Ellen Pao Resigns

I've been here since late 2010. Before reddit got huge and mainstream, it was definitely still shitty, but shitty in different ways. In particular, MRAs were a much more hegemonic presence than they are now and they were able to dictate the discourse around gender in ways that they no longer can. The proportion of pedos was also higher and pedo apologia was even more prevalent and acceptable than it is now, if you can imagine. There was NO feminist perspective to be found anywhere on the big subs apart from a few lonely individuals downvoted to hell in various comment threads. Now it's not uncommon to see feminist comments upvoted and to see MRAs and pedos mocked and ridiculed, even in the default subs. Of course it's also not uncommon to see the reverse. But there is a vocal, visible, mainstream feminist contingent of redditors now that simply couldn't be found on early reddit. Subs like TrollX could never have survived the MRA onslaught of early reddit. And the metasphere has done a complete 180 from being dominated by reactionaries to being openly aligned with SRS. SRD in particular was completely transformed in a relatively short period of time.

One example that's always struck me that illustrates the different types of shittiness of early reddit vs. late reddit - when Scarlett Johansson's nudes were leaked in 2011, you couldn't find a single dissenting comment on reddit questioning the morality of hacked photos. Compare to when the Fappening happened last year. Yes it completely took over the frontpage and was a hugely shameful moment for reddit. But the comments in the default subs were actually shockingly good. Highly upvoted comments everywhere condemning the leaks and explaining the situation in thoughtful, feminist terms. So, obviously the shittiness is still present - in that case it was plastered all over the frontpage. But like I said, there's a progressive contingent that has a voice now that didn't before. In fact there was a moment, before Gamergate, in late 2013-early 2014, where it seemed -at least to me - like the site could end up swinging towards some relatively unoffensive mainstream progressive position on most social issues.

Needless to say, that didn't pan out. Since then, the site has become extremely polarized, and a vitriolic reactionary backlash has taken root in response to some of the gains I've described. These are the people who see this as a holy war and who pitched all of these recent fits we've witnessed related to Pao. This unabashedly right-wing contingent has really only picked up steam over the last year or so. Or more likely, they were always here but didn't have as much to rage about so long as the feminists stayed safely downvoted.

Anyway, that's my take on the evolution of reddit's shittiness over the last 5 years.

/r/ShitRedditSays Thread Parent