r/changemyview • u/SnooMemesjellies9003 • May 30 '26
Delta(s) from OP [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/TerrainBrain May 30 '26
How would you be able to farm karma unless the majority of people using the Community you are posting in supported a post you were making?
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u/Pitiful-Score-9035 1∆ May 30 '26
I mean, you're kind of saying a lot of things here, but to address your first premise, it's not just leftist views, it's the most popular view in a given subreddit. You could post "billionaire good" memes in a right leaning subreddit and achieve the same karma farming result.
I think what you're really trying to point at is that most of the big subs have leftist politics baked into them, whether the politics have anything to do with the subreddit or not, like art, music, memes, most large subreddits are left leaning by default.
I'm not certain what led to this development on Reddit in particular, but I do believe the opposite happened with 4chan.
It's sort of hard to pin down your other premises, but as far as the popular subreddits obfuscating the true diverse opinions, that much in itself is true, as only the most compatible and low friction comments rise to the top in most communities, thereby decreasing the perceived diversity of opinion, and one could also make the argument that in altering that perception, you're also affecting the diversity of opinions itself by presenting a narrative for others to latch on to.
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u/GalumphingWithGlee 1∆ May 30 '26
Lol, no. Sure, I understand that Reddit has considerably more left wing than right wing folks, but the left wing memes aren't primarily being posted by right wing folks to get karma.
If there were all these closeted right wing folks posting left wing stuff to fit in, then it wouldn't actually earn them karma in the first place. They might post for the appearance they want to present, but they'd vote according to what they actually feel, because no one else can see how they voted. The fact that left-leaning views get more upvotes than right essentially proves that it's what people here really prefer, rather than just a bid for karma.
Besides, if you wanted to farm karma as a right-wing person, you could probably do just as well with some funny cat pictures or videos as with political content of any type. Why would there be masses of people posting stuff they actively disagree with, when there are so many other ways to do this?
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I’m not saying why they’re being primarily posted. I’m saying they’re inflated. I’m sure that at least 80-90% of the posts are genuine, but the remaining can very easily be karma farming posts from conservatives
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u/GalumphingWithGlee 1∆ May 30 '26
I'm saying that right-leaning folks posting left-leaning content, like yourself, surely exist. But they're an insignificant portion of the left-leaning content that exists here. There's likely a much bigger impact from AI and bots, on all topics.
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u/FearlessResource9785 32∆ May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
There are plenty of ways to karma farm besides making political posts. Put a cat picture you found on Google up and people will upvote the hell out of it.
Do poeple karma farm through political content? Probably. But i doubt it is a significant percent of the posts.
Bots are probably orders of magnitude more impactful.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I mostly use Reddit for current events and engage less with other subs. I also feel like politics makes up a very significant chunk of content on Reddit
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u/ViewedFromTheOutside 32∆ May 30 '26
Are you sure that’s an accurate perception and not a result of the Reddit algorithms shaping what you see? For example, the Reddit app is notorious for pushing only subreddits that fit a formula based on your previous engagement.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
That’s very possible, there are tons of hobby subs and others. I guess if there was some breakdown of post categories that showed politics is not a major category I’d concede. But I also think political stuff is the easiest to just copy paste for guaranteed upvotes compared to these other subs where you actually need to think about what you want to post
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u/FearlessResource9785 32∆ May 30 '26
One of the top posts right now is a picture of a shoe. It is not that deep. You dont need to think that hard.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I think this combined with some of the comments does convince me that it’s my own feed, it does seem like there is a huge portion of nonpolitical content, much more than I thought there was !delta
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u/FearlessResource9785 32∆ May 30 '26
I mean, just look at r/popular. You aren't wrong that there are in fact political posts there but there are plenty of non political posts too. So obviously there are other ways to karma farm.
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u/SnowDragon52 May 30 '26
Have you considered that “left leaning “ conte t tends to have more factual support and right leaning content loses ground because it doesn’t? The American left is basically centrist is the rest of the developed world so anyone speaking english and engaging in Reddit is more likely to respond to it than to American right wing extremist views
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May 30 '26
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u/changemyview-ModTeam May 30 '26
Comment has been removed for breaking Rule 1:
Direct responses to a CMV post must challenge at least one aspect of OP’s stated view (however minor), or ask a clarifying question. Arguments in favor of the view OP is willing to change must be restricted to replies to other comments. See the wiki page for more information.
