Tashlan

Honestly, and I might struggle a bit to explicate this, but I don’t necessarily think that places like r/atheism are without value. I am an atheist, but I’m not “interested” in atheism – one day in adulthood I realized I don’t even think about religion at all anymore. Unless there’s some zealot freak on the news, I forget religion or religious people exists day-to-day, and my general course in life does not bring me into contact with religious people anymore. This is a luxury not shared by all, of course. I was an angry atheist who liked to use words like Christofascism and smirk about the sky daddy. Later in life I went to a Richard Dawkins rally to hear Tim Minchin play and it didn’t have the same resonance for me because my lack of religion was a given.

But when I was in high school? When there was actual social pressure for religion coming down on me? The hostility I took from religious people was remarkable. It could have ruined me. I was angry, then, and at that time in my life I had to be rude and mean and hostile and throw back every insult and strawman I could get to get that freedom from religion. The smirking, fedora atheist with a bad attitude is annoying, and a community of them is not the type of place I want to spend time, but I think it’s so important that they have that community to develop that anger and language when it’s a weapon they need to fight.

There’s a case to be made on either end. The best thing would be for people to move to better pastures with dignity, but the malicious compliance and worse create headaches and embarrassment for spez that may pay off in the press, or at some other date. Mods getting banned for making their accounts porn accounts certainly know they’re going out the door, but they’d prefer to be thrown out.

And ultimately, for the veteran redditors who are watching all this, they want to see the end with their own eyes.

The contempt reddit’s defenders have for reddit is a bit boggling. They seem to truly hate the site and the communities they want to be open, and they seem to truly hate the mods. Spez ought to be careful with friends like that, they are guaranteed to dislike whatever his next subreddit banning is

As myself, I formed xmen and wheeloftime communities here but would absolutely hand them over to their respective reddit mod teams because I think they did a fantastic job and know what they’re doing and I don’t. I just want places to exist for people to talk about the shit and I’m not shy about pressing buttons.

I doubt I’m alone. It’s not imposter syndrome, just people who aren’t seeking a full time Internet janitor position or any kind of power and are willing to temporarily take on responsibility to grow kbin but don’t view it as a long term commitment.

Reddit admins have been forced to show their ass to the public, and many people who previously had positive or neutral opinions of Steve Huffman & co. have now seen what a manipulative, dishonest group they are

There’s a long tail here that will get spez in the ass later, and that’s been the Verge, NYT, Forbes, and so many mainstream outlets that were previous incurious about spez having to talk to him and report on his AMA. He could very quickly end up characterized as a Musk-like buffoon if that’s how people who need to make their money from ink start to see him, especially if he doesn’t manage to find a new personality before he opens his mouth again. Like the average Redditor, spez doesn’t think he’s transparent when he’s being smug or snarky, and that is particularly visible to journalists who have degrees in snark.

“I am sorry to say this, but please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public,” CEO Steve Huffman says in an internal memo. “Some folks are really upset, and we don’t want you to be the object of their frustrations.”

“This is a minor annoyance nbd but also people want to stab you”