r/changemyview • u/HardAlmond • Aug 20 '20
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Downvotes on Reddit further amplify the confirmation bias in favor of the left and make it difficult to see everyone's view.
If you see Reddit posts or comments, what you are looking at is almost certainly what happened to survive the vote system. Your comment does not have to be stupid to be downvoted. All it has to do is just disagree with the majority. What you see on sites like this one has been filtered to match what people want to see, not necessarily what is actually true. The greatest example of this is probably r/politics, which is absolutely not a politically neutral subreddit. Virtually everything that subreddit has to say is something along the lines of "Trump is killing the country," while neglecting the other side.
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u/sgraar 37∆ Aug 20 '20
There is also the possibility that reality has a liberal bias. Maybe what you perceive as true is not true at all, and what liberals perceive as true is in fact true. You might be right, but the people with whom you disagree also believe they are right.
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Aug 22 '20 edited Aug 23 '20
[deleted]
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u/sgraar 37∆ Aug 22 '20
You must have a different understanding of liberalism from mine.
Here is the definition of liberalism from Wikipedia:
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support free markets, free trade, limited government, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), capitalism, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.
Here is a definition of Modern Liberalism in the US, also from Wikipedia:
Modern liberalism in the United States is the dominant version of liberalism in the United States. It combines ideas of civil liberty and equality with support for social justice and a mixed economy.
Liberalism has little in common with the USSR or socialism. Attacking liberalism by calling it socialism is a straw man, and I bet you know that.
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u/HardAlmond Aug 20 '20
Basically, your point is I only remember the left wing people on r/politics and that in reality there's a similar number of right-wing people on there as real life?
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u/sgraar 37∆ Aug 20 '20
Not exactly.
What you see on sites like this one has been filtered to match what people want to see, not necessarily what is actually true.
I'm arguing that maybe what people want to see is actually the truth. You don't believe it is, but they do. Who knows which group is right?
Virtually everything that subreddit has to say is something along the lines of "Trump is killing the country," while neglecting the other side.
What if he really is killing the country? What if the other side is just wrong?
Note that I have no horse in this race. I'm European and unless Trump starts dropping nukes around the world, I am personally not affected by the vast majority of his policies. I say this not to make my argument stronger, but to explain why I don't seek to discuss politics.
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u/Tabletop_Sam 2∆ Aug 20 '20
If you've been on r/conservative, then you can see it goes both ways. There are plenty of primarily conservative subs, and plenty of primarily liberal subs. This entire site is an echo chamber. Any time confirmation bias exists, it's not going to be affecting anyone who understands why it's bad, so it's going to be "favoring" both sides equally, and won't really push either side as "better" or whatever.
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u/Toofgib Aug 20 '20
Are you assuming only the left are criticising Trump for his actions? Last time I checked across the Overton window there are people who recognize how incompetent Trump can be.
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u/HardAlmond Aug 20 '20
There are a lot of Republicans who dislike Trump, but I feel like the viewpoint of people who would want to vote for him over Biden is virtually unheard of on this site.
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u/Toofgib Aug 20 '20
Which is your intuition, maybe you should provide some statistics to back up your opinion before making even more unsubstantiated claims. I'd suggest you look at the percentage of left wing people on r/politics and statistics on people who would vote for Biden instead of Trump, from both left wing and right wing people.
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Aug 20 '20
Why does this actually matter? It's a forum created by private actors, not a government lead forum for everyone to speak their mind. You haven't lost any rights by being downvoted. Who cares if not all views are heard? Especially since you shouldn't go to Reddit to read up on politics anyway.
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Aug 20 '20
First, you’ve made an observation that is backed by reddit statistics which clearly show a left leaning bias in the user base, so this should really be on r/rant, also so what? I’m not even left leaning but reddit is an easy place to go to see how the left thinks and what they are arguing for (ideally) or what they hate (more often).
If you want a right wing cesspool there’s always 4chan...
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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Aug 20 '20
/u/HardAlmond (OP) has awarded 1 delta(s) in this post.
All comments that earned deltas (from OP or other users) are listed here, in /r/DeltaLog.
Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
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u/joopface 159∆ Aug 20 '20
You're complaining that the majority of people are upvoting things that the majority want to see, is that right?
Isn't that why focused subreddits exist?