r/the_donald And Reddit’s Insanely Blatant Selective Enforcement

If you use Reddit, by now you have probably heard that the site’s largest pro-Trump forum has been quarantined. Quarantines on Reddit amount to somewhat of a shadow-ban. The quarantined sub won’t appear on the front page, will be tougher to find in search results and is marked with a “warning” flair.

More often than not, however, quarantines are precursors to outright bans. So why, may you ask, is Reddit on the verge of shutting down their largest hub of Trump supporters – a subreddit with over 750,000 subscribers? They claim, for “threats of violence against police officers” in regards to the Oregon legislature debacle.

Of course, anyone who browses that subreddit knows this is complete and total bullshit. R/the_donald, commonly referred to as “TD”, is an overwhlemingly pro law enforcement subreddit. In addition to the sub’s support for the police overall, many cops themselves are routine posters. The idea that TD would be a hub of “calls to violence against police officers” is so asinine to anyone who isn’t seeing what they want to see. What TD was up in arms against, however, was the Oregon Governor acting as if she can use state troopers as her own private police force. Kate Brown really let her authoritarian side show on this one, considering she herself endorsed a walk-out in in 2001. As a result, state militias stated that they would protect the senators in a situation that remains tense.

R/the_donald Is A Very Tightly Run Ship Out Of Necessity

Now, were there users in r/the_donald who said some out of bounds stuff in regards to the Oregon situation? Of course, but none of the comments cited by Reddit had widespread support and most were removed.

Like any online community, r/the_donald is subject to any number of characters. You’ve got trolls, people who never leave the internet and full on radicals. Sure you can ban their accounts/remove comments – as r/the_donald has always done – but there will still be out of bounds content that seeps through the cracks. Any reasonable person can understand this, but there are agendas at play here.

R/the_donald has long been a target of Reddit. Subs like r/againsthatesubreddits – Reddit’s version of Media Matters – have long had the sub in their cross-hairs. Reddit is also an overwhelmingly left-leaning site as a whole, so TD has always been under increased scrutiny.

As a long time browser and occasional poster, I’ve observed first-hand just how tame r/the_donald truly is. Racist, violent and anti-Semitic posts are routinely down-voted, reported and promptly removed. Again, is it perfect? Of course not, but to say r/the_donald should be quarantined due to a few cherry-picked comments is absurd given what else lurks on Reddit.

Left-Leaning Subreddits Have A Documented History Of Calls To Violence That Reddit Ignores

Reddit is home to some of the most deranged, out of touch leftist thought on the internet. If you think Twitter is bad, it’s tame compared to Reddit. At least 3 “orange man bad” stories on the front page every day, generic anti-Trump subreddits with up-vote counts that make no sense, and some of the most blatant astro-turf you’ll ever see. Since Reddit (historically) has been more anonymous, astro-turf is much easier to pull off. It’s gotten so uncomfortably ham-fisted that you’ll be finding spontaneous discussions about Drumpf’s concentration camps in movie sub-reddits. It’s fuckin whack, and anyone who was on Reddit pre-election can notice the shift.

Since Reddit is overwhelmingly left-wing (and a recipient of Chinese investment), far left subreddits are undisturbed. R/ChapoTrapHouse is the home of every edgy socialist you’ve ever met. Ya know that kid you vaguely remember from high school who posts Antifa tier shit on Facebook to the point where you unfriend him, but is absolutely timid when you run into him at the grocery store? This subreddit is where they all congregate.

Chapo is filled with calls to violence, edgelord reactions to the suffering of their political opponents and just overall scumbaggotry. R/LateStageCapitalism is more of the same and supposedly “neutral subs” like r/politics are only populated by the most radical of leftists. Calls to violence (not removed and with up-votes) have been well documented there, in r/news, r/pics and other subs. Here’s a brief list:

r/LateStageCapitalism mods about someone’s Cuban parents being put into labor camps: “Your family deserved what they got”
r/politics on the London attack: “I just hope the people who were on that bridge were redneck Republicans like you so the slaughter was justified.” [+63]
The head mod of r/MarchAgainstTrump
r/LateStageCapitalism MOD announcement – “No one can reasonably argue that the Republican congressmen shot today didn’t deserve it. They absolutely did. They created this situation of unparalleled division. They’re trying to destroy society to line their own pockets.”
r/politics “Let’s put arsenic in drinks and slip it to Trump supporters”
r/Socialism posts doctored Vox info-graphic on why it’s important to murder three Republican

