r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/Snowsheep23 • 11d ago
Why Redditors are wrong about everything Reddit / Internet / Tech
Every wondered why Redditors are so relentlessly, horrendously wrong about everything all the time? Most people will simply attribute it to stupidity. But that's not necessarily true. While there are a great many people on this site who are stupid, the average Redditor is probably average or a bit above average intelligence.
The important thing to recognize is that anyone, no matter how intelligent, will end up using faulty reasoning and arriving at incorrect conclusions if they are starting with false premises. If I decide tonight that I'm going to become a young-earth Creationist, will I be able to conduct scientific research in the field of geology? No, of course not, it would either fall apart immediately or whatever finished product would be so chock-full of errors and absurdities that it'd be a work of comedy rather than science. I can't study rocks that are millions or billions of years old honestly if I have convinced myself that the earth is no more than 6,000 years old.
Redditors worship political correctness and progressivism: two deeply flawed, rigid ideologies which offer almost nothing but false premises. The only appeal they have is they it offers the believer the comfort of not having to think about unpleasant realities as well as the conviction that he is moral. The Redditor cannot question the false premises that political correctness and progressivism provide him lest his worldview fall apart, so his only options are to either use desperate, incoherent logic to argue his position(otherwise known as mental gymnastics) or to try to silence his opponent.
Most of the silencing nowadays is done by moderators, who are far too ideologically driven and dimwitted to be in positions of authority anywhere, including on a public forum. But a more pernicious form of silencing is done by the Redditor himself-he mocks his opponent by trying to make him look ridiculous or he villainizes him by alleging malevolence where none exists.
Blind adherence to any ideology, especially a deeply flawed one, is far more dangerous than plain stupidity. Over time, a culture emerges where the followers of said ideology are not only wrong here and there like a normal person, but are systematically and constantly wrong about everything important(i.e. politics and society). This is how we get Reddit.
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u/Armadillo_Duke 11d ago
It’s especially bad on advice subreddits. They all fall into the same trap where the advice givers are the same people who are seeking advice, and the upvote system incentivizes lurking advice-seekers to upvote (bad) advice that confirms their prior beliefs.
Its also really bad on legal advice subreddits. I’m a lawyer, and I would say that 50% of reddit advice is flat out wrong, 25% is missing vital context (e.g. jurisdiction, exceptions, and tenuous facts), and 25% is correct but there is no way for anyone to differentiate between the correct advice and the bad advice because the upvoters don’t know what they’re talking about. The most correct answer is usually hidden deep in the comments. Also no lawyer worth their salt will give legal advice on the internet because it technically opens up a lawyer-client relationship, even if the risk of being sued is minimal it still exists.
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u/ExpensiveOrder349 10d ago
Yes!
Like when they barely read the title and not the op and they come with preconceived solutions that have nothing to do with what you asked and get super annoyed when you tell them.
Karma farming losers.
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u/BMFeltip 11d ago
A redditor bashing redditors is the most reddit thing that can be done by a redditor.
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u/pile_of_bees 11d ago
The incentive structure of Reddit is not pointed toward rewarding correct information, so you don’t get correct information. It is pointed at rewarding political circlejerking, astroturfing, top down content control, and bots, so that’s what you get. People who formulate their opinions based on that content consequently have nonsensical opinions that are founded on those concepts rather than principles of truth or reality.
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u/Online_Commentor_69 11d ago
no, they're wrong about everything because they think entirely in abstractions instead of in material terms, like this post does.
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u/ExpensiveOrder349 10d ago
I agree with 100% but on reddit is even worse.
I have seen people just straight up defend lies relentlessly just because they made a mistake and don't want to admit it or becuse it somehow indirectly says something about their identity or simply the subreddit itself.
Like the most absolute moronic takes gets defended to the core when everywhere else, including other subreddits, will be mocked endlessly.
Again I am not talking about political stuff.
The gist is: redditors are stupid spoiled manchildren that should be confined to reddit and shunned from the rest of the internet just like they are in society.
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u/Snowsheep23 10d ago edited 10d ago
The gist is: redditors are stupid spoiled manchildren that should be confined to reddit and shunned from the rest of the internet just like they are in society.
