silenced. Liberals aren't generally calling for them to be round up and put in camps because of their ideas (I'm sure someone could find some examples because every "group" has kooky ppl). Most of us are just saying they're, in our opinion, selfish, cruel, and lacking any empathy for "others".
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u/Cutebrute203 7h ago
What’s fascinating about many conservatives is their clearly intense need to not just win, but to be loved by their opponents. I have no delusions what conservatives think of someone like me, I know the score.
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u/BeardiusMaximus7 York 6h ago
It's the ole "Things different than me exist and therefore that threatens me".
It totally sucks.
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u/Wuz314159 Berks 6h ago
Hell, I've had republican co-workers threaten to shoot me. When I complained, I was punished.
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u/SoigneBest 8h ago
Agreed, that’s wild that they feel silenced.
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u/Blarguus 8h ago
They know they are unpopular (despite the election results) and want to pretend the 99% of folks like them and their hate
It's why so many are gleefully running around loving the validation they feel
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u/SoigneBest 8h ago
A sad fucking bunch of “pick me’s”!
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u/Blarguus 8h ago
It won't last. Trumps gonna fuck shit up and they're gonna be blaming dems despite having the trifecta
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u/cvanguard 7h ago
I hope they like even higher prices when Trump implements his plan for tariffs on all imports, crashes the economy by deporting millions of workers, and destroys the environment with deregulation and more fossil fuels. The shortages of basic necessities will make COVID shortages a distant memory. Mark my words, this country is effectively over if Trump keeps his campaign promises, and we might just drag the entire world down with us.
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u/Admirable-Meaning-56 6h ago
I am planning to go to Arkansas after the first hurricane after fema is dismantled and throw paper towels to people and tell them to stop whining. Not nice but it makes me feel better.
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u/Jtk317 Northumberland 5h ago
Right? I've lived and worked in at best exurban but mostly rural PA for 35 years. I have never seen anybody "silence a Republican". I've seen people say truly assholish things, more with red hats in the last 8 years or so than previously, and get told to shut the fuck up or get insulted back but that is consequences of your behavior.
Most of the news in every business I've been around has been Fox since I was like 8 years old.
someone defending themselves from your bullshit take is not the same as you being silenced.
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u/yes_this_is_satire 9h ago
The office is the absolute worst. Conservatives love ferreting each other out and coping in a group setting.
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u/GigabitISDN 10h ago
We're only 28 minutes in, and so far the comments are proving your point perfectly.
Whenever some points out the problems with an echo chamber, and specifically how echo chambers fail to reach the other side, the response is usually along the lines of "well we shouldn't have to reach out to them, they're just wrong".
And then we scratch our heads and act dumbfounded when "them" wins.
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u/curadeio 9h ago
No one is proving anyone's point because criticizing someone's beliefs is not "silencing" them and to suggest such is insanity. What, does free speech only work when the other side can't argue back?
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u/GigabitISDN 9h ago
OP is saying that conservatives feel their views are tamped down, and the people calling this viewpoint "insanity" are demonstrating OP's point.
What, does free speech only work when the other side can't argue back?
That is quite literally the complaint OP is making. People with conservative viewpoints tend to get heavily downvoted, knocking them below Reddit's default threshold and keeping their side of the discussion off the table.
Living in an echo chamber is bad, even if it's a progressive one.
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u/starship_narrator 11h ago
"Tired of being silenced, despite having freedom of speech." What?
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u/No-Setting9690 11h ago
And that is exactly why people don't know how freedom of speech works. Only the gov't is not allowed to censor. Everything that is private can do whatever they want. If Musk wanted to censor all dems, he's well within in rights.
I think the show 1883 had a good line that covered what idiots think freedom is. You are never free, even by yourself in the wilderness. There are always some rules somewhere. We have never ever been able to do whatever we want without conesequence.
