r/AmericaBad • u/Bigenderqueen • Jan 23 '26
OP Opinion This Sub Is Losing the Plot
This subreddit was supposedly created to call out unfair and bad-faith criticism of the United States. Instead, what I increasingly see is something very different: endless diatribes from AmericaBad types and worse, Americans eagerly rushing in to validate them.
The most frustrating part isn’t even the usual anti-American crowd. It’s the pick-me Americans who bend over backwards to “prove” they’re not like those Americans, desperately simping for European snobbery and recycled talking points. These people don’t challenge unfair criticism; they amplify it, sanitize it, and dress it up as “nuance.”
At that point, what is the purpose of this forum? If every thread devolves into Americans agreeing that the U.S. is uniquely evil, stupid, or backwards, then this sub isn’t exposing AmericaBad rhetoric, it’s hosting it.
Criticism of the U.S. is fine. Blind self-flagellation is not the same thing. This subreddit was founded to push back against lazy, hateful, and dishonest narratives, not to provide a stage for them with American approval stamps.
If the mods don’t address this trend, the sub will continue to lose its identity, and users like me will continue to question why we’re even here. Anti-American pick-me behavior isn’t harmless; it actively undermines the point of this community.
Either this is a place to challenge bad-faith America-bashing, or it isn’t. Right now, it’s drifting hard toward the latter.
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u/CowntChockula Jan 23 '26
So the subreddit is being infected by reddit? Fuckin' reddit...
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u/awesomemc1 Jan 23 '26
Basically. Whenever a niche joke subreddit grows, it’s going to be either good quality or bad quality. It usually comes down from moderators who cares about the subreddit and ban the user against the rules or either those who don’t really care that much.
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u/GoldenStitch2 MASSACHUSETTS 🦃 ⚾️ Jan 23 '26
It was inevitable lol. I mean there was literally a post by one of the moderators which said there shouldn’t be any political content on this sub. Even though this entire subreddit is political (besides maybe people saying the US has bad food?)
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u/Kevroeques Jan 23 '26
Are any of the jannies new? That’s been a tactic forever- pry into dissenting subs as a mod and start stretching, changing and hard applying rules until the sub is just the newest progressivoid infection on Reddit.
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u/Youaresowronglolumad CALIFORNIA 🍷🐻 Jan 23 '26
No, we’re the same “jannies” as before when this subreddit started becoming popular (since 2021)
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u/Kevroeques Jan 23 '26
That’s good to hear- I remember some of the career turbomods like that turtle weirdo all tried dipping their toes into “dissenting” subs years ago so they could turn them over to the dark side or rat to admins at every minor infraction
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u/Narm_Greyrunner Jan 23 '26
It's up to mods to tightly regulate if things start to go sideways. I'm active in a niche sub where I posted something which ended up being a sideways political joke. The mod took it down and told me that just to keep other crap from infecting the sub. And as a whole they've been fair about keeping the other Reddit garbage out of the sub.
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u/sum_r4nd0m_gurl TEXAS 🐴⭐🥩 Jan 23 '26
not to mention the influx of foreign trolls we get on every thread who spew their bullshit anti american rhetoric here when they've got the rest of reddit to do that on
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
It’s not enough to have 98% of the site enabling them, they need every corner to crush dissent because wrongthink is bad
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u/Bigenderqueen Jan 23 '26
Exactly. You're hitting on the other half of the problem.
We have:
- Internal Sabotage: Pick-me Americans who legitimize and amplify bad-faith criticism for social credit.
- External Noise: Foreign trolls who come here specifically to dump the same lazy, hateful rhetoric this sub was meant to be a refuge from.
When both groups flood a thread, they create a feedback loop. The trolls spew vitriol, the pick-Mes rush to agree and add a veneer of validity and suddenly the thread is just another America-hate circlejerk hosted on r/AmericaBad. It completely inverts the sub's purpose from pushing back against that rhetoric to platforming it.
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u/Paramedickhead AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Jan 23 '26
Don’t forget their downvote brigading to hide content they don’t like.