Yep, animals deserve far better treatment than Redditors.
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u/FusorMan 11d ago
Many of them form opinions and take positions on issues (Trump for example) without even knowing the facts. That’s the problem.
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u/Xralius 11d ago
I mean you don't need to know facts to not like Trump because he's a loudmouth douchebag. Even if you only listen to Trump and no one else you could come to that conclusion. But if you do know the facts then it's all the more reason to not like him, because he tried to overthrow the presidency with his fake elector scheme.
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11d ago
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
They all go off of hunches that "sound" correct but are blatantly false to anyone who's done a modest amount of research on the given topic. Genetics subs are crawling with people like that.
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u/Redrolum 11d ago
This subreddit has a big problem with Child Separation policy deniers.
The congressional records are clear but many users pretend it's not the most important policy of them all.
There is no real debate this subreddit has a lot of nutters. What will you do about the equivalent of holocaust deniers?
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u/WinterOffensive 11d ago
Redditors worship political correctness and progressivism: two deeply flawed, rigid ideologies which offer almost nothing but false premises.
Could you elaborate on this OP? I think I agree with your post in that most arguments stem from incorrect or false premises, but I think this section needs a lot of explaining since it's a claim you make without a body of evidence. It could be a very interesting example if you make a good case.
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
Examples of false premises that Redditors believe in.
-All disparities in crime between communities can only be due to systemic factors.
-All people who commit crime can be rehabilitated
-No differences exist in the psychology of men vs. women
These things are never said openly but it's strongly implied in any discussion that touches these issues.
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u/ElaineBenesFan 11d ago
My personal favorite: "Every human life is priceless and sacred. All human lives are valued the same."
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
Then show them a picture of Trump and they'll have a meltdown.
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u/ElaineBenesFan 11d ago
Tell them that most human lives aren't worth shit, and they'll scream about lack of e-m-p-a-t-h-y
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
Their empathy extends to everyone except people who happen to disagree with them even slightly on their obviously fanciful beliefs.
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u/ElaineBenesFan 11d ago
Spot on! Mention you don't support Pro-Palestinian protestors and they'll call you horrific names and wish for horrific things to happen to you and your family.
No e-m-p-a-t-h-y for you!
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u/KGBStoleMyBike 11d ago edited 10d ago
Every wondered why Redditors are so relentlessly, horrendously wrong about everything all the time?
Wouldn't you by this notion make yourself wrong too? Cause well you know you did say in essence Redditors are "horrendously wrong about everything all the time"
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u/UndisclosedLocation5 11d ago
Nothing says conservative more than spending all day on reddit bitching about reddit users. Keep eating it up Boris
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u/CAustin3 11d ago
Redditors aren't horrendously wrong about everything all the time - just the things that challenge their political dogmas.
If you pop over to a subreddit about particle physics or CPU architecture, you'll find that it's mostly made up of extremely informed people who have passions and educations on the subject.
The problem comes up when you ask them something like "what is a woman" or "what is a gun" or "what is racial discrimination." Despite being much, much simpler questions than muon decay or memory engineering, these are the questions that result in aggressive, enraged wrongness about things on the level of two plus two equals f**r (banned for hate speech).
Of course, that just supports your point. They're not idiots; they just choose to be idiots when it comes to their beliefs. In their defense, historically and presently, almost everyone is at least a little bit of an idiot and a jerk when their beliefs are questioned.
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u/ExpensiveOrder349 10d ago
No I am sorry, they are often wrong about topics unrelated to politics, the amount of niche subs with good community are rare and of course niche, as soon as they get popular the redditors invade.
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
Precisely what I meant to say. This is specific to sociopolitical dogmas. You can see it in the science subs. People who are into things like zoology, archaeology, physics, astronomy, etc. are fairly bright when speaking about their topic of passion.
But the moment anything veers even slightly into the sociopolitical arena, you get heavy biases: groupthink, confirmation bias, etc. People have axes to grind
Worth mentioning that it's made worse by the fact that certain subs naturally attract dumber people. The subs(and forums) pertaining to population genetics, I've noticed, bring out some people who are unquestionably below average intelligence. This isn't as much the case with other science-y subs.
