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What is a redditor? Is it a person that merely uses reddit? Or are there spiritual qualities of a person that makes them a redditor? Can a person be a redditor without using reddit? Can a person use reddit without being a redditor? I ask because the term "redditor" has become mixed up in a whole lot of other ideas, including consumerism, soullessness, atheism, etc.
I'm interested in your opinions, so please leave a comment below. As for me, here's my current theory on what makes a redditor...
1. Complete Deference To Mainstream Opinion: Modern redditors will almost always follow the general thrust of mainstream opinion. I hope that my readers will understand that I'm not referring to whoever holds the most power in society - this is a thing that swings back and forth as time goes on - but rather what are considered generally acceptable opinions, especially as expressed by the media and corporate interests. Having mainstream opinions is not unusual, obviously (otherwise they wouldn't be mainstream, right?), but what is unusual is complete deference to those opinions. Most people have at least some thought process and disagreements with mainstream consensus.
2. Celebration of Dweebishness: I don't mean that redditors are dweebs - many of them are, but that's not the point. Everyone has low points, everyone feels afraid or sad or lazy at times. The difference between a normal person and a redditor is that redditors celebrate their own dweebishness. They celebrate their lowliness and refuse to even consider changing. There is a psychological element of inferiority at play here. They don't think they are capable of being better, and they are afraid of failing in the process of being better, so they linger in a familiar heck.
3. Rejection of Normalcy: This is the other side of Point 2. Anything that is things that "other people" do is instantly negative. Sports, Family, Popular social media, Religion, Homeownership, and being well groomed are all classic examples. Again, the hatred of these things is mostly a reflection of their own sense of inferiority. They don't think they can be normal, and thinking about themselves in comparison to others makes them feel inferior, so they reject normalcy as a whole.
4. Obsession with Objectivity: In any issue, redditors believe, if something can't be proven with logic, it is worthless and even harmful. The biggest example of this is reddit's neurodivergent atheism. They don't just not believe in God, they are obsessed with their lack of belief in God. For instance, getting pissy when someone says "Thank God". To put it another way - they only live in their Ego Mind. They've cut off any connection to anything deeper within themselves, chalking any conflict up to a variety of mental illnesses (see also: point 2). Another example is living in pods. "Living in pods is more economical and better for the environment. It's dehumanizing, you say? I'm going to need a source for that claim. Clearly, you're being irrational, so you are mentally ill, so you will need to take some anti-depressants."
5. Pseudo-Anonymity: On reddit, you don't form connections with individuals, you form connections with content. It would be extremely unusual on reddit to remember someone's username and think of them as an individual user with idiosyncrasies and tastes. The difference between reddit and 4chan, however, is that anons are literally anonymous, and suffer no real repercussions for acting strangely, whereas on reddit you get punished, both by karma and being banned. There's two sides of this - on the one hand, reddit as a website encourages this with the technical details of the website, where usernames are small and they all look the same. On the other hand, all redditors act in essentially the same way. They have the same opinions and behaviors. This, of course, ends up leaking into the rest of their lives.
6. Obsession with Things apart from their Intrinsic Qualities: This is a super-wordy way to describe "franchise consumerism", because the consoomer meme doesn't capture the absurdity of these people. Consider Star Wars, for instance. The original Star Wars trilogy were genuinely good - not in a nerdy sci-fi sense, but just as movies. There had lovable characters, an engaging plot, a simple theme about good and evil with a little bit of heroes journey stuff. Star Wars fanboys, however, don't care about the movie, they care about the franchise. They think that it was the laser swords and jedi that made Star Wars good, so they consume any piece of media that has laser swords and jedi - for instance, the Prequels and the Sequels. Another example is LotR - one of the greatest pieces of fantasy ever written, with masterful and poetic writing and themes about how insignificant people can play a big role in resisting evil - is reduced down to the setting and characters and "lore", so they obsess over any piece of media with those elements.
7. General Sense of Negativity, Dread, and Cynicism: Redditors are negative about everything, unless it is one of their pet obsessions. Everything is going down the drain in the world for redditors. The greedy corporations are actively ruining X, before long X will be gone, X isn't even that good anyways, X used to be good but now it isn't. The world is a few years away from ending and we will all starve to death, earth is overpopulated so anyone having children is evil, even if we get our guys into office, the other guys will ruin it from the shadows. Nothing is good about the world, everything is 100% bleak. Ironically, the best example of this is the opposite: /r/WholesomeMemes, which is a response to this overwhelming sentiment. Even the posts about hecking doggos are laced with a bitter irony or two-facedness - this is all just a short distraction until we return to our nihilistic existence. This contributes to Point 6, because redditors try to escape this with muh nostalgia and returning to an "idyllic youth". It is contributed to by 2 and 4, because being so obsessed with their ego mind, they are unable to accept their own flaws. I think their is a psychological element here as well, where redditors project their own flawed state onto the world at large.
