u/LeninMeowMeow moderates a large amount of big subreddits, r/therightcantmeme, r/gamingcirclejerk, r/animememes, r/greenandpleasent (a known russian propaganda subreddit source: Center for European Policy Analysis (think Lemmygrad)) and much more.
Anyways on r/lemmy, he says that lemmy.world is right-wing and thatcherite. I reply that it is more social democratic.
I instantly get banned from the subreddits he moderates and blocked by him. I have not commented or participated in any of their subreddits before, and this is my first ever encounter with them.
Weird and concerning behaviour. I fear that tankies are taking over most left wing spaces on reddit (not that I really use reddit for politics anymore, that’s why I’m on lemmy, but for the implications to our democracies, as a non-negligible chunk of voters are politically influenced by reddit).
What do you fear are the tangible consequences for US elections of tankie takeover of leftwing spaces on reddit?
There are one or two million eligible US voters on reddit by estimate. A decent chunk of those are progressive left. People like u/leninmeowmeow have been increasingly taking over left wing subreddits, and pushing pro-russia and “don’t vote both sides bad” propaganda, which does impact US voters.
I had a health emergency in June 2023 and was pretty much unable to use reddit until April 2024. Going back, the same subreddits felt like a different world. A bunch of subreddits I frequented, that had been social democrat and pro-ukraine, became subtly pro-russia. This is the reason I left reddit for lemmy. I felt like my political ideology (idealistically I’m an anarcho-marxist, but I still vote for the better candidate to shift the overton window, and I’m critical of Chinese and Russian imperialism, and really all the authoritarian “communist” regimes) had no place on reddit anymore.
None whatsoever. It will ultimately result in these subreddits becoming an echo chamber for a bunch of pro Russia bots to troll each other after everyone else leaves
It’s more just annoying than anything else since it means these spaces are now unusable for their intended purpose
These are the same bots that have inflamed for real real-world riots in the UK right now, and in my opinion probably had quite a bit to do with getting Trump elected the first time around. I know people IRL who have their whole worldview formed by what these bots want them to believe. I’m not sure how big a real world problem it actually is on any given platform, but in the aggregate, it’s a fuckin HUGE problem IMO.
^^^