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Comment by wvenable | Hacker News Reader

What ever happened to neutrality? Moderators shouldn't be promoting an ideology left or right. I understand that Reddit admins themselves don't want to promote an ideology either -- they want to remain neutral -- but they are sacrificing their platform to people who don't hold he same ideals.

The biggest change I've noticed is just how political the city/country subreddits have become. A few years ago, they used to be more fun places but now nearly all the content is very hateful and polarizing.

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> they used to be more fun places but now nearly all the content is very hateful and polarizing.

I don't think this is a reddit thing - it's a societal thing.

Other platforms are also getting far more acerbic in general. City council meetings, local news, etc. It seems the country is in a period of time where politics is both forefront and rather contentious.

I feel the stuff on-line is simply reflecting the greater societal trends - jut with the typical amplification everything on-line breeds.

I think it's a societal thing because it's a Reddit thing. That typical amplification of everything online is leaking into real life.

Neutrality is impossible. Either you ban people for racism or you don't.

Right, so people are arguing against that baseline rule.

A baseline rule prohibiting threatening violence, most people agree with, but apparently it is a controversial attack on free speech if a private website wants to moderate the use of its platform to promote hatred against people based on the color of their skin.

And banning racism is being held as an example of liberal bias! Amazing.

Sticks and stones.

Not all speech is protected, for good reasons that cannot be blithely dismissed with a truism.

It's literally impossible for moderators to be neutral, for anyone to be neutral. Even judges are well known for leaning to one side or the other.

But even judges attempt to be neutral. There are law/rules and you attempt to judge every case/comment based on that. As a moderator, I don't simply delete comments because they don't fit my political views -- I'm capable of that and so are most other people.

That's entirely different from people that are explicitly not trying to be neutral and are trying to promote a specific political ideology. I expect that majority of moderators on Reddit are not trying to promote anything. However there is definitely a growing contingent that don't want neutrality and they are taking over.

Sure it is possible. You can be neutral by banning nothing.

Or at the very least only ban something when the authorities literally force you to do so.

Banning nothing is fine if you want your community to die.

In theory, everyone has equal ability to share their opinions and all have equal weight. In reality, you have a lot less influence than someone willing to post 24/7 everywhere they can. The quickest way to drive away reasonable people is to do nothing.

See this excellent post: Neutral vs. Conservative - The Eternal Struggle http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/01/neutral-vs-conservative...

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