Eh, I'd rate it maybe 60% echo chamber due to the rules partly. For example, prepping posts/comments aren't allowed there. So you may not always be allowed to alleviate some of the concerns presented. It's supposed to be a bad news subreddit. It's not healthy for anyone, and anyone would be goddamn right to feel sick or anxious while reading some of the material there. We, the humans, caused most of it after all. IMO not reading r/collapse is the equivalent of burying one's own head in the sand. Obviously healthy criticism and scepticism is always required. But the sub's purpose is not to send people into psychiatric care. IMO the purpose is to break the reader, enough so that the reader starts taking action, whether it's action to protect themselves or action to protect the environment, or action to change one's voting behavior, or something more drastic. If the readers don't do any of that, that's on them. Some people like to dwell in the misery, drama and anxiety, become addicted to it. But the expectation is that people eventually get enough of feeling horrible after some time, and start taking action to improve the world. I don't know what the success rate of that line of thought is but anything above 0% is a good thing.