Serious /r/history & Political Correctness

Recently I joined Reddit to meet new people and to discuss and learn about anything. As some of you know, I'm very interested in history, so the first thing I did was type in "history" in the search bar. And this was the result:

And this was the first page, as I kept scrolling down more and more of these threads kept popping up. So I looked at a few of them, and God, was it depressing. It was one story after another of people being banned for no reason like this, or being banned and then straight up insulted. I stopped reading them because I couldn't believe this could happen, especially not on a history forum.

After looking through these threads, I don't know if I want to be on Reddit anymore. Sure, there are other subreddits, but if most of the main subs are like this, I don't want to be apart of this. This kind of censorship is honestly the most disgusting thing I've seen on the Internet (yes, even /b/ on 4chan). Discussion should be about listening to viewpoints different from yours and challenging others as well as your own.
/r/history shouldn't be about censoring everyone who disagrees with the mods' political agenda. All it does is kill any integrity or educational value a discussion might have had, and makes extremists like Holocaust deniers even more extreme by making them doubt everyone else more.

Now guys, it's hard to admit this; I'm not proud of everything I've said on these forums (Most notably this thread). Even on this thread (@Selvut283), I shouldn't have derailed the discussion like that and should have at least used private PMs, and if it means anything, I do apologize for it. The reason why I bring this up is that I don't want people to think that I don't have second thoughts about what I say. I've seen other people post about how veterans are contributing to toxicity, and I don't want to contribute to it or let others feel like they can't say something because of it. Though if the mod team banned me like the Reddit mods did for one of these things I said, I wouldn't have second thoughts about it or feel sorry. And that's the main reason I've stayed on Wynncraft after all these years; not because of the game, but because of the great community and the staff. You get to meet all these different people from across the world, and you feel comfortable because you can joke or discuss almost anything, from politics to science to igneous rocks. Yeah sure, the mods aren't perfect, but no one is. The fact that people could talk about abortion just goes to show you how civil people here are and open to discussion.

So are most of the main sub reddits like this? And whether or not they are, should I go back to Reddit, even if I avoid subreddits like /r/history? Did you experience anything like in /r/history, and if so, what was it?

 

I think almost is a key word in this sentence.

 

It’s horrible that things, such as SJWs and political correctness are decreacing things that can be said. At one point, someone will be able to shut down a well-reasoned, un-biased argument because ”I’m offended”. If something offends you, it doesn’t really matter. If one person thinks something, then do we make the rest of mankind like that person or let them be themselves? Everyone has different opinions. So, if everyone was really tought-policy about what they think is offensive, you wouldn’t be able to speak at all.
If something offends you, fine, you dislike it or downvote it or comment or it. You should express yourself and not be limited by the rest of the community possibly disliking your opinion. It’s a free internet (for now) so we should use that freedom and not act as if something didn’t offend you. However, you shouldn’t report the post or claim it’s universally offensive. After all, people can decide for themselves if it offends them or not, they don’t need you to tell them it does.

But if you claim that ”it’s offensive” you claim everyone is offended by it. You say that it shouldn’t be allowed to exist. ”It’s offensive” would only ever be correct about things like some alien race trying to kill humankind, or something of that magnitude. When you say ”it’s offensive” you mean ”it offends me, and i want to be the tought police and destroy everything that offends me and the world must be just how i want it and i dont care im not the worlds ruler”

So, TLDR: You can be offended all you want, as long as you don’t try to remove the offensive thing (unless everyone agrees) or claim that it’s universally offensive to everyone.

 

Almost stands for "anything unless somebody is offended, in that case you'll get crucified".

 

The point I was trying to make is that it’s not nearly as bad as it is on Reddit. I’ve never seen a political thread get out right banned on Nemract’s bar before.

That’s the problem; who gets to decide what should be censored or not? Obviously harassment, intimidation, and violence shouldn’t be apart of any discourse, but pretty much anything that challenges somebody’s beliefs could be deemed as offensive.

 

It seems as though you're trying to declare an entire word as indicative of censorship and suggesting that calling anything 'offensive' is bad, which is a really simplistic way of looking at things. You've, mostly incorrectly, assumed:
-That people declare things to be offensive purely based on their own impressions
-That people calling things offensive always want those things to be censored
-That 'offensive' is usually meant as 'universally offensive'
-That people are always personally offended by things they call offensive
-That people calling for censorship are making demands rather than suggestions
-That people want censorship for their own comfort

It's generally a matter of rules. Certain spaces have certain rules, for good reason. If something breaks the rules, the responsible thing to do is report it.

This is by no means exclusive to so-called SJWs or the political left nor any notion of political correctness, nor is it a new thing. Saying it is ignores most of the problem.

The people running the platform. They have that right within their own space, and the general public holds them accountable not to abuse that right. And they don't hold absolute powers of censorship. The fact that people are allowed to get outraged about this in other places proves that. The problem, in my opinion, lies in accountability.

 

I can confirm several of those points:


Sure, not everyone is like those people, but it's getting to the point where it's becoming a huge problem.

I do agree with you on this one, it's just that a lot of political correctness is associated with the left due to the college protests above and some mainstream media. Though the right or any political organization would do the same thing if they had the same position.

I should have phrased that better. I meant more so of,"Where should political correctness stop and how can you objectively tell when it has gone too far?" I do agree that private companies/groups do have a right to deny people service, but the thing is, the general public can't change Reddit. Sure, censored people could go on another platform or even another subreddit depending on the context, but that just leads to more polarization and echo-chambers and doesn't make Reddit more open to new ideas. None of this is illegal, but it doesn't solve the issue of polarization that plagues so much of social media and politics.