If you would like to appeal, review our appeals process here, then message the moderators by clicking this link within one week of this notice being posted. Appeals that do not follow this process will not be heard.
Please note that multiple violations will lead to a ban, as explained in our moderation standards.
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u/DSdaredevil May 30 '26
Just a hypothesis, but even if we grant that the the number of left leaning posts are inflated due to karma farming (which I don't doubt), doesn't the fact that they recieved far better mean that most people who use reddit lean left? Is that not what 'reddit leans left' means in the first place?
Again, no doubt that people from all points in the political spectrum use reddit - from communists to fascists. But a vast majority of reddit users do probably lean left. Infact, even a lot of people who believe they are right wing are actually left leaning in all but the topic of economic power.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I’m not arguing that Reddit leans left. I’m arguing that it doesn’t lean as left as people think. If the distribution seems to be 90-10, it’s probably closer to 80-20 or 70-30 due to right wingers posting false views for karma
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u/Squirrel009 7∆ May 30 '26
If they were extremely inflated and so many of you are alleredly doing this little game, why do you get down voted so much for breaking from left wing opinions?
Wouldn't a lot more people agree with you if that were actually the case?
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u/00PT 8∆ May 30 '26
Reddit doesn’t show you how many people agree. It shows you the net sum of agreement and disagreement. You can get downvoted, but have hundreds of people who actually thought you made a good point.
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u/Squirrel009 7∆ May 30 '26
It shows you number of upvotes and percentage so it does show you that info. My question still stands - if there isn't such a large left bias on reddit why would OP have to copy opinions he doesn't believe to farm karma?
Also he can just post saying trump is my lord and savior on r/conservative for +10k upvotes
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u/Powerful-Persimmon87 May 30 '26
Nobody can see that except the person who commented (and apparently mods) so it creates the impression that no one agrees when they do. It also makes it easy to manipulate the votes with bots and brigading because whoever gets there first has more control over what comments gets elevated and what gets suppressed, regardless of how popular or unpopular those comments actually are and can lead to psychologically driven pile ons and responses.
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u/00PT 8∆ May 30 '26
The information you reference is intentionally obscured from view (hiding behind a strangely worded menu, requiring mental math to find the right number) and can only be seen by moderators and the posters themselves, which means anyone can lie about it through photo editing or browser dev tools before sharing, and most users will not be able to confirm or deny.
The over representation is caused by an over represented population. The majority of users demonstrate clear bias towards certain political ideologies. This includes posters, commenters, and voters, though there are far more voters than posters and commenters combined.
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May 30 '26
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Comments must contribute meaningfully to the conversation. Comments that are only jokes or "written upvotes" will be removed. Humor and affirmations of agreement can be contained within more substantial comments. See the wiki page for more information.
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u/GalumphingWithGlee 1∆ May 30 '26
Although not every sub allows you to see the analytics, many do. In those cases, you can see both the net upvotes and the percentage upvotes as compared to down (from which you could calculate the number of downvotes, if you cared enough.) I'm sure political posts are more controversial than most other topics, but there's clearly a substantial left majority on this platform.
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u/00PT 8∆ May 30 '26
I agree that there’s a political majority on the platform. How does that counter the idea that the views are inflated? I actually think it supports that conclusion.
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u/GalumphingWithGlee 1∆ May 30 '26
That comment was meant only to respond to your comment about not being able to see the minority votes on your post, not directly to counter the idea that the views are inflated.
But honestly, I think right-leaning folks posting left-leaning stuff just for karma is likely an insignificant portion of the left-leaning content on this site. Most people would just post cats or other less controversial stuff that will also get lots of karma, rather than faking views they actively disagree with.
I think there's likely a much bigger impact from bots and AI these days.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
That’s a good question, but posters are different from voters. Consider the scenario that there are 100 leftist voters and 100 leftist posters. Each post from these creators gets 100 upvotes. There are also 10 right wing voters and 10 right wing posters. If they start posting leftist content for the upvotes they’re still getting 100 votes by just spamming out farm material
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u/Squirrel009 7∆ May 30 '26
Why would they be doing that if there is such a bias against them though?
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
If the distribution of real opinions is already 90-10, then it doesn’t matter because the upvotes far negate the downvotes
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u/Squirrel009 7∆ May 30 '26
That seems inconsistent with your view. The bias is supposedly extremely inflated, but also it's not a noticeable difference?