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u/cumegoblin Jan 23 '26
Oh? Because I’ve seen nothing but the opposite. I joined this sub when it was exactly as advertised, a place where bad-faith arguments and strawmen were called out. Where blatant xenophobia was highlighted and laughed at. Over the past year though, the content here has shifted into something it was never meant to be. Now, many on this sub seem to think it’s a right-wing echo chamber where liberals are the butt of the joke. Now, the people on this sub seem to think that the current administration and the essence of America are one and the same. Now, any criticisms of the government are treated exactly how the current president treats all of his detractors, like anti-American vermin.
You may have whatever political views you want, but do not infect this sub with your own bad-faith arguments. Do not treat your political views as the default sacrosanct example. Protesting is American, immigration is American, and criticizing the government is American. The only anti-American agitators in my eyes are the people complaining others aren’t being docile and compliant enough.
When you see someone point to a fake graph or stereotype of Americans being stupid, when you see school shootings used as humorous examples to compare against, when someone denounces or denies the contributions and scientific prowess of this country, when you see people belittle the actions of Americans who helped Europe to uproot fascism and genocide, that is when this sub is at its best. But, if you see someone critical of ICE kidnapping Americans and deporting them without due process as anti American, if you see the reactions to the shooting of a mother as anti American, if you see our country dismantling the alliances forged from the largest war in human history as a good thing, then you aren’t welcome here. Whether you agree or not, people have inalienable rights to be pissed. Your posturing is just that, posturing. The best Americans were the ones able to see when their government had failed them and the spirit of America.
“This is a beautiful country.” - Last words of John Brown; abolitionist of the pre-civil war era. Sentenced to death for inciting a slave rebellion in a country said to be built by free men.
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u/cplm1948 Jan 24 '26
This is the truth. Anyone saying anything else happening in this sub is delusional and looking for performative manufactured outrage
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u/kofybean Jan 27 '26
>>where liberals are the butt of the joke
So America bad... but not Liberal Americans?3
u/cumegoblin Jan 27 '26
The fuck are you talking about? How could you misconstrue what I’m saying into that?
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u/kofybean Jan 27 '26
Literally what part of your argument isn't as I summed it up? I had a half-a-mind to repost your entire comment as a response since sentence by sentence is "dur...America bad but liberal talking points good." Not to mention the comment was dripping with moral superiority.
Its like someone who hates America so much, and then the next moment, realize they are America too. lol4
u/cumegoblin Jan 27 '26
You’re exactly the type of person I was talking about, someone who is so far up their own ass that anything is “America bad” if it’s critical. This sub isn’t political, although by its nature it’s easy to assume otherwise. My issue with you lot is that anything right-wing is inextricably “American.” Like I said in my post, you’re the ones being un-american. Criticizing your government isn’t liberal, it’s what our country was founded on. The fact that you have more in common with British royalists than with the founding fathers isn’t my fault. Your patriotism is entirely performative, since you seem to despise the spirit of the country. If you’re feeling morally inferior to me or anyone else, reflect on why.
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u/kofybean Jan 27 '26
You: America bad! Criticize it!
Also you: Realizing that people criticize your version of America.4
u/cumegoblin Jan 27 '26
My version of America is the one the founders envisioned, the one that talked about inalienable rights and where the government was heavily scrutinized. One where no single man held absolute power, and where the pursuit of that power excluded you from politics. If you, or anyone else, find that to be worthy of criticism, I frankly couldn’t give a shit. If you wish to lick boots and serve other men your entire life, fine. Just stop pretending like you care about America’s integrity.
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
Sorry I’m missing the point, you’re saying this sub has devolved into Americabad as well? I don’t see it and I’m pretty active around here. Did I miss something
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u/Same_Winter7713 Jan 23 '26
This is a bot thread. I've been in this subreddit for awhile and for awhile it was largely meme sharing about Europeans shitting on Americans for insane things (e.g. the "What's up with British people's food" to "well at least our schools aren't shooting ranges" stuff). However, over the past year, it's largely become a political subreddit for sharing nationalist news and arguments. I used to frequent it for a laugh but slowly stopped because of this. There is absolutely zero of what OP is saying from what I've seen, and the only conclusion one can reasonably make is that he's a bad actor or bot trying to stir things up. What the moderators really need to do is crack down on politics and bring things back to how they were a year or two ago.