[Regarding Republicans] “What else can be done?”  “Going to the homes of Republican lawmakers in the middle of the night  dragging them into the street and turning them into tree ornaments [Lynching].” [+37]
(to commenter who’s mother is a christian trump-voter) “I don’t mean this harshly so please don’t take it that way. The sooner that people like your mother pass on and stop voting  the better off we’ll all be.” [+26]

Moderator of major default subreddits like r/LPT  r/BestOf r/History advocates the assassination the President. “The only way to fix this is going to be extra-Constitutional [Mussolini’s assassination]. Trump deserves similar treatment.”
“Democrats will sweep the next election. Their communities will die out as we liberal big city people use our superior education and intellect to make robots that take over their crappy jobs  and the working class white culture that voted for racism will be forever gone.”
r/ETS “Removing Trump from power is the only choice that leads to a future of your country  so you’re gonna move your fat ass and take the fight to the streets until that slob lies on the dirt  drowning in its own blood.” [SH]
“All gun owners should have their guns taken away from them and then be executed
r/Anarchism recommends bringing explosives to throw at “Free Speech” rally
Leftist in r/Videos promoting violence against free speech

Redditor on r/socialism telling users to torture reddit employees and their families
Commies on r/Anarchism is advocating for violence…. again. Over 100 upvotes
r/Anarchism blatantly advocates for murder… again…
r/FULLCOMMUNISM advocates of both DPRK and Stalin
Castro praising
Supports mass murder of “Nazis”
Punch a Nazi and smash a Cop’s face!
“This is why the nonviolent argument for revolution doesn’t work. Politics is violence. Whether that violence is a punch to a nazis face or a brick to a cops head  or a series of corporations forcing an entire sector of people to not have enough resources to live it is still violence.”
“I’m going to say something unpopular here. When I heard that someone had shot Republicans  my first immediate hope was that someone finally did something about McConnel.” Score hidden
r/anarchism praising the stabbing of a Trump supporter just for being white (On Elon Musk taking 2 rich people to the moon) “If we’re lucky  there will be a launch failure.”
it was legal to kill Fascists”
Calling the victims of Communism Slave Owners
Advocacy of shooting a Republican Senator
On the Scalise shooting “[the] shooter is a patriot”
“[on the shooting] you reap what you sow”
List compiling people defending the shooter:

Advocacy of killing opponents of Net Neutrality
Wanting Rural and Trump voters to die
“We’re getting to the point that it’s past the need for protest  but time for violent and extreme actions. The government needs to be reminded that is has a reason to be afraid of us.”
“All cops deserve death” + Genocide denial
r/anarchism links to a page of peoples doxx  reddit mods still won’t delete the sub
Mods on r/FULLCOMMUNISM celebrate the deaths of 5 cops  tell users to “BASH THE PIGS”

r/LSC post calling for people’s deaths
In regards to the Congress shooting: “Maybe these disgusting GOP members of Congress and Trump will finally realize their attack on the healthcare  the climate and lives of millions of people around the world has consequences.”
[Regarding Republicans] “What else can be done?”  “Going to the homes of Republican lawmakers in the middle of the night  dragging them into the street and turning them into tree ornaments [Lynching].” [+37]
User on r/politics says shooting of congressman was justified in self defense because the GOP took away their healthcare [+5] https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitPoliticsSays/comments/6i5eud/user_on_rpolitics_says_shooting_of_congressman/st=j5zpnenu&sh=29ade9a7

*Credit goes to u/PoliticalHumorn for gathering info*

That’s Only The Tip Of The Iceburg

The above examples are just a small glimpse of what is routinely discussed on Reddit. R/the_donald is nowhere near the level of daily, accepted calls to violence that can be found across the rest of the site. R/ShitPoliticsSays is a sub dedicated to documenting the violent, absurd and downright loony rhetoric from partisan subreddits. Don’t take my word for it, just do some digging.

Reddit’s selective enforcement of their T.O.S against r/the_donald is yet another example of big tech completely dropping the mask. They know Trump has done nothing but gain popularity since his election while their own credibility has dropped like a rock. They have no solutions and the clown show DNC debates show that they have no antitode to Trump.

Make no mistake, it is no coincidence that Google is scrubbing the bombshell Project Veritas video from the internet, YouTube is being purged, Twitter is announcing plans to curb the influence of Trump’s tweets and r/the_donald has been quarantined within weeks of each-other. Big tech and the left as a whole know that the charade is up, so they’re taking the gloves off.

It won’t work though. Like the garbage Governor of Oregon who started this mess, the left is increasingly pivoting to outright authoritarian tactics. They know they’ve lost the battle of ideas, so their only bet is to bully and silence. So long as we continue to document and speak the truth, they will never be successful.