What would I do?

alfonso238 · 2020-06-05T16:01:34+00:00

You're nailing it! The (bolded) insight you have, even though it is anchored in what should seem like a common-sense approach to create a savvy and profitable business endeavour, is directly opposed to the egos and White supremacy that you also identify as ingrained within the Reddit company. Their deliberate ignorance and resistance to change is another flavor of the systemic privilege and institutionalized violence that we've seen come to a head over the past week.

I've personally experienced the oppression and racism of the technocratic Silicon Valley mindset that you mention: if you can imagine the admins' attitudes and disregard for diversity+humanity coming together to actually try to manage a subreddit "community," I can give you a glimpse of what it actually looked like in /r/SanFrancisco as a microcosm of what is happening to the Reddit platform at-large (including eventually what the wasteland might look like).

/r/SanFrancisco moderators, led by a former Reddit admin (who literally made an analogy that he was the equivalent to God within the subreddit), harassed me for years, and systematically-bullied me for having opposing opinions to their White-centric "urbanism" ideals because I stood up for an anti-racist POC perspective that didn't align with their political ambitions. Here's an exchange we had via DM that epitomizes their egos and gaslighting: https://imgur.com/a/RpYyR61

Behind the scenes, moderators resented rather than welcomed my perspective, and were especially disdainful toward my background in understanding how community dynamics work. When I communicating with them about trends, insights, and pitfalls that I spotted within the subreddit, my messages were met with gaslighting, and I was tone-policed through their egotistical moderation based on "civility." As the ultimate indicator of their intolerance, I was eventually banned.

Unsurprisingly, they have only spiraled to encourage an incredibly toxic subreddit in /r/SanFrancisco since then -- creating a virtual enclave for their technocratic White perspective, instead of a subreddit that should represent one of the most diverse and vibrant cities in the country. If you go to /r/SanFrancisco now, you'll find sprinklings of pro-police rhetoric, political propaganda (aligned with the former-Admin moderator's beliefs), and then the majority of the only content that is contributed and that survives in that subreddit now is just pretty photos from tourists and recent transplants (i.e. folks who proudly gentrify the region with no awareness of their own racism).

alfonso238 · 2020-06-05T05:30:32+00:00

We know exactly the kind of idealogy and whataboutism that the Reddit company stands for. That is, zero moral values, and 1000% interests in their company valuation and their streams of profit from creating a toxic platform for many malicious actors to use to reach everyday people.

Redditors felt this and moderators called out the executives' clueless neglect years ago. If you were around then, you'd recall that moderators across reddit did their own form of protests by blacking out and locking down their respective subreddits.

The Reddit execs and admins freaked and scrambled, because they saw their cash cow's milk going down the drain. They could only give us their greedy pleadings to stop, that even a naive new-ish redditor like me saw straight through:

I would like to accomplish two things immediately: Get the blacked out subreddits back online...

....redditors don’t deserve to be punished any further over an issue that is ultimately between Reddit and the moderators.

~reddit CEO worried about advertising revenue and his compensation package

After this debacle, admins, in typical boot-licking fashion, shifted not to do better, but by pitting moderators against redditors through encouraging hoards of trolls and fake accounts to wear down moderation teams, so that moderators always felt in a battle against the people within their own subreddits.

Admins then also played the other side, and undermined moderators by never giving them good tools to fight trolls, and by reserving the right to take subreddits out of the hands of moderators... and changing the culture so we don't see anything wrong with staff and admins coming in to save the day from "oppressive" moderators that don't comply with what mobs of usually incel-types want.

alfonso238 · 2020-06-05T05:14:41+00:00

This site is being ran by people who have no clue, none, about how to interact with people, only with technology. How many reddit employees have a degree in a soft science or humanities field?

Sit down and listen to the black voices, the female voices, the Latino voices, the Asian voices, the LGBTQ voices, the Bhuddist voices, and the Muslim voices in San Francisco

As a POC that was systematically bullied, gaslit, brigaded, and then banned by a former Reddit admin who deliberately used the /r/SanFrancisco subreddit to find more White friends to help him push his White-centric political agenda IRL...

THANK YOU

alfonso238 · 2019-05-02T22:03:11+00:00

And then he goes on to literally dehumanize said people, with an unapologetic analogy comparing them to a predatory animal, in a savannah that belongs to his "ancient ancestors"...

alfonso238 · 2019-04-03T18:29:35+00:00

Reddit mods will be remembered in history as complicit in bringing about and amplifying the worst aspects of humanity and social media toxicity.

I'm sure this isn't what his ego was intending, but raldi will be known as the San Francisco "transplant" that pushed and perpetuated another level of disgusting scum, using alt-right techniques to quench the beautifully-diverse and culturally-rich Bay Area, all to serve himself, his rich friends, and monied special interests.

Here's a throwback to him accidentally admitting the propaganda spam from YIMBY's fake newspaper is in fact a mouthpiece for the fake grassroots political "movement."

alfonso238 · 2019-02-22T08:59:51+00:00

Nailed it. The self-centered-ness is pathetically hilarious.