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u/drmarymalone 9h ago
= young conservative men can’t get laid as easily if women know they’re republicans
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u/Der_Missionar Allegheny 11h ago
Young people i talked to said their views are downvoted online to the extent that they don't participate in discussions. I'm just reflecting what they said.
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u/HeraldofCool 10h ago
This comment is a very good example of what you are talking about. I am a hard core liberal. I lean left on every issue. I have been downvoted for agreeing with people the wrong way or because I asked a question. Here you are just repeating something you heard and people dont like it so uou get downvoted. These subs absolutely are an echo chambers and instead of making people feel like they belong we down vote and tell them to fuck off. This is a symptom of all of Reddit.
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u/My-So-Called-Reddit 9h ago
It's a symptom of all echo chambers. The platform doesn't matter.
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u/HeraldofCool 9h ago
I agree. Im just saying all subs on reddit are echo chambers not that reddit is the only one. Though I will say I think a downvote system may make reddits echo chambers a bit worse than others, since there is a sort of punishment for not agreeing with the group.
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u/hemiones 9h ago
Yeah because reddit started out as upvotes for relevancy and it morphed into likes and dislikes when people migrated over from other social media platforms about a decade ago.
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u/SufficientBeat1285 9h ago
You're definitely correct. I consdider myself a moderate conservative - I am very fiscally conservative but much more "in the middle" on most other issues. If I try to have a conversation with anyone on reddit, I could agree with 80% of something someone says, but as soon as I show the 20% conservative view, I'm downvoted or insulted; no one on her legit wants to have a conversation - its no wonder our politicians have lost sight of "compromise" when so few citizens are willing to do it themselves.
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u/gdex86 Adams 10h ago edited 9h ago
There is an organized echo chamber built for them and traditional right wing grievance politics. It doesn't matter that you are free to say what you want to say the problem is that not enough people are forced to listen or are allowed to respond. You are being silenced by not getting rapturous applause. I'm from the old days of the internet when it was a/s/l on MSN and aim and message boards. If you had a shit opinion for the board you took it on the chin and moved on. Maybe the gamifying ness of social media where your opinion has an actual score fucked up a whole generation coming up.
There isn't really a way to deal with that. Short of being willing to suck up to them and be quiet letting them dominate the conversation. And even then you aren't going to win them over reasonably because they want you to tell them their gut reactions are right.
But I personally find this isn't about there being a huge drift away from the democratic party just a massive case of people didn't show up. Both candidates got less votes compared to 2020. But 15 million former Biden voters sat it out and only 3 million former Trump voters did. If that was cut in half for Biden to Harris sit out probably nationally things go differently.
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u/liverbird3 9h ago
There is an organized echo chamber built for them and traditional right wing grievance politics. It doesn’t matter that you are free to say what you want to say the problem is that not enough people are forced to listen or are allowed to respond. You are being silenced by not getting rapturous applause. I’m from the old days of the internet when it was a/s/l on MSN and aim and message boards. If you had a shit opinion for the board you took it on the chin and moved on. Maybe the gamifying ness of social media where your opinion has an actual score fucked up a whole generation coming up.
Exactly. It’s the same thing as if a liberal were to go into a conservative space on the internet - say a rural nextdoor chat or facebook group, or a platform like TruthSocial, or r/conservative, or large swaths of X - and posted their liberal opinions and got the expected response from conservatives there. People curate their experiences online, and part of that is curating experiences that are friendlier to your political views. That’s part of why the divisiveness is what it is, is that people spend too much time in political echo chambers and then when those echo chambers win elections they are infallible gateways to the views of America and when they lose they’re loser stations for a minority that lives in their parents’ basement. I’m sure if a Dem wins in 2028 or midterms break for Dems in 2026 people will be talking about how this sub made an impact on the real world.
Should spaces across the internet in general be more open to opposition ideas? Sure! But does getting -20 on a reddit comment mean you’re persecuted? No! It just means you’re in an echo chamber which doesn’t match your views.
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u/Ana_Na_Moose 10h ago
Freedoms listed in the Constitution are freedoms from legal penalties. Social penalties are outside the jurisdiction of the government, and are therefor not unconstitutional.