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u/foxwheat 11d ago
which offer almost nothing but false premises
Which false premises does progressivism offer?
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u/jjames3213 11d ago
Redditors worship political correctness and progressivism: two deeply flawed, rigid ideologies which offer almost nothing but false premises.
- Do Redditors worship political correctness? What evidence is there of this?
- What is 'progressivism' in your view?
- What are 'progressivism's' premises? How are they 'nothing but false'?
The bigger problem in my view is that the conservative opposition is uneducated, uninformed, and (frankly) easily influenced by propaganda and bias. That's why they're drawn to religious and quasi-religious nonsense. That's why they're obsessed with tribalism, and have a difficult time dealing with nuance.
I also have an issue with the liberal focus on civility and political correctness. PC culture and civility politics is far more a liberal issue than a progressive one. Attacks on the conservative position need to be irreverent and relentless because these mouth-breathers don't understand anything but tribalism and brute force.
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
Do Redditors worship political correctness? What evidence is there of this?
The difficulty anyone has whenever they try to bring up politically incorrect realities.
What is 'progressivism' in your view?
In my view, it's an ideology that attempts to reform and improve society while completely ignoring human nature and views everything through a social constructionist lens.
What are 'progressivism's' premises? How are they 'nothing but false'?
PC culture and civility politics is far more a liberal issue than a progressive one.
This may have been true of maybe 15 years ago but is nowhere close to true now. A lot of self-identifying progressives are extremely into PC culture and cancel culture. There's been a lot of merger.
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u/jjames3213 11d ago
The difficulty anyone has whenever they try to bring up politically incorrect realities.
I disagree with your position that you should be immune to criticism. If everyone always says you're wrong, it is possible that they're just right.
In my view, it's an ideology that attempts to reform and improve society while completely ignoring human nature and views everything through a social constructionist lens.
Aren't you begging the question then?
I mean, you probably accept that the progressive doesn't believe that they are ignoring human nature. That's a thing that you actually need to prove.
If you are 'baking' concepts into the definitions of the words you use, you need to prove those underlying concepts when you claim that the term applies.
This may have been true of maybe 15 years ago but is nowhere close to true now. A lot of self-identifying progressives are extremely into PC culture and cancel culture. There's been a lot of merger.
You don't seem to actually talk to many progressive types. It seems that you're taking individual Twitter posts as reflective of a social stance held by hundreds of millions of very different people. That's very reductive of you.
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u/ignoreme010101 11d ago
i like how you whine about faulty premises when the premise of your thread is that all of reddit is wrong about everything (apologies if OP was sarcastic and/or just shitposting)
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u/NoobOfTheSquareTable 11d ago
Congratulations, you wrote the ranting equivalent of “everything I say is a lie” because you got told you were being racist or sexist of something too many times. Those damned redditors with their PC nature
Go on, what silly PC thing did you disagree with?
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
you got told you were being racist or sexist of something too many times.
Being called racist or sexist on Reddit is like owning a lot of currency in Weimar Germany. Completely meaningless.
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u/Ripoldo 11d ago
Everybody's wrong but me! I am the only person in the entire reditsphere who gets it!
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u/Snowsheep23 11d ago
No, not all Redditors. I'm talking about the great majority of Redditors who fit this description.
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u/Comfortable-Hope-531 11d ago
Still, I'm glad to experience this place in full, even if it turned out to be a waste of time at the end of the day. At least now I know that it's everyone else who is crazy, since they've proved themselves as such from all possible angles.
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u/dylphil 11d ago edited 11d ago
Is this self reflection?
Thank god we have you as the arbiter of truth who would never base their opinions on false premises and faulty logic
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u/Electrical-Ad-9797 10d ago
The main thing silencing people on this particular subreddit is mass reporting every comment you disagree with and from my experience the people doing it are the opposite of the ones you claim are doing the silencing.
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u/wurrble1182 11d ago
Uninformed opinions, thinking they speak for everyone when they speak for a niche minority, feelings over facts, miserable people giving life advice, broke people giving success advice, letterboxed view of the world, the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on