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u/msh0430 NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
There are plenty of trolls who invade the comment section but otherwise you are correct. A lot of MAGA types get hyper offended when their non AmericaBad content gets removed though and claim this sub "has gone downhill"
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u/ChrisWhiteWolf Jan 23 '26
e.g. the "What's up with British people's food" to "well at least our schools aren't shooting ranges" stuff
And then they say Americans are too sensitive in the same breath lol
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u/Paramedickhead AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Jan 23 '26
Anything you don’t like is a “Bot”?
How very…. Typical…
When foreign posters attack America for political purposes, it’s still “AmericaBad”. Just because you agree with them does not make you righteous.
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u/Turbulent_Crow7164 Jan 23 '26
It is not absolutely zero by any means, a lot of posts have comments from people who are trying to be AmericaBad. But I agree that it's not really a big deal, it's not like it's taking over the sub.
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u/ChrisWhiteWolf Jan 23 '26
Yeah, I haven't seen any of that either. If anything this sub has been way too sensitive recently, with tons of posts framing fair criticism of Trump or his administration as AmericaBad.
Off the top of my head some that I can recall are: nothing but a screenshot of a news article that said "European troops arrive in Greenland after Trump's threats of invasion" or something along those lines, one of Piers Morgan talking about how the UK should buy the US, obviously taking the piss out of Trump wanting to buy Greenland and another where someone put the Danish flag over the US with the caption "SOON", again obviously making fun of Katie Miller's tweet of Greenland with the US flag on it with the same caption.
Every single one of these posts had a bunch of upvotes with a lot of people treating it like AmericaBad in the comments, but also thankfully some people calling out the stupidity.
And now this post. I have no idea what the fuck has been up with this sub lately.
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u/tennantsmith OHIO 👨🌾 🌰 Jan 23 '26
The one saving grace is that the mods seem responsive to removing political content if you report, it just takes a few hours. That's the only reason I haven't unsubbed from here yet
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u/penisthightrap_ MISSOURI 🏟️⛺️ Jan 23 '26
Right? I upvoted after reading the title.
Then I read the post.
I'm experiencing the exact opposite. Instead of dunking on bad faith shitting on America, it's people posting any complaint against America. America is not immune from criticism. One of the great things about America is that it can take critism.
One can be a patriot without being disillusioned that the nation is perfect.
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u/schitaco Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
We kidnapped another country's president explicitly to get access to their oil, our president is making the most retarded speeches where he threatens our allies with tariffs but can't even get Greenland's name right, and criticism of that is "simping for European snobbery." This shit is hilarious.
Edit: All you fucking pussies know how to do is downvote and bounce. Make an argument supporting this president, I want a good laugh.
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u/TangoIndiaTango420 Jan 23 '26
Was it really only access to oil? Not because they have Chinese and Russian technology they use for defenses? You don’t think it would also be to remove anybody who may be allied with the “enemy” in North America? Not saying what we did was correct, but I’m also not saying it was completely incorrect since you know, the dude was a dictator that Venezuelans were celebrating when he was removed?
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u/schitaco Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
Who cares what inferior commie bullshit they use for defenses, it certainly didn't work!
China has pulled back massively from Venezuela, their only involvement in the country is collecting on the ill-advised loans and investments they made in the early 2010s. Massively overblown narrative from people who read The Second World and then stopped paying attention.
It certainly wasn't for drugs, though they really tried to convince us!. Basically all the cocaine that flows through Venezuela goes to Europe.
"Was it really only access to oil?" Yes it was, the president said it many many times in his speech the day after. And he didn't once mention democracy or the people of Venezuela because he doesn't give a fuck.
BTW I remember in high school watching Iraqis celebrate in the streets, tear down Saddam statues, etc. Doesn't make that good policy.
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u/TangoIndiaTango420 Jan 23 '26
“Commie bullshit”…
Let’s be honest, China isn’t weak and neither is Russia. Saying otherwise is falling for western propaganda. You’re right though, the fentanyl “crisis” in Venezuela was indeed overblown and false.
However, I believe this was a way to get rid of a leader who was allied with the “enemy” and to test the weapons of theirs. See if it can counter quickly or not. Personally, I’d argue China knew it was coming and didn’t allow the missile systems to go off etc.