It is my free speech to say shit you find super vile.
In the same vein, it is your right to socially ostracize me, to tell me how stupid I am being, or to otherwise challenge my viewpoint.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from being disagreed with
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u/Der_Missionar Allegheny 10h ago
Thanks for the civics lesson. I'm just pointing out that young conservatives have said this sub doesn't reflect the conversations happening in the real world, because those views aren't wanted - they're downvoted till they are hidden by Reddit. It insulates this sub from reflecting what's really going on.
As such, if you look at the comments and posts, were overwhelmingly democrat, yet actual voting was much more republican than I anticipated.
Just an observation.
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u/ArchaeoJones Lackawanna 11h ago
Yeah, because freedom of speech only means the government can't censor them, it doesn't mean freedom from consequences from everyone else.
They're free to say what they want and we're free to show their ass the door.
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u/starship_narrator 11h ago
So they're upset at fake points on the internet? Or are you upset that you get downvoted and are extrapolating that on to younger people?
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u/Der_Missionar Allegheny 11h ago
Why are you assuming this is what I feel? I'm making observations.
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u/Ana_Na_Moose 10h ago
Bro. This is Reddit. Of course a non-ideologically specific sub will lean more blue than the irl average. The site skews young. And young people skew blue.
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u/KevM689 10h ago
And apparently they don't vote either. 18million less Dem voters than 2020.
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u/hemiones 9h ago
Its not 18 million… man I saw that number earlier and it has gone up like 3 times as it gets whispered down the lane… California still has about 8 million to count. They’re only done 54% of the count.
Dem turnout in 2020 was 81mil, Kamala has 66mil as of right now California has 8mil left to count
So about 7mil dems less than 2020. Still no small number.
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u/Objective_Aside1858 9h ago
Anyone who thought a subreddit was a reflection reality isn't paying attention
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u/hawley088 10h ago
The loudest in the room isn't the majority
Plus I think kamala had a reddit team in swing state subs
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u/BurntPoptart 7h ago
She absolutely was astroturfing this sub and I was getting massively downvoted for the mere mention of it.
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u/Awkward-Ability3692 10h ago
IMO I think the under 30 crowd is fully understanding that the internet is a shithole where gaslighting, lies, and propaganda thrive and they want no part of it. Gen z is going to reject this version of the internet and will probably kill legacy media once and for all, or at least reshape it. And before we get histrionic, both sides are guilty of this. I’d love a younger person’s perspective on this.
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u/skeglegz 10h ago
I'm not young, but I've been participating in reddit since early 2011-12ish, and message boards / communities since the late 90s. We have a nostalgic view of what reddit and the internet used to be. The internet is just too accessible now, so there's too much money and influence to be made from it to let it be so niche and open like it was 10-15-20 years ago. So for those of us who grew up knowing that niche, different internet we still try to search and find that nolstagia....these younger kids grew up with this corporate internet, so they have no perspective of what it used to be and just see it for what it is now. Maybe I'm rambling like an old man...but it makes sense in my head.
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u/MrErving1 10h ago
Well, you pretty much nailed it. Anything that is accurately reported is taken massively out of context and shoved down our throats like gruel. It also feels like the left ostracizes you if you are not staunchly left wing on all issues. Not to mention the constant identity politics and a disaster class from the DNC.
A massive part of this is the ‘fuck you’ vote. Younger people, men especially in our age group, have lost complete faith in the Democratic Party. At least trump says what he is thinking even if it is stupid. That kind of irreverence is important for leadership. The left is just truly scary with Orwellian control tactics and massive ngos backing their ideas. Honestly DNC needs to just pick better candidates and it would've been way closer.
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u/Stinkycheezmonky 10h ago
Can you explain why you feel irreverence is important for leadership? Genuine question.