8. Humor is Repeating Things: Redditors think that the peak of comedy is repeating things. They make references, quote movies, etc. Outside of that, their comedy is post-ironic self-reference to - you guessed it - other funny things. This is the notion of a circlejerk.
9. They think they are significant: To be fair, reddit has 50 million daily visitors. However, only 1% of those users comment every month. That leaves us with 500,000 active redditors worldwide. If all of those redditors were in the United States, they would make up just over a thousandth of a percent of the population. (Assuming US population is 330 million). Any redditor that you see calling for a revolution is calling for 0.001% of the population to go against the other 99.999%. They have no power whatsoever.
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The redditor is a product of modern social conditions, the knowledge over-production and ambiguity of the modern age makes him a nihilist, atheist, consumerist, materialist, living a desperate and unfulfilled wish for meaning. The desire-fulfillment industry caters to him, but never sates him. He engages in excessive and ridiculous consumerism, radicalism and identity through niche groups, opposing anything not held sacred by his community. The community shuns healthy relationships and goals β like a collective parasite feeding on their wishes for purpose, which makes them unfit for real purpose in real life β it keeps them wishing, but can only provide a cheap knock-off. They become subconsciously addicted to public affirmation via karma, their thought patterns change, their beliefs and behaviors align to the community. Any opposition to their opinions becomes an existential threat β because public approval of their opinions is all that they are.
Complete deference to mainstream opinion: Deference to communal opinion, rather, because it gives them collective identity.
Celebration of dweebishness: This is a product of parasitism which makes them fit only for the artificial relationships reddit supplies.
Rejection of Normalcy: See above.
Obsession with Objectivity: Their nihilistic underlying assumptions are treated as objective because theyβre shared, the subjective community opinions are treated as objective β when a source is asked for, itβs a rhetorical strategy to defend their pre-conceived notions, not a genuine request.
Pseudo-anonymity: Their identity comes from karma and their opinions. Their existential justification is based on approval of their comments by other people. There is just enough anonymity for them to melt into the mass of the communal identity, but not enough where the sham of their individuality β their lack of character - is visible.
Obsession with Things: Materialist identity from the desire-fulfillment industry, just with mass-produced garbage and not reddit mechanics this time. Whether itβs good or not matters less than whether it gives them identity.
General Sense of Negativity, Dread, and Cynicism: The nihilist/materialist character in a nutshell. That core manifests itself to them constantly.
Humor is Repeating Things: This is part of the lack of individual identity, which requires wit. They simply repackage phrases & ideas due to the lack of creativity inherent in the redditor. The community provides all that they need to say, their value is in restating it.
They think they are significant: Contempt is a huge quality of the nihilist. They exist by their opinions, and so think their opinions are valuable. They live very small lives, and can be big only within their tiny circles. Theyβve lost touch with that internal element, or soul, and see themselves as part of the massive whole theyβve blended with.
This explains some of the contrarianism. The community generally tends to support contrarian views since it makes the community (& by proxy all the individuals within it) more unique, but they still adopt certain opinions & beliefs which are hard to challenge because then their personal identity is more firmly rooted. Being pro-trans, extremely left, etc, is the safe belief to have because criticism is easier to justifiably remove β plus leftism is often collectivism, group identity. Redditors are never individualists, but firmly believe they are.
Edit:
I'll add that rationalism & pseudo-intellectualism is a characteristic of the redditor, since the nihilist prides himself on his intellect because he can't with anything else. They have just enough intelligence to devalue everything, but not enough to issue meaning.
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Are you feeling okay bud?
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Good point as brilliant as
@HeyMoon's analysis it doesn't fully factor in the incentives and consequences of voting in the explanations (but accurately in the outcomes). A lot of the learned behaviour is a result of this, not just their inherent traits.
The human social instinct is to be accepted, and Reddit attracts/promotes the weak who are most willing to be agreeable and be agreed with. Aka mental midgets who just want to be accepted by imitating other influential commenters and smart dudes who are kitties too scared to be downkongd or openly challenged.
This is cultural democracy in its true form at scale but spawned from a dweeby internet base of power users.
Good time for some HL Menken quotes:
β H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy
"....under democracyβ he writes β. . .Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of the demagogue, and there is the art of what may be calledβ¦the demaslave. . .The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself. Every man who seeks elective office under democracy has to be either the one thing or the other, and most men have to be both . . .No educated man, stating plainly the elementary notions that every educated man holds about the matters that principally concern government, could be elected to office in a democratic state, save perhaps by a miracle.β
β H.L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy
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Yeah - its hard to talk about reddit while separating how the website actually works from the sort of people that use it because the two go hand in hand.
I don't think redditors are born redditors. I think that reddit has a soul-crushing property that is a product of its own layout. It strips people of their personality and replaces it with a shared personality.
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This got buried late in the thread, but I really appreciated reading these quotes. Thanks
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I read your comment and what I see is a description of users on drama. Go down every point and see. I also see myself described too (except for the contempt, Iβm positive vibez onley)
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GOOD comment, I have found myself thinking similar things
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mucho texto gringo
tranquilo
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smart is not wise.
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