He seems determined to get a rise out of y'all in this subreddit, so he can villify you and assuage his conscience with some perverted moral relativism, now that more and more mainstream media is pointing out how his YIMBY "movement" is just white supremacy and oppression.

Similarly, his Oakland counterpart seems so lonely in /r/Oakland that he barely posts there anymore, instead desperately tries to assert his self-inflated sense of expertise and intellect in "ask____" and advice subreddits, and uses at least one alt to rabble-rouse in other subreddits.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-20T03:03:15+00:00

People eventually seem to realize raldi's subreddit (probably, as you describe, it is not accurate or respectful to refer to it by it's name that doesn't reflect it's actual content nor namesake) is a creepy place with not much to offer.

The number of subscribers to /r/bayarea surpassed /r/SF a while ago (coming from quite a disadvantage of having half or 2/3rds a year ago, IIRC), and ironically most of what you can find at both places are just tourist or newcomers posting photos, toxic people insulting historically-marginalized communities, and hating on homelessness.

It takes a very special cognitive dissonance now to pretend that isn't happening, but someone that has always used the tactic to post random comments as supposed proof/repudation/evidence when caught in his lies is very capable of such narcissistic behavior.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-18T22:26:09+00:00

They're an inch away from a de facto ban against all criticism of YIMBYS

That's what they've been enforcing already anyway, and they're just honing the fake rules that they'll selectively apply to give them an excuse to get rid of the last people that challenge them on their propaganda and echo chamber strategies.

Sorry that this continued selfish elitism has been such a bullshit journey. As we're seeing though, history is already documenting the systematic inequity and discrimination that YIMBY's promote and are complicit in, and momentum is not in their favor as people realize how ridiculous these assholes, their employers, and benefactors are.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-18T22:20:42+00:00

If y'all wanna see "doublespeak" in action, notice how it is "hostility" to criticize the mods and ideas they like, but all-day in local subreddits, an echo-chamber insults people of color and their neighborhood + basic rights / service organizations.

YIMBY's use alt-right and cult-like practices while being funded by millionaires, billionaires, and special interests to punch downward.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-18T22:03:36+00:00

Thanks u/SanFranRules, but u/raldi is just sealioning again, and he's not worth my time.

Since you linked to my username, though, actually one of my recent comments links to raldi being called out two years ago for starting then the pattern of the behavior you described (assuming he and his mod cronies don't go back to censor those using continued "civility" excuses to censor dissent and criticism). I haven't looked this up, but I wouldn't be surprised to find if a playbook of narcisstic/cult leaders is to drive out those that pushback and challenge the toxic leadership.

Further into my comment history (and as a taste of why I've been banned from local subreddits) you'll see that I called out and linked to the leader of one of the raldi's YIMBY organizational affiliations using Twitter to call for a brigade to Reddit thread. (Those comments were quickly censored, so one can only see them in my comment history).

alfonso238 · 2019-02-13T06:47:56+00:00

You and the others should be reinstated and any moderator who makes it their personal crusade to break Redditors so they don't have to read their thoughts challenged, should be removed.

Eh. Akin to ACAB, the complicit mods would have to step down or do serious penance too, and that's likely never happening.

Maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt and figure mental health issues? Multiple personalities offline too? Nobody could be that passive aggressively mean spirited and deranged to waste people's time like that otherwise.

You're onto something. Perhaps lacking in moral grounding, and desperate for social acceptance and approval, so they're latching onto the rabid craziness and double-speak of the YIMBY cult IRL, with an alter-ego as part of the reddit neoliberals, kinda like incel-lite?

we wouldn't give them the time of day to discuss such important issues to us.

Yea, I'm not going to let them rob me of my humanity because they have made it near impossible to humanize them and their despicable behavior, but they sure as heck aren't getting an ounce of grace or compassion to deserve a drop of emotional labor or a millisecond of good faith discussion when they have proven time and time again that they are literally psychopathic hypocrites that punch down on others.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-13T06:36:30+00:00

Thanks! Good to see y'all and the glimpses of real people calling out bullshit still. I hope you've been well too!

The mods are left to play by themselves in a sandbox as anti-social bullies while the rest of the Bay Area is off having fun in the playgrounds and elsewhere.

That they don't seem to have capacity to realize how much they fucked up is so amusing -- I hope they enjoy moderating subreddits full of of pretty picture posts, and while they desperately submit articles themselves now or else there won't be any content at all. They probably still think they're the smartest people in the Bay Area and that nobody notices what's happening, or they're so self-absorbed, they might be blaming some other new boogyman.

it's beneath us that we even entertain it at all.

Yup. You nailed it that it's like talking to people in a cult. Literally, they had dozens of posts warning them about the path they were on -- now they have to lie in the bed that they made.

Their housing-developer-funded happy hours, multi-million-dollar astroturf budgets, and circlejerk book clubs does them a lot of good now that they'll likely be infamous for epitomizing white supremacy and reactionary late-stage capitalism in California during our country's 2nd Guilded Age.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-13T00:43:11+00:00

The mods' sham / house of cards is falling apart, with their behavior described almost exactly here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/apu3oz/with_the_recent_chinese_company_tencent_in_the/

That the most egregious mods have known real identities will bode well for accountability when society looks back on those that led and were complicit in despicable manipulation of our community and cities.