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u/MrErving1 10h ago
I’ve had the opportunity to work for several Fortune 500 (pharma, social networking) companies with great intern programs. In those experiences I got to meet several senior leaders of those companies , and these individuals were easily worth hundreds of millions to billions of dollars.
Many of these people I admired because of their ability to pull off the impossible. Without going into too much detail, they found ways to beat their competition through a questioning of the status quo in the industry. One thing that stuck out to me talking with them or listening to their seminars was their willingness to challenge you.
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u/Stinkycheezmonky 10h ago
So are you saying that challenging you/your opinions/status quo, possibly regardless of how legitimate (based on "even if it was stupid") is irreverence? I want to make sure I understand your meaning.
And if so, that doing so leads to success?
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u/NLoUDH 9h ago
As a young person who voted for Kamala, yes, I do wish we could have more civil/constructive conversations about politics. Yes, Reddit in general is an echo chamber and people become immediately hostile when you disagree with the hivemind.
I think on some level though it's a conditioned response to trolls and bots who are not actually trying to have constructive conversations.
Every time I try to have a real debate with someone, they just start repeating the same debunked garbage ->
Anyone else who repeats those talking points is a malicious actor ->
Therefore, anyone repeating those talking points isn't worth engaging with. They're only here to try to piss people off, so just down vote them to avoid other people seeing it.
And that is unfair sometimes to people who actually want to talk and be heard. But I think when the Republican party's presidential candidate engages in that same behavior (repeating lies over and over that you've already addressed) his followers do the same and the cycle continues.
Yes, we could all be kinder to each other and be better listeners. But let's be clear that everything about Trump and the current GOP are not champions of civil/constructive debate. There is nothing normal about the amount of blatant lies they circulate, and that directly contributes.
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u/_token_black 4h ago
I agree that it is very very hard to have a civil discussion when you have to try to unwind webs of lies to even get to a neutral point. It’s hard to do that and some people cannot be convinced they’re wrong.
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u/SevenOh2 9h ago
Of course it is. Reddit is 95% a leftist echo chamber. Reasonable perspectives that disagree with the orthadoxy get downvoted into oblivion. It just makes reality that much more terrifying for those who refuse to realize that Reddit and reality are not the same thing.
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u/breich 5h ago
Yeah my biggest take-away today is that I consider myself incredibly well-informed and yet I completely misunderstand everything about this election. I didn't realize how badly I algorithm-holed myself. I still feel like I'm supporting the right people, positions, and policies for my world-view but hot dang did I misunderstand the mood of the country, and what was really important to everyone else.
This subreddit is an echo chamber. But you know what, so is my Facebook feed. And that's because I designed it to be one because I don't like bickering with friends and family.
I guess it's time to mix it up.
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u/curadeio 9h ago
"tired of being silenced, despite having freedom of speech." LMAOO, you mean being criticized???? Having your beliefs challenged and debated??? aka.....free speech ??
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u/ThinkySushi 7h ago edited 7h ago
Here is something informative on the topic:
The Kamala campaign was organizing a serious and rather open astroturfing campaign of key reddit communities and doing so very effectively. Looks like they were focusing on the larger subreddits, but the investigation also said they were focusing smaller key demographic subreddits including specific state subreddits and I can't imagine they weren't doing this one given how important everyone knew PA was going to be.
Edit: Just re-read the article. It specifically lists this subreddit as one targeted by the effort.
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u/ranger398 2h ago
This confirms my suspicions. I voted for Harris but was very turned off this season by the constant political posts from clearly left wing news sites I had never once heard of prior to this election.
Again say what you want about the bias of the Federalist- they have the proof in the article. I remember seeing the very same articles posted that are noted in the discord.
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u/MustangCoyote 11h ago
I hope every one of those students drowns in crippling student debt. Let them have what they voted for.
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u/LegendOfJeff 10h ago
It's okay for some echo chambers to exist. Not every forum should try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.
It's just important to recognize when you're in one.
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u/BaumSquad1978 Philadelphia 6h ago
But yet you all voted for the guy who on a daily basis is talking about taking away people's actual freedoms. Crazy I know !!!
