Reddit CEO admits to altering user comments that were critical of him

Please stop using this "alt-right" terminology. All its doing is trying to put a neutral label on a group of vile people. People that are blatantly racist, misogynist, and just anti-American. These are the same kinds of monsters that started the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" in the 1930's. They used the same rhetoric and played on desperate people's fears and prejudices.

My grandparents didn't fight on two fronts to see this bullshit taking over the United States.

I'd be wary of calling things anti-american in the context of politics, that label has something of a history.

I think the "alt-right" term has its use. After all, not all of the people we are talking about here are sadistic monsters. Even among those engaging in the juvenile, antagonistic bigotism and bullying that is pervasive on /r/the_donald are a large group of otherwise reasonable people who feel alienated by the progressive left, and have simply bought into the all of the recent rhetoric against political correctness.

Those people have been mislead, to be sure, but it isn't accurate or useful to assume they are malicious.

this sort of snarky comment is exactly what turns me off HN.

what exactly is the point of your comment. do you think you are providing any sort of service to the readers of this thread.

does the fact that the OP was incorrect in a minor part of his comment invalidate the rest of it?

does your comment make you feel superior in anyway?

in the future, when posting a retort please ellucidate.

It might just be a correction, nothing more. I've done the same in the past in the interest of improving the original comment. Perhaps it could have been made clearer (e.g., "note:", s/1930s/1920/). I'm not sure you can read too much into it.

Parent's rhetoric is self-righteous namecalling. That does nothing to persuade people, it only makes them come back at you. He/she may think they do a service to people, but they are only turning more people to name-callers. As such my snarky comment was deserved. If that interrupted our moment of collective atonement, i apologize.

Why be snarky at all? How does that promote civil discussion?

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13027203 and marked it off-topic.

>My grandparents didn't fight on two fronts to see this bullshit taking over the United States.

Your countryfolk elected "this bullshit", so consider that what you and your grandparents want might not really be relevant.

thank you for the alternative explanation. your are most likely correct and my comment was a bit over the top for the situation.

i still stick by my point that there is a level of pedantry on HN that really turns me off

Thanks for acknowledging it :)

When pedantry serves as a roadblock to honest, charitable discussion, I agree :) I've written plenty of comments only to not-submit them, and deleted others right after posting. I've really tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, ignore small jibes if I can, and try to understand where people I may not agree with are coming from. After all, if I can't understand them, I'm not sure I can ask them to understand me. It's a work in progress. :)

PS: And actually, given their other follow-up comment,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13027616

I'm not sure if the charitable interpretation was the correct one. Even so, assuming malice rarely moves things forward.

Impact matters more than intent.

(1): That's a gross oversimplification. Trumps support was not primarily alt-right, they were at best a vocal, but small part. Even if they were a significant part of the coalition, this election doesn't suddenly validate those views. A fundamental part of our system is the protection from the tyranny of the majority...

(2): this is an impressive extension of the 'sour grapes' response meme. We're going to shit on WWII vets if they don't (rhetorically) get on the trump train now?

You've got it backwards. Almost nobody encompassed by the "alt-right" label approves of its usage. It was created by the left to brand and contain the movement. See this movement? They're the alt-right because I said so. Oh and they have nazis. Bingo, movement discredited. You can see the wheels turning in the old media's head.

Your post is a good example of how the left is going to lose really hard in the coming years. Politically motivated leftist outsiders like you, reaching reasonable conclusions of your ideology, are pushing the exact opposite narratives that your overlords want you to. The result can only be more infighting destroying you from the inside out.

I feel confident entering the hornet's nest to say this because I know the mob will not heed my warnings, and instead devour any of their own that stop to listen. The left can neither win with nor without people like you, and so it is doomed to either disappear or transform into something not recognizable in comparison to its former self. Something far more right wing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

1) What? Fact: the electorate chose Trump as the next US president. The fact that most of the country wants what you don't want doesn't make it a tyranny of the majority.

2) I don't care who is on what train, and I'm not shitting on anyone. Fact: OP's grandparents didn't fight for Trump to not be president. That what OP's grandparents or OP want is in contradiction with what the USA got isn't an indication of tyranny. What OP or OP's grandparents want doesn't generalize to what everyone else wants or should want, that's the point, and it's not an insult.