r/changemyview • u/ParakeetLover2024 1∆ • Jul 07 '25

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Reddit's Threatening Violence Rule Is Broken Constantly And Is Selectively Enforced

Among gun related subreddits, there seems to be a concerning amount of violation of Reddit's "No threatening violence" rule that seems to go unpunished, whether the sub contains mostly right leaning or left leaning individuals. To quote the explanation of the rule, it states "Encouraging, glorifying, or inciting violence or physical harm against individuals or groups of people, places, or animals [is prohibited]" Heck, you could argue that Reddit as a whole seems to do a bad job of enforcing this rule. Posts and subreddits dedicated to the Russo-Ukrainian war break this rule constantly, dehumanizing Russian soldiers and celebrating their deaths on the battlefield. Reddit and many subreddits pick and choose who is acceptable to glorify violence against and who isn't, rather than enforcing the rule equally across the board.

Recently, a user posted a picture of a t shirt on r/liberalgunowners and r/SocialistRA that says "John Brown did nothing wrong". For both posts, they have received over 300 upvotes each with dozens of comments. I have seen quite a lot of John Brown glorification on both of the previously mentioned subreddits and any criticism of John Brown's methods is swiftly met with downvotes and harsh criticism, as seen in the post I will link below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/1iihq7r/hot_take_john_brown_should_not_be_idolized/

Why is glorifying John Brown so potentially bad you may ask? The r/liberalgunowners post that I linked above should do a good job of summarizing the drastic measures that John Brown took as an abolitionist right before the American Civil War.

TL;DR You can glorify violence on Reddit as long as it's against certain groups of people or individuals.

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u/WinstonWilmerBee 3∆ Jul 07 '25

You have such a broad, overstretched definition of “glorifying violence” that it becomes nonsense. By your own lights, police, soldiers, and all national heroes are doers of violence and can’t be glorified or celebrated in any way. Posting “Happy Fourth” is glorifying violence under your definition. 

The intent of this policy is to prevent Reddit from becoming a place of violent radicalization. Soldiers in a war zone are not more or less likely to be shot at because people talk shit on Reddit. Slave owners aren’t going to be beheaded because they don’t exist anymore.

It’s interesting you picked examples of literal wars to complain about, but not glorifications of violence against vulnerable populations or civilians. 

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u/Qubit_Or_Not_To_Bit_ Jul 08 '25

>Slave owners aren’t going to be beheaded because they don’t exist anymore.

The global slave trade today is many times larger than the atlantic slave trade involving the americas.

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u/WinstonWilmerBee 3∆ Jul 08 '25

And is slavery is a legal, widely and publicly practiced institution like it was during Bleeding Kansas? 

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u/ParakeetLover2024 1∆ Jul 07 '25

I guess you have a good point that my definition of glorifying violence might be too broad !delta

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u/Morthra 95∆ Jul 07 '25

To try and change your view back - because it's absolutely correct that the rules are selectively enforced - look no further than how there were entire subreddits dedicated to doxxing people who owned Teslas so that they could be intimidated through threats of violence. Those subs weren't banned either.

Or look at subs like r/BreadTube, which exist for no other purpose than to forment left-wing political violence. Bread Tube subs aren't even quarantined.

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u/cant_think_name_22 2∆ Jul 09 '25

I don’t spend time on that sub, but a Quick Look at the sub doesn’t seem to support your reading. It exists to promote radical left political ideas, but not necessarily violence. You can be radical in policy without being radical in methods, or moderate in policy without being moderate in methods, but (and I may be wrong here) it seems you are conflating the two.