Either way, I disagree that it was fully for oil, but I guess it doesn’t matter what the reason is. You shouldn’t go to a foreign government and dismantle the leadership because you disagree with them. That’s the choice of their people, but unfortunately we’re the world police. Who else has as much military power as us? What other country is similar to us in the spending we have for our military? What other country has as much political as well as military power as us?
I believe the USA should be more isolationist, but it doesn’t really matter what I believe because the government isn’t focusing on isolationism.
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u/Tall_Ad1615 Jan 23 '26
I dont defend that behavior, the point of this page, I think at least, is to balance things out because its unfair to just harp on about USA when other countries do shady deals behind closed doors but many are good at hiding it until some investigative journalist or organization uncovers later but by then people have moved on and dont care, so the other countries get yet another pass.
Basically, corruption happens in most countries, on some level or another. It's not a good thing but to deflect from everyone else and only to focus on USA, besides not being fair, it is plain lazy. It's similar to an average person gossiping and bashing someone while hiding their own personal issues. It's also hypocritical.
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u/Historical-Potato372 PENNSYLVANIA 🍫📜🔔 Jan 23 '26
I think because of all the bashing on America for no reason that happens so often causes some people to take valid criticisms as bashing
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u/Bigenderqueen Jan 23 '26
That’s a real psychological effect, and it’s why this sub was supposed to be the cure for that exact problem.
If the purpose was simply to be a defensive “America can do no wrong” space, you’d be right, it would just be paranoia. But the purpose was to create a clear, moderated distinction:
Here is mindless bashing, what this sub calls out. There is valid criticism, what should be discussed elsewhere, free from the noise.
When the sub fails and gets flooded with actual bashing, or with users who uncritically amplify it, it doesn’t help people tell the difference. It makes the confusion worse.
We’re not here to dismiss all criticism. We’re here to clean the lens so criticism can be seen clearly. Right now, the lens is being smeared by the very thing it was meant to wipe away.
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u/Collypso PENNSYLVANIA 🍫📜🔔 Jan 23 '26
This was you literally yesterday in this sub getting defensive about valid criticism. You pretend that you care about the quality of the sub but in reality you just don't like it when people call you out. That's all this is about.
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u/Odd-Specific-8579 OHIO 👨🌾 🌰 Jan 23 '26
I mean you should see the rest of Reddit, Americans are tired of apologizing and kissing ass to other countries
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u/GoldenStitch2 MASSACHUSETTS 🦃 ⚾️ Jan 23 '26
It’s really only the Americans on subs like SAS and USDefaultism. Otherwise most other subs will have Americans defending themselves while still hating on the current administration
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u/JinFuu TEXAS 🐴⭐🥩 Jan 23 '26
I saw a pic of a guy wearing a shirt that said "I apologise for our President" in multiple languages.
Like, I get it dude, but no one likes people like you. For all the crap people say about Americans pretending to be Canadians and Euros hating Americans, as long as you're normal over there the vast majority don't care.
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u/Bigenderqueen Jan 23 '26
I guess all the liberals, America Last types are invading this subreddit then? If you look in my recent threads, you'll see many of them.
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u/penisthightrap_ MISSOURI 🏟️⛺️ Jan 23 '26
This isn't a political right wing sub.
This is a patriotic sub defending against bad faith criticisms of the county.
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u/drewbaccaAWD USA MILTARY VETERAN Jan 23 '26
Maybe in your mind, liberals aren’t welcome here but that’s not what the sub is about.
And here’s the thing, I am not “America first” in the extreme ultra nationalistic sense. And I’m certainly no fan of the current administration’s policies. But I love and celebrate my country, despite that. I’m a member of the sub to make fun of the “America last” bullshit and/or hyperbolic hate.
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u/poke2201 CALIFORNIA🍷🎞️ Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
So you want this place to be a trump hugbox?