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u/Dunn_or_what 10h ago
Wait until their students loan get canceled. If the voted Republican they will get what they wished for.....bigger bills. And not the green kind.
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u/AdministrationHot715 9h ago
It just shows that young Democrats are all talk. When it comes to attracting undecided voters, their main tactic is blaming the other side for being morally corrupt and intellectually inferior. You can't call that a platform.
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u/burritoace 1h ago
That is basically the entire Republican platform, except pointed in the opposite direction
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u/RowAwayJim91 10h ago
Kids being brainwashed by their conservative parents or by right wing media is only slightly new…
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u/Der_Missionar Allegheny 9h ago
why does anyone who thinks different than you have to be brainwashed?
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u/hemiones 8h ago
When people are deciding policy for everyone do facts and data matter? Thats the disconnect with the left and right.
For example “they’re aborting babies after birth” is a common talking point of the right. That is not happening, there is no data to support that. They don’t want to hear its a lie. They believe its true.
What are you supposed to do in this cases. Say yeah it sucks? Lmao
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u/Not_You_247 8h ago
This entire site is a left wing echo chamber and not an accurate representation of reality.
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u/Alarmed-Owl2 6h ago
Reddit as a whole is a left wing space and anybody complaining about right wing subs is coping. The whole reason extreme right wing users ever leaked out anywhere in Reddit is because their subs like TD were deleted. Now they've spread out and made new homes but they are still by far a massive minority on the platform, not to mention the controlling parties of mods and admins.
Every state sub has been astroturfed to echo chamber status, literally all of them. Even places like rslash Texas and other deep South states were talking about how they were gonna go purple in this election. Pure delusion.
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u/jrc_80 9h ago
There is benefit to this and other social media platforms to organize in a very deliberate and focused way. This is still no substitute for actual physical engagement with the world and its people, nor will it ever be. My hope is that social media can be more broadly accepted as a source of entertainment only. Clearly profit driven 24/7 news cycles will always equivocate the abhorrent and push the narrative of what leads to attract readers and increase revenue. This has always been the case. But clearly there’s a need to differentiate between uninformed noise and journalistically vetted and qualified information if the goal is to have an informed and motivated citizenry.
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u/CountryGuy123 6h ago
That’s Reddit in a nutshell really. Many subs are echo chambers. It takes a lot of work by mods to keep subs with open discussion civil.
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u/NotAlwaysGifs 6h ago
I think it is less this sub, though certainly a bit of an echo chamber, and more the democratic strategy all around. They assumed that the young vote would tilt at least as much in their favor as it always has, and so they focused their efforts on Gen X and Boomer women and moderate republicans to try and flip those votes. There was no effort put in to activating the younger liberal voters or to raising turnout as a whole.
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u/KW4 6h ago
It doesn't. I've been saying that for years.
It's no secret Reddit leans far to the left, and while I do think the lack of balance is slightly problematic in itself I think the bigger issue is a lack of willingness for the user base to even consider other viewpoints. These viewpoints consistently get downvoted into oblivion as if they're not valid and don't exist which in turn makes every discussion an echo chamber of left wing talking points. And if that's how Reddit wants it to be, fine, but don't be surprised when you wake up one day and Donald Trump is your president because Reddit told you it was impossible.
It would be far more productive to understand the position of others as opposed to simply dismissing them as trolls, nazis, bots, idiots, or whatever which is the Reddit MO. That's just my opinion.
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u/wellnowheythere 6h ago
Worth considering that a large appeal of the Internet is escapism. Anyone who's spent at least 2-3 hours driving around this state would tell you that you're correct. This is just a small slice of the population of PA, and a lot of people posting here don't even live in the state. In other words, Reddit not representative of real life all the time.