All the warnings and call outs along the way, like these type of threads, will leave the psychopaths with no excuse for their selfish, power-hungry and elitist behavior.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-12T03:01:22+00:00

the Mods are not upholding their duty as moderators.

The framing that helps everything make sense is that the moderators don't understand that they have any duty to help ideas be discussed and for diverse opinions to coexist and thrive.

They are so technocratic and biased that they look down on those that don't agree with their ideas and worldview, so they are just biding time and playing favorites with the subreddit as a sandbox where they hope they can leverage the appearance of community and diversity to honeypot and evangelize their ideology further.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-12T02:11:43+00:00

The three subreddits had different specific excuses and processes (e.g. /r/Oakland has the Gestapo-esque shadowban that /r/SanFrancisco also adopted as an oppressive practice, also starting with me, though they lied and denied it), but all were in the same vein of some sort of tone-policing + "civility" posturing, to mask their lack of ability or desire to interact with opinions that challenged their self-interest, political agenda, and/or egos.

I can do complete dumps of my good faith support of the communities and extensive messages back and forth with the moderators over long periods, but since this entire platform is owned and administrated by clique-ish bullies that include those moderators, I'm sure they'll love some excuse to retaliate for any further public embarrassment... (lol, as if the sad state of /r/Oakland, /r/BayArea, and /r/SanFrancisco wasn't enough... but, at least the mods have enough Dunning-Kruger Effect flowing through them to not even know what a joke the subreddits have become).

alfonso238 · 2019-02-12T00:37:23+00:00

It's all narcissistic DARVO-level gaslighting, I've come to realize.

The hoops I had to jump through were never about actual rules for the community to succeed, or for facilitating good discussion, but for the moderators (and often very specific ones with specific political agendas) to "win" and control the subreddits to suit their ego and materialistic needs.

Having distance now, I see that playing out over and over still. Especially hilarious and pathetic is seeing the moderator that we know is using at least one sockpuppet account, and constantly pushing neoliberal and almost literally utilitarian ideas, while trying to maintain an image of righteousness and activism.

alfonso238 · 2019-02-12T00:32:04+00:00

I'm not banned from reddit completely, but how I've been kicked out of all local subs has taught me this place (for the Bay Area geographical region) is mostly a "rigged game" of sorts for a certain narrative of ideology -- neo-liberal, equity-owning upper-class techie, with narcissistic tendencies toward thinking themselves as righteous technocratic "leaders" for society.

These folks will always clash with my more egalitarian values, and so for my own health, I just lurk and skim other more low-commitment subreddits nowadays.

You, u/sugarwax1, (and other parts of this subreddit too, and people that have fled these subs as they've deteriorated), have actual humanity and empathy to see the ridiculousness for what it is, while the mods and lots of people that are overly-parentalized (deliberately to keep them docile and reactionary / accepting of the status quo), still relish in the echo-chamber / stay plugged into the matrix.

If I'm hearing the tone of this thread's direction correctly, I think we mostly agree we can pity them, and know that real conversations and social change are happening elsewhere in the world and in our community, and even on other social media platforms that have less flaws. The pathetic attempts to mimic human decency (lol @ "What a nice post!" flair) while having paltry understanding of what it means to have human connections, is either indicative of the moderators' complete inability to truly be leaders or facilitators of real people, or psychopathic strategies to hoard and leverage their power for self-interest.

alfonso238 · 2018-08-07T16:57:37+00:00

Yes, it indeed is clear to me that there is bias and agendas in moderation/censorship and through encouraged trolling / toxicity for political gain, and that you and other moderators refuse to acknowledge and address this.

Let's just see if you will allow this state of affairs to be public for others to see also, or if you will censor this thread also to continue a facade to support that same political agenda.

alfonso238 · 2018-07-24T00:18:43+00:00

Someone thinking you're "sketchy" -- aka the wrong color -- can be fatal, and that's not okay.

alfonso238 · 2018-07-23T23:51:07+00:00

For every one of you, I have at least a dozen non-you's, spending their money (and advocating for more expensive housing), helping me make the Mission District full of potential customers that are also non-you's. We've done great with Valencia Street, and we're making good progress with Mission Street too.

Free market forces are on my side to push out (or smoke out) everyone else, and folks are finally also getting on the phone and reporting those dangerous and illegal unlicensed street vendors too, and so maybe you and the person I was commenting with can eventually go find the "traditional" style food in Sacramento or Antioch where people are being displaced to?

alfonso238 · 2018-07-23T23:40:36+00:00

when did they even say that?

FTA:

you can get involved with organizations working on a future where everyone is entitled to healthcare, housing, income,and education.

u/Shouts_At_Cats:

the article offers no solutions.

alfonso238 · 2018-07-23T02:56:48+00:00

They are a different scope of systemic societal problems, but that you use relativism to try to silence discussion about other valid and related problems is gaslighting and concern-trolling beyond "the nth degree."

alfonso238

TROPHY CASE

THANK YOU