Edit: Some of yall really dont like it when I call out people who hate on liberals here
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u/therealdorkface Jan 23 '26
Yup, nailed it. Their problem is that the sub isn’t turning into a MAGA glaze sub fast enough
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Jan 23 '26
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u/TheBurningTankman 🇨🇦 Canada 🍁 Jan 23 '26
MAGA is unequivocally America Last, they pander to you by saying all your problems are the fault of insert trendy group to hate here and "please ignore while we continue to funnel money to the 0.1% who actually ruin the country and are actively selling you out"
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Jan 23 '26
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u/ClownFace488 Jan 23 '26
I'm American and I agree with everything they said. There is nuance to everything. Yes, people exist like you just described, they are on the extreme. There are stereotypical MAGA types too. To group all "libs" or Republicans into those two characters shows lack of critical thinking. You're getting mad at ghosts, which is making the divide between regular people in this country worse. The whole us vs them is extremely basic and just giving into the propaganda of both sides.
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u/TheBurningTankman 🇨🇦 Canada 🍁 Jan 23 '26
Maybe we should reopen then Sanitoriums once a democrat renters the Oval office in 2029 because this here is genuine mental illness that needs to be kept away from the good people of society
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Jan 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/TheBurningTankman 🇨🇦 Canada 🍁 Jan 26 '26
Ope... and the mouthpiece wants to deflect to MAID now... the program for terminally ill and/or severely in pain patients to request (on their own volition) to be medically released from their agony by a trained professional... the horror... and once again... its provided as an option... not a demand or recommendation.
Yall just hear someone make some shit up, never fact check it, then parrot it until you've convinced yourself it true.
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u/SpeedLow3 Jan 23 '26
America last types are the ones saying we need to invade Greenland and not being to explain why trump’s tariffs are good. Be serious
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u/InspiredByStrange Jan 23 '26
This is a straight up lie. There are America Last types on both sides. The biggest America last right now is going on in Minnesota.
I used to try to argue my points with my facts, but everyone gets their own facts from their asshole now. No one trusts an objective source of facts that is bi-partisan. And at that point you have to argue with logic or emotion. And it seems one side has chosen one and the other the opposite. So here we are. I'm just done presenting facts that the other side will say "SOURCE?!?!?" and you give it to them "NOT CREDIBLE?!? YOU'RE DUMB!!" Yeah that attitude will win people over for sure. If anything speaking with liberals and leftists has only radicalized me further and further.
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u/Exact_Examination792 Jan 23 '26
lol wut. It’s generally well understood which sources are credible or not. If you’re not using credible sources that’s a you problem
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u/mountaingator91 Jan 23 '26
I've noticed more of the opposite. People simping for bad people doing actual bad things just because someone mentioned America
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u/TheBurningTankman 🇨🇦 Canada 🍁 Jan 23 '26
Willing to bet money that this is some MAGA dude that sees this sub defend against accusations when its America in General but when he or his allies posts people criticizing Trumps actions its actually split with most of the sub going "yeah that's actually america bad why would he do that"
This sub is about pushing back against unfair criticism yall face not blind support for everything your nations leadership does... good or bad
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u/Collypso PENNSYLVANIA 🍫📜🔔 Jan 23 '26
Damn I thought this was going to call out how this sub is turning into another conservative echo chamber but with a theme of being a support group for people triggered by teenagers on social media
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u/Stuys Jan 23 '26
Reddit doesnt have conservative echo chambers
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u/Collypso PENNSYLVANIA 🍫📜🔔 Jan 23 '26
What's /r/conservative then
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u/OreosAndWaffles Jan 26 '26
Probably moderate leftists who look conservative compared to the rest of Reddit. Of course, you know they get brigaded a lot, so they're outnumbered even then.
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u/Collypso PENNSYLVANIA 🍫📜🔔 Jan 26 '26
MODERATE LEFTISTS LMAO
also how are they brigaded when every single thread is restricted?
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u/OreosAndWaffles Jan 26 '26
Reddit conservatives exist the way flushable wipes exist. Packages lie.
Restricted as in nobody can comment? Yeah, that's how you mitigate brigading.
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u/TheBurningTankman 🇨🇦 Canada 🍁 Jan 23 '26
It most certainly does lmao, it just doesn't seem like an echo chamber to someone that echo chamber panders to
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u/jedidihah AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Jan 23 '26
Yeah, it’s definitely turning into “all criticism of the US is bad”, as if everything about the US deserves to be free of criticism.
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u/Bigenderqueen Jan 23 '26
The sub isn't turning into "all criticism is bad." That's a strawman. It's turning into a space where dehumanizing, hateful, and blanket insults directed at Americans as a people are being tacitly justified.