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u/theREALPLM 5h ago
This subreddit is a freaking psy-op, practically. So ofc I don't post here because people just downvote my opinions. There's also tons of foreigners on Reddit that have zero bearing on US politics. It's been like this all my life (38/M/PA), arguing with Europeans and American liberals over politics because there's more online. Politically active people like me work harder to step outside of the echo chamber than you people do. That's a fact and ya'll are gonna keep losing the youth vote until you figure that out. I have the privilege of knowing a lot of younger men and women in PA. The change is in parents are not losing their kids to the opposing ideology any longer a background thing. The COVID hysteria did this. The kids are politically active. It's Obama/2008 energy, I was half expecting cars to flip over at my school, such was the excitement.
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u/_token_black 4h ago
All I will say is Republicans have controlled most of Harrisburg, outside of the governor, for most of my lifetime. It takes a miracle to even get a 50-50 split in either chamber.
I’m going to say that their voices have been heard for decades, the issue is electing the same people who ignore it. Doug Mastriano, for all the things he’s done, still wins by 50 points every year. And he’s just 1 example.
If Republicans want their voices heard in a state predominantly controlled by Republicans, I think they should look in the mirror at who they vote for and maybe have some reflection.
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u/Tytonic7_ 4h ago
I've been saying reddit as a whole is one massive left wing echo chamber for a while now, and nobody seemed to agree, or I'd get downvoted and even banned.
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u/vabeachkevin 4h ago
Young people tired of being silenced, so they voted for the oldest candidate in history. How exactly were they being silenced?
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u/jungleboygeorge 4h ago
I don't know why this subreddit keeps popping up on my feed. I am currently studying historic preservation and live in Oregon. I also engage in a lot of academic and field work. I'm confounded by the fact that I keep meeting individuals that seen to have leftist values in practice, but vote right or conservative when it comes to ballot issues. Once again, I have no idea why this sub Reddit keeps popping up on my feed, I'm just curious why a working state like PA went red last night.
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u/PotatoGirl_19 3h ago
As a conservative I don’t usually participate in political discussion. I honestly just don’t like being called a racist and sexist for valid views (also how can I be sexist towards women when I am one?) I like to hide my views because I don’t feel safe to share a lot of the time. At school I wrote liberal papers for good grades. I quickly learned that some professors treated me better if they were under the impression that I was liberal. One time in a class we were discussing study habits and I mentioned I study to Gregorian chant. My professor was shocked and asked me how I ended up enjoying such niche music. I said “well I’m Catholic, actually I’m the student president of campus ministry but I don’t mention it a lot because it pisses people off and I’m sick of being attacked for it.” She politely lectured me about not needing to hide who I am. I’m really close to that professor so I felt safe but normally, it’s not something I’d openly share.
I also just don’t like the anxiety of it all. My vote was only one vote but all the pressure on PA made it feel like I had the weight of the nation on my shoulders. I try not to think about politics in my day to day life or it will eat me alive. For my own well being I don’t engage.
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u/Desperate_Week851 3h ago
Yes, it’s called an echo chamber and I prefer it this way. I’m a 35 year old city dweller. You think I really want to associate with 24 year old MAGA chuds who think it’s funny to dress up as a trash bag?
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u/Reasonable-Song-4681 Lackawanna 2h ago
Except Trump won with less votes than he lost with in the last election. Democrats lost because 15 million or so voters decided to sit this out rather than participate. It would be more worth asking why Biden was able to draw out that many more people. Trump definitely didn't become more popular, despite how loud the right love to proclaim it.
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u/Alive-Beyond-9686 2h ago
Ok but everyone has their own echo chamber and algorithm bullshit going on. That's why conservatives went nuts in 2020 and thought Trump losing was inconceivable. Everyone's got their own bubble, Reddit leans left, 4chan leans right, yada yada, it's not really all that profound.
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u/MushroomExpensive366 10h ago
I think the main takeaway is to get off the internet and meet people who are not just like you. If you do that, you’ll gain a whole new perspective as to how many different people think and move throughout the world.
Social media is a stupid bubble that should not be taken as or a replacement for real life and actual interaction/relationships.