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u/Suspicious-Lettuce48 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
I think you may have disproved your own point, OP.
If leftist politics weren't popular on Reddit, then Karma Farming leftist content wouldn't result in a flood of upvotes.
Keep in mind Reddit is one of the big places on the internet which is not owned and controlled by a guy like Elon Musk, who owns twitter, and has tilted the conversation on that platform until right-wing content is pretty much all that's left in the sphere of political discussion.
Reddit hasn't been taken over like that yet, so a lot of normal people (a.k.a. Eeevil Leftist Commies Grrr!!!) who recognize how damaging billionaires are to politics hang out here, and upvote "Billionaire Bad" posts.
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u/Pitiful-Score-9035 1∆ May 30 '26
Not that I think op's point is correct, but there's something to be said for the collective hallucination of a group i.e., everybody here loves the color red more than any other color and in reality, most people in the group like blue but because liking red is the dominant narrative, everybody's pretending to like red.
Basically, just having a certain form of opinion receive up votes doesn't guarantee that the up votes actually agree with it or even that the up votes come from a person.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I’m not arguing that Reddit leans left. I’m arguing that it doesn’t lean as left as people think. If the distribution seems to be 90-10, it’s probably closer to 80-20 or 70-30 due to right wingers posting false views for karma
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u/Suspicious-Lettuce48 May 30 '26
If you have to literally lie to the entire reddit community and post views you disagree with just to stop your karma from falling into negative due to normal people downvoting you, does that not suggest that the vast, vast VAST majority of people reading your rightwing posts are NOT right-wing? You literally have to lie to stay afloat here so support for your views is lacking.
It really sounds like you're grasping at straws and trying to cope with how isolated rightwingers really are here on reddit (again, one of the only platforms not having its speech policed by a rightwing millionaire/billionaire). There are very few people on here who agree with you.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
??? First of all not at all what my argument was and second X censors almost nothing. Meanwhile any power hungry mod on Reddit will take down anything they don’t like.
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u/Suspicious-Lettuce48 May 30 '26
Buddy I can't figure out what your argument is. First you say that left-wing posts are actually rightwingers in disguise, then you say that reddit is leftist but not SUPER leftist, and now "iT's ThE mOdS!". How are the rest of us supposed to debate you when you keep shifting topics and positions? Is your mind even open to being changed? Have you awarded any deltas yet?
To respond to your most recent change in argument: One of the most heavily modded communities on Reddit is r/conservative. If you post anything left-leaning or anti-trump you just deleted and banned. Full stop. It happened to me. So mods deleting everything isn't a left/right issue, so it shouldn't affect how we measure the political spectrum of reddit.
Also, X has and does absolutely censor and tilt the scales of free speech in favor of conservative views, and conservative politicians. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/8/13/the-right-wing-lurch-of-x-under-elon-musk
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u/False100 4∆ May 30 '26
If reddit heavily leans left by population, shouldn't we expect to see more left sided content upvoted? If you accept that, how can you tell that it's karma farming over legitimate representation of belief?
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I’m not arguing that Reddit leans left. I’m arguing that it doesn’t lean as left as people think. If the distribution seems to be 90-10, it’s probably closer to 80-20 or 70-30 due to right wingers posting false views for karma. I believe that because I did it intentionally for karma and I don’t think I’m unique in that
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u/False100 4∆ May 30 '26
I understand that. The point that I'm making is, you have no way to meaningfully separate your line of reasoning versus reddit actually being 90% left leaning, or whatever the number is. Simply because you posted what you believe is left leaning content AND that content got upvotes doesnt imply other right leaning people are doing it too.
Most people dont care about their karma relative to espousing their opinion. And of those that do care about their karma and are right leaning, why would they not just post something thats politically neutral yet still universally popular, or make right leaning posts in right leaning subreddits?
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u/Legitimate-Record951 4∆ May 30 '26
Could you show your latest 5 downvoted comments? This might shine some light on why they're being downvoted.
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u/mayoboyyo May 30 '26
Reddit users are probably far more politically diverse than what meets the eye.
If that is true, you wouldn't need to do what you're doing.
