r/technology • u/Well_Socialized • 24d ago

Social Media Reddit Is Restricting Luigi Mangione Discourse—but It’s Even Weirder Than That: The website is attacking the users that made it the front page of the internet.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250313203719/https://slate.com/technology/2025/03/reddit-elon-musk-luigi-mangione-censorship.html
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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 23d ago

Don't forget the tankies banding together and taking control of subreddits like r/latestagecapitalism. If you're not pro-russia, you'll find yourself booted from there fast enough to make your head spin.

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u/meteoritegallery 23d ago

Can confirm, that sub is officially "anti-liberal." Had a really weird back and forth with one of that's sub's mods last week where they said that "liberal" was synonymous with neo-conservative imperialism and genocide, and that they actively ban all "liberal" content and "liberals" from the sub.

They've gone so far "left" they're practically r|conservative. So I blocked the sub from my feed. It deserves to be quarantined.

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u/cass1o 23d ago

"liberal" was synonymous with neo-conservative imperialism and genocide

I mean it is. America is the only country where "liberal" is taken to even mean left wing, the party of "liberal" values is pretty right wing.

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u/Hugh_Maneiror 23d ago

That does not mean it is synonymous with neo-conservative imperialism elsewhere. Liberal parties are generally center-left ethically and center-right economically in Europe too.

It kind of depends on where they position themselves to gain electoral ground and had to move towards. Traditionally Europe had always been split between social-democratic factions and christian-democratic factions, and liberals are newer and their general position was an alternative to both that was neither conservative nor socialist in priorities (yes, social-democracy and socialism gets used interchangeably there too). You could find center-left wing liberal parties like Dutch D66 or English LibDem, center liberal parties like German FDP or Flemish VLD, or center-right liberal parties like Dutch VVD or Walloon MR or even Australian Liberal-Conservative Party of QLD.

Where they are kind of just depends on where there was electoral space. The US never had a social-democratic faction, so their relative position was the relative left and I would argue they (moderate/establishment Democrats) are not too dissimilar in view from European liberal parties: left on social issues like individual freedoms, individual rights, self-determination rights (gender, abortion) and center-right on economic issues (pro-capitalist with some preference for worker protection and redistribution).

Differences often just arise from what is the pre-existing state in a country. A highly unequal society would cause liberals to want more attention to accessible healthcare or povery reduction, while highly equal societies with much higher social tax burden would focus on lowering that, maybe with a (for them) equal ideal end state in mind but just having to move in different directions. Same with social issues; euthanasia is heavily supported by some liberal parties where there is societal acceptance for it, but there isn't in the US. Conversely, legalization of weed is less supported by European liberal parties because there is less societal support (and local alcohol industry lobbies are stronger)

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u/Cooletompie 23d ago

Just don't look at canada.

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u/meteoritegallery 23d ago edited 23d ago

I mean it is. America is the only country where "liberal" is taken to even mean left wing, the party of "liberal" values is pretty right wing.

Liberalism means what it means:

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law.

Anything else isn't "liberalism." Liberalism itself has ~no bearing on foreign policy or concepts like imperialism. Historically, any country that has had the military power to subjugate others has done so: structure and ideology of governments haven't played a major role.

In this country, "liberal" now colloquially means "anything left of center" and "conservative" means "anything right of center." "Center" being what I would call socially and fiscally neoliberal-conservative policy on the whole.

Over the past 50 years in the US, terms like "liberal" and "conservative" have completely changed their meanings in popular discourse. "Conservative" used to mean "small government," which kind of makes sense given the dictionary definition of that word. Now it means bloated military, increasing debt, and fiscal policy that can only be described as self-serving oligarchy and regulatory capture. Oh, and you can't forget modern social conservatism, which involves pulling down kids' pants to check their genitals and the government telling people what medical procedures they can and can't get. That's not "conservative," that's big government invasion of privacy.

I don't really see the point of trying to have a discussion about terms like this before defining them, but the fact of the matter is that "liberalism" doesn't mean what you're claiming.

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u/System0verlord 23d ago

They’re not wrong. Liberalism will always prioritize capital over people in times of crisis.

And it was Biden who shipped the bombs to Israel. Our “most progressive president since FDR” was the one arming a genocide despite the lack of support.

And Kamala proposed a border policy basically identical to Trump’s.

There’s truth to the adage “scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds.”

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u/Synectics 23d ago

Our “most progressive president since FDR” was the one arming a genocide despite the lack of support. 

Who did you just quote?

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u/System0verlord 23d ago

WaPo

The progressive caucus

Biden himself

Though I guess I was being understated compared to them.

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u/Ok-Swim1555 23d ago

did you keep a straight face while repeating those hamas bulletin points?

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u/System0verlord 23d ago

I mentioned one thing about Israel, which is just plain true, and my entire comment is hamas bulletin points? Are you even trying anymore? Or do you just see the word Israel and immediately yell “hamas!”?

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u/meteoritegallery 23d ago

Sweeping generalizations like that are nothing more than...that. Every government in history has done the same. The reason socialism doesn't work is similarly human greed. Same thing.

Blaming basic human nature on a liberal political belief system is backwards.

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u/System0verlord 23d ago

Sweeping generalizations such as examples of the two most recent democratic presidents/nominees acting like conservatives?

You just watched an election where liberals turned to fascism to maintain power (and failed against actual fascists lol). There’s nothing generalized there (except the failure of the Democratic Party).

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u/meteoritegallery 23d ago

You're intentionally mixing up terms to make your point, and all it's doing is muddying the water.

Social conservatism pushes regressive, outdated social norms, and politio-economic conservatism is the classic "small government" Republican party of...before the 1960s. In this country we no longer have a "conservative party." Republicans are ~oligarchs using social conservatism to drum up popular support. Corporate welfare is not "conservatism."

I agree that most mainstream Democrats are, at best, neoliberal on the political spectrum, but they don't support cutting services and shrinking the Federal government like a fiscal "conservative," and they are socially ~liberal, so saying they're "acting like conservatives" is...not really true.

You just watched an election where liberals turned to fascism to maintain power (and failed against actual fascists lol).

Which "liberals?" ...The people you've already said are conservative? If you think they're "acting like conservatives," why are you using them as an example of "liberalism?" In reality, they're neoliberal centrists who are colloquially called "liberals" even though their views are ~not liberal.

And I don't recall seeing any significant instances of fascism coming from Democrats, anyway. I wouldn't even call the odd instances of Republican supporters burning ballot boxes significant instances of fascism though, as a half dozen idiots in a country of 350 million doesn't = fascism.

I think that comment in particular suggests that you are not here in good faith.

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u/SirPseudonymous 23d ago

"Tankie" is just "woke" for fash who are trying to wear a mask. Right now you're whining that people disagree with your neocon policies, right below you is someone whining about anticapitalism disagreeing with capitalism, and every "aNtI-TaNkIe" space invariably ends up a den of open frothing fash indistinguishable from 4chan.

Turns out racism, sexism, general chauvinism and bigotry, and anticommunism all go hand in hand: where you have one, you have all of them.

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u/SwagginsYolo420 23d ago

"Tankies" are right-wingers trying to stir up trouble.

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u/space_guy95 23d ago

Not everyone you disagree with is a right-winger.

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u/SwagginsYolo420 22d ago

Don't be naive though about anonymous online accounts posting intentionally disruptive content.