I'm not saying that Reddit should act more like the government and not have the ability to deny people service. It's just that it's a shame that it has gotten this far. I don't know how one would make Reddit mods more accountable either.

 

What I honestly want to see is 2 "politically correct" people have an argument over differing opinions. Not because I think it would be funny, or that they be getting a piece of their own medicine, but because it be genuinely interesting social experiment to see how they would react to each other. 2 people with strong convictions that believe that they know what's best for the world trying to convince the other of their opinion. Would they have a civilized debate, or a full scale flame war? Would they be able to present good reasoning and evidence to their claim? Would they insult each other, mock their opponents intelligence? Would they be able to be willing to see thing from the other persons perceptive? Would they give up? How would they leave the scenario? Sad? Frustrated? Relived?

I'm really into human psychology so this is the sorta thing I think about.
But yeah, on the subject of the thread: censorship of a toxic, mean or immature individual is okay. Censorship of an opinion is not okay.

 

ya know, life looked good a few years ago, the internet was made, movies were the greatest they've ever been, babies were fucking everywhere, and war wasn't (hopefully) in the minds of anyone.
now, in 2018, its just a shit hole, the USA has a fucking potato as a president, memes are ruining humor as we know it, WW3 may happen, which will wipe out everything that is "alive" on the planet, and famous people like the Paul brothers are making are children learn that being disrespectful is A-Okay.
I wanna make an edgy joke but its just too fucking edgy.
the world will die one day and humans will be to blame, we're all going to hell if there's any god(s) looking down on us.
shit, made an edgy joke anyway.

 

The world is a much better place than it was before. It’s by no means perfect, but our generation has a lot to be thankful for. Sure there are recent trends (such as college costs) that have made life more difficult, but there are still a lot of good events happening everyday. Gene editing has become so advanced that we have the potential to wipe out diseases such as malaria, produce better crops, and save our environment. Some Neglected Tropical Diseases have been almost completely eradicated, saving millions from suffering. SpaceX is getting closer to making space travel commercial.

Even with Donald Trump and North Korea, we are still nowhere near WW3 compared to the Cold War. And every generation has their own Paul brothers. It was the beetles in the 60s, rock music in the 80s, and rappers in the 90s.

I know that through the lense of the media that the world appears to be getting worse everyday. But in reality, we live in one of the best time periods of history. Ultimately, our future will be up to us.

 

FAKE NEWS FOOLS AGAIN!

thanks for the info, its good to know that world isn't as shit I thought, but you cant really say everything is O-Key-Doki.

Child slave labor (slave labor overall)
Global water crisis (or that also fake?)
Children's media (FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS JUMPING ON A BED, ONE FELL OFF AND BUMMED HIS HEAD) (also children's toy commercials)
Terrible music (Its everyday bro, guchi gang, etc) (I would say "we are number one" as well, but its actually good once you get passed the memes)
Terrible games/AAA games ("The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.")
Fake news ("WE ARE GOING TO STOP THE FAKE NEWS")
Memes ("WE ARE GOING TO BUILD A WALL", RARE PEPE, ETC)
YouTube & clickbait (hi (GONE WRONG, GONE SCARY, I ALMOSTED DIED, "MUST WATCH!")
Stupid people (Freedom is slavery, cancer is your body trying to save you, just the dumbest shit)
Fat people (I don't think I need to explain myself)
Other stupid shit (my brain is melting just having to write this)

Pretty sad how people mostly look at the bad side of life instead of the good side, not saying I'm not, but still.
What you say holds true, and hopefully in a few years, the world will have people looking at it in a positive light and not a negative.

 

Oh god, don't remind me...*Vietnam flashbacks*

 

The most annoying thing, is when people take things like this, and turn it into just a joke, like they don't care at all.

I think people should really care. Toxicity is a major problem on reddits, forums, and practically everywhere on the internet.

Yeah, a little bit of shitpost is okay.

But, the point of being on here isn't to farm likes. It's to help others and show off work, etc.

 

Five war solders hiding in a trench, one got shot in the back of his head, the commander called the president and president said "GET THEM OUT OF THERE BEFORE THEY'RE DEAD!"

 

Well that's why we have different sections on platforms such as Discord for those sort of things. It's when people start to censor others and create echo chambers that things become a problem.

I think the reason that some people don't seem to care is because they don't think it would ever happen to them, or what is censored makes them feel right. It's when it actually does happen to them that they might realize their mistake. And at that point it will be too late.

 

I stick around on the Mario Maker sub, the Minecraft Suggestion sub, and the s***** version of the second one, and their pretty ok

 

Meh, I’m not too interested in those, though thanks for the info.

 

Those four things that you mentioned, unfortunately, exist beyond time. Clickbait is tied directly with Fake News, even on smaller scale. Stupidity is a part of human nature, but everything gets thrown of balance if stupid or evil, or both, get in power, which directly or indirectly can cause the other problems you mentioned. The thing is, some of those problems are slowly subsiding. Slavery now only exists in the Third World, people's trust in traditional news channels is lower than ever. There is more protection from letting stupid and/or evil people getting into the government, such as democracy.

 

To be fair, most of us tend to agree about politics, and the ones to tend to argue more towards the center or right tend to be playing more of a devil’s advocate or are able to support their standpoints with sources and a decent amount of logic. Reddit doesn’t really have that luxury; political subreddits tend to become echo chambers very quickly, and dissenting voices get banned.

 

That’s what I’m talking about. Instead of a thought provoking discussion, it just turns into a circle jerk of vindication.