This was on the front page a day or 2 ago, right near the top:

It seemed… inorganic. And I’m not sure what the gold trim is on those posts. Other posts didn’t have them.

  • Maoo [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    The normal thing on Reddit is to parrot the imperial line and ban socialists and their subs. This leaves a political chasm where fascism can be normalized. It’s usually not normalized so obviously as “look at these Nazis isn’t it cool that meemaw met this genocidal fuck” though. Most fascism of the empire is already mostly normalized and these folks just push for it even more: scapegoating immigrants, creating forms of acceptable racism against out-groups, promoting privatization, demonizing socialists, justifying settler-colonialism for their “friends”, blood & soil rhetoric, etc.

    Two examples:

    • Frothing-at-the-mouth blood & soil rhetoric premised on Russophobia and giving Ukrainians the “white” treatment.

    • Pretending to care about Uyghurs while spending zero time researching it and only caring to the extent that they can hate China and fantasize about Balkanizing it.

    Re: these particular posts, Reddit has been astroturfed for ages. In addition to oddly-timed posts, the dramatic difference in opinion and tone between large and established vs. and small or newer subreddits is massive. You’ll see polar opposite levels of astroturfing between “worldpolitics” (fashy chauvinist opinions and banning the left on sight) and “fauxmoi” (filled with better opinions that are common among 20-30 year olds). It’s kind of entertaining to explore why zoomers on a gossip subreddit are more politically informed and worldly than the “commenters” on a much larger subreddit dedicated to the topic. A lot of it does seem to be bots and left-punching directives from corporate.

    • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
      2·
      1 year ago

      As someone who has a semi-direct connection to ukrainian refugees: yes, they absolutely get the „white treatment“. But this has nothing to do with russophobia. Russia is as much the devil as google is. Same goes for china.

      The issue with differently looking people with different religious views and non-central-european cultural values does correctly register as foreign. Everyone who says different lacks reflection.

      It is the fact that people treat foreign as lesser that makes this world suck. We lack forced scientific education in public television. People who have no intention to read and educate themselves need to be taught that the earth is round, what fascists did to people and why you should wear a mask in tight public spaces, especially in winter time or if youre sick.

      And the most disturbing part is that dividing left/right only helps those in power stay in power.