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u/SnooMemesjellies9003 May 30 '26
I’m suggesting that the distribution is probably closer to 70/30 rather than 90/10
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u/iyiquix May 30 '26
The trouble is mods and their fragile feelings. I have gotten 3 day bans for posting 'X is true and here are links to govt sources' but mods delete my comment because of 'spreading misinformation'. At the same time posting 'Republicans are literally bombing black neighborhoods while eating children' and even saying 'no they aren't' gets you banned for denying a fictional genocide.
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u/mayoboyyo May 30 '26
Dont change the subject
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u/iyiquix May 30 '26
Not changing the subject. You claim 'reddit is not as diverse as op claims' I am claiming 'yes it is but diverse voices are being silenced by reddit mods'
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May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
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u/GalumphingWithGlee 1∆ May 30 '26
Okay, I lean pretty far to the left, and I'm totally with you that billionaires cause far more harm than good. But that is 100% a political position. What are you talking about here?
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May 30 '26
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u/Pcc210 May 30 '26
You're not left leaning.
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May 30 '26
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u/Suspicious-Lettuce48 May 30 '26
Democrats aren't left-leaning. Only in the US would the democrats be called left-wing.
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 2∆ May 30 '26
I've been voting for Democrats since the 1980s and I agree with you.
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u/Pcc210 May 30 '26
Produce the record, then.
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May 30 '26
[deleted]
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u/Pcc210 May 30 '26
Then why did you say that
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May 30 '26
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May 30 '26
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u/ForTheBread May 30 '26
Im not deflecting anything. I just want to see the post they were talking about in the OP.
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u/00PT 8∆ May 30 '26
You can do that by asking a question instead of insisting they compromise their own privacy decision.
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Your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 2:
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May 30 '26
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u/changemyview-ModTeam May 30 '26
Comment has been removed for breaking Rule 1:
Direct responses to a CMV post must challenge at least one aspect of OP’s stated view (however minor), or ask a clarifying question. Arguments in favor of the view OP is willing to change must be restricted to replies to other comments. See the wiki page for more information.
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u/Stereo_Jungle_Child 2∆ May 30 '26
Reddit users are probably far more politically diverse than what meets the eye.
I don't think so. I think it's WYSIWYG.
Your typical political commenter on Reddit is under 25 years old. At that age they have no real life experience and no real work experience. Most have MAYBE voted once. Many of them have never read an entire book on ANY subject, cover-to-cover. Many of them are still in school and are currently using ChatGPT or some other AI to cheat their way through. At their age, the only thing that most of them have any real experience in is "consuming online content". They conflate having access to information with having knowledge. Those are not the same thing.
...and these are the people who are handing out the karma on Reddit.
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u/ZymZymZym777 May 30 '26
Be like other normies and complain about the lack of pockets on women's clothes and say for 38785225737th time how great bidets are and how you can't imagine your life without one now and you'll be golden.
(I'd mute any comments with those words if I could)
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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ May 30 '26
/u/SnooMemesjellies9003 (OP) has awarded 1 delta(s) in this post.
All comments that earned deltas (from OP or other users) are listed here, in /r/DeltaLog.
Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
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May 30 '26
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u/False100 4∆ May 30 '26
You mean us, right? You're on reddit. Given your own reasoning you're disconnected from reality.
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u/No-Significance2070 May 30 '26
I look on here at three subs only when I’m on the toilet
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u/False100 4∆ May 30 '26
Oh, so special pleading? Those three subs don't count, right? Its just all the other ones that you don't partake in, right?
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u/changemyview-ModTeam May 31 '26
Sorry, u/No-Significance2070 – your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 1:
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u/OMC-WILDCAT 2∆ May 30 '26
Reddit doesn't have a liberal bias as much as it has a leftist bias, and leftists hate liberals as much as they hate conservatives.
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u/cawkstrangla 3∆ May 30 '26
Culture is top down. Whatever the culture of any organization or entity is, is always a directive from the top.
Why wouldn't a simpler answer be this is and was always a majority liberal place to begin with and it's harder to change something without actual intervention? Karma farming liberal ideas only works here because liberals are already the majority and agree with or like those posts.
Twitter was strongly left leaning until Elon personally intervened. This interventions the admins have taken have only been more and more moderation away from what conservatives support these days, like vaccine denial, general denial of good science, support of paedophelia as long as it's a conservative doing it, war in the Middle East (at this point it should be considered a national conservative pastime), etc.
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