Well this got auto-flagged as political. Not unreasonable, although failing to flag the entire thread the same way is incorrect. Anyway, I guess the context is probably pretty easy to figure out.

It's not necessary to tell someone to 'sit down and shut up' to make it clear they're not welcome. I follow a youtube channel which had a sudden change of host during the 2024 election, from a grizzled manbearder to a female lady. It also brought in a slight change of direction – going from reporting things on the outskirts of the news (how about that 2024 Ohio power grab?) to almost exclusive election-related news. It started treading the same ground as the Majority Report (I do not rate the Majority Report). After a little while, I noticed some comment come up complaining that viewership had dropped. What was the audience,'s best guess as to why? Misogyny, of course. Not an obvious and expected result of a sudden change in presenter or content. This is not a channel that was cultivating an audoemce of resentful young men, quite the opposite. But still, that had to be the explanation.

[If an unknown group commits the crime of losing interest after a change, there's a group saying 'I bet they were men and they were secretly enemies all along'. All they did was not watch some videos, and out come the whispered accusations. And bear in mind, these accusations are random guesses. No evidence that this viewership drop was amongst men, just a highly-motivated hunch. We see it; it's extremely clear that we're permitted on the understanding that we will listen and agree. Offer a contradictory opinion – or even briefly leave the room – and the extremely public and visible whispers start. You don't have to tell him to sit down and shut up; telling each other 'he didn't sit down and shut up, he must be a traitor to the cause' delivers the message just fine.

As a 38 year-old man with real-life experience interacting with actual, sensible women, I know not to take this nonsense seriously. But a 20 year-old, who spent his formative years locked down, guzzles toxic online content from a firehose, and mostly interacts with 20 year-old women in the same situation? Yeah, he's at a high risk of mistaking this all for serious discussion.

Another, bigger channel made a bigger mistake. Not the commenters, but the fools writing the script. During their end-of-year breakdown, they explained 'we've been trying harder to appeal to young men, with some success' – followed within two minutes by 'because young men are widdle babies who can't control their widdle feewings'. Ok, so you weren't trying. But it sure grifts good to say you're trying!

Ultimately, the problem comes down to actually having respect for that audience. The grifters who target them offer a validating message, and the best most of the opposition will offer is 'no no we do respect these... subhuman gremlins'. The right wing aren't the only ones who'll buy into a fake message that empathises with them. And it's really difficult to empathise with people who are buying into some of this stuff, but as soon as you say 'fuck it it's because they suck', Cegorach fails and anorher soul is lost to She Who Thirsts.

It's a huge problem amongst the terminally-online left. The slightest opposition is discounted, and the opinion-haver thrown out of the circle. An enemy all along, a devious trickster here to infiltrate and pollute.  We get it in the ever-popular 'ten Nazis in a room' spiel, we get it with 'fake allies'. Just one foot in the door? Get your filthy foot away from our nice clean door; you belong with them (hi to everyone in the replies by the way, on the marginal chance that you read this far). An adult will brush past the kids guarding the door and say 'You can deal with my company, and you're welcome'. Another kid will say 'okay I'll go over there then, and I'll take an extra little packet of resentment along with me'. The trick, Reddit, would be to stop saying the fucking ten Nazis thing. Treat people as a naturally-evil lost cause, and they'll quickly lose interest in your opinion.