I moved to Voat because of the censorship and full-blown SJW ideology on Reddit.
When I first started, it was amazing.
Now everytime I post I am downvoted like crazy. As we all know, I don't care about the downvotes, but rather, the racism and other views that seem to dominate every sub now.
To be clear, I am all about free speech. I support the right to write racist (or whatever) comments.
However, what scares me is how the majority of Voat seems to now agree with some of these views. It is very suspicious and it was not this way before.
To me, it was done on purpose. Reddit is full swing SJW. Voat started out moderate, but now it is just another extreme.
Think about news. It's either extremely conservative or extremely liberal. It's as if 'they' don't want you to have any moderate news source. Why?
It keeps people divided. It keeps things emotionally motivated. And it gives you a false sense of what's really going on.
So, in this Internet culture, you can now be offended by everything, or on the other side of things, you can blame everything on minorities.
In reality, it's all much more complex than that.
The conspiracy is that Reddit (or whoever controls things) let Voat prosper as long as extremist views were promoted. Moderate news will make people think and care about each other. We have to keep hating each other!!
I hope I'm making sense. I'm venting because voat was my last hope. If you don't believe me, check my post history.
I now believe that free speech is really gone. Sure, say what you want, but every online tactic has been made to silence you.
So here I am. Back on the conspiracy part of Voat, just like I was with Reddit when it all began.
Edit: there is still good on Voat, but I have a prediction that will continue to fade. And I don't think it's just a matter of it getting bigger
Edit 2: I honestly learned a lot from this discussion. I am glad most were respectful and I definitely am thinking a lot.
I realize that I do have a lot of up votes in my post history, but I spent nearly on this summer on Voat. I noticed the shift recently and have not commented as much and have deleted stuff. So sorry if that is misleading
A lot of people tell me I must be the change. Agreed.
A lot of people said they felt similarly. That's nice to know I'm not alone.
Thanks for letting me have a voice.
As 017c explains, "It feels a bit too sudden and too organized.
The amount of UK slang and the fact that every website links to UK nationalist party also makes me a bit suspicious. The again next general election is years out. Maybe a organized push of right with groups in Europe in general? Or a false flag operation?
It just feels all too sudden and too organized to be just people switching from Reddit to Voat."
view the rest of the comments →
zen_music ago
Thanks for stating this. I wonder if this trend you describe as a Voat phenomenon, rather than being directly something that has happened, is actually the result of something else that has happened.
I read a piece (perhaps here, wish I could find it again) about how a modern political strategy is to make sure the public never gets to settle on the truth about anything; did we win that war? Well, who did? Is there ever going to be an end to this crisis? (All very "1984") -the idea being that the public, particularly the democratic public, is the enemy of political power in the sense that the more we know what's really happening, the more unhappy about it we're going to be. Certainly feels like that to me.
So if that's the strategy, the result is bound to be unsettlement and dissatisfaction out in the world. People are being scammed totally about what's up, and they get crazy because nothing you hear can be trusted...and they bring their craziness here, inchoate as it is. (Not to mention the people being paid to create this atmosphere!)
We're all in an information blender, it's not too big a surprise that nothing makes sense and everybody's angry. That suits the power-game people right down to the ground.
polkadotgirl ago
Fascinating. When people are bombarded with information, especially information that is constantly contradictory, what should they believe?
zen_music ago
Well, @polkadotgirl, I can't speak for others; my take is much like my username, indefinable.
I remember once talking about my sorrows to a friend, I was all embroiled in the story I was telling about my own life, and he grabbed a pause to say, "I'm getting a feeling that you are very sad." It was a moment of awakening for me. I realized that the details of my story were relatively unimportant, but to my friend, the way I felt was his perception. He was right, of course.
So I try, reading Voat, to get a sense of my fellow beings. Yeah, most of them are crazy in some way or another; I'm not different from them in that. I like to think about "the story of humanity", and I'm not really responsible for any part of it larger than what I can personally comprehend or affect. Other people's development in life and their expressions are deeply interesting to me, but ultimately none of my business.
I take some refuge in a concept: "You are here on Earth to look after your own development, physically, mentally, spiritually. No one else's."
So I can look on Voat, and the world, like "The Fool On The Hill" who sees "the sun going down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning around" -
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/thefoolonthehill.html
I'm sorry if this is difficult. I don't really understand it myself, but it works for me. I remember reading a phrase by J.R.R. Tolkien, about reading a book, and how you need to have what he called "a suspension of disbelief" to make the story work for you. This is something like that... I think...
It's a story, you know? It's just a story. What other people do describes them; it doesn't describe me.
polkadotgirl ago
I like this. Saving your comment.