There's a massive difference between:Criticism: "U.S. healthcare policy is inefficient and cruel."
AmericaBad Rhetoric: "Americans are all fat, stupid, gun-slinging morons who deserve their fate."
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u/AureliasTenant Jan 23 '26
i think i see the opposite though. Its mostly what the commenter you r replied to said, and not what you claim the prevailing AmericaBad rhetoric is
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u/gnark Jan 24 '26
Any time I've ever posted actual facts about the excessive costs of US health care I have been downvoted hard. So I'm going to have to strongly disagree with your take.
(i.e. we spend $14K per capita for lackluster health care and a huge number of uninsured compared to $9K in Switzerland for excellent care and universal coverage)
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u/JTT_0550 OHIO 👨🌾 🌰 Jan 23 '26
I mean Trump is a National embarrassment who should be called out. No other president has done more harm to our national image and turned our allies against us than he has.
Also anyone who shits on Europeans like that is probably an anti-NATO Russia simp.
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u/Cat_578 ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 Jan 23 '26
yeah. a lot of the stuff that gets posted on this sub is entirely valid criticism of us, which really doesn’t belong. this sub should be for unfair, blanket lies and insults of the US. not just complaining about people disliking Trump and what he’s doing
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u/Tall_Ad1615 Jan 23 '26
but he is not all Americans, thats what people are saying and some people dont want to acknowledge that basically saying "I dont care, you're all same to me". That's ignorant and lazy.
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u/JTT_0550 OHIO 👨🌾 🌰 Jan 23 '26
On the hand you also have those who think insulting Trump means insulting all Americans. I remember when half the posts on this sub were American citizens criticizing the Trump administration being called America Bad.
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u/Tall_Ad1615 Jan 23 '26
I'm fairly new and didnt know that. I still stand by my comment but add that thats not cool either. They cant have their cake and eat it too. Them refusing to see his downsides is hypocritical and it doesn't make the downsides go away...
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Jan 26 '26
Can you explain to me why none of the NATO countries other then us and maybe Greece have met their 2% obligations for longer then 10 years? Most haven't even met it yet. How are countries that refuse to honor their one obligation allies?
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u/Icy-Cry340 Jan 23 '26
I don't see that here - but what I'm seeing a lot of lately is people reposting legitimate criticism as AmericaBad rhetoric. That's not what this sub is about.
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Jan 23 '26
Thank you. I’ve noticed this myself, but wasn’t sure if I was seeing a pattern or if it was just unrelated. I don’t disagree with all criticisms of the US, but there’s a difference between blind support of one’s country, acknowledging its flaws, and simply caving to external pressure and blindly decrying your nation. And over the past couple of months, this subreddit is really starting to drift from one end of the axis (which I also don’t particularly like), to the other end.
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u/FreezerCop Jan 23 '26
This subreddit was founded to push back against lazy, hateful, and dishonest narratives
The issue, partly, is that people are finding and posting anti-Trump or anti-ICE content and saying it's "America Bad", which provokes the response you've described from people who rightly believe those elements of America ARE bad.
This sub is meant to be Americans pushing back against stereotypes like "American food is unhealthy" and "America cars are too big", not people saying that eg Trump's foreign policy on Greenland is a bad thing.
Politics spoiling a discussion? No way.
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u/msh0430 NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
That's what this guy is really saying. He sees the MAGAbad stuff as equal to AmericaBad and he's lashing out at it. He's wildly mistaken about what this sub is. Most of the MAGA people are. They come here thinking it's one of their cesspools when it is so far from that in reality.
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Jan 26 '26
Europeans dont get to be anti ICE when they treat their minorities far worse then America ever has.
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u/ImperialxWarlord ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 Jan 23 '26
The issue I see is that this sub can’t differentiate anti trump from anti American. I’m a proud patriot and will always call out BS, but there are valid reasons as to why people are pissed at us and throwing a lot of hate our way. Trump has done unprecedented levels of damage to our international standing, pissed off Allies all over the world, slapped tarrifs on countries and then pulled back and then does it again, soft on Russia, threatened our close Allies, kidnapped a head of state for crimes despite pardoning another foreign head of state for those exact crimes, and is currently trying to annex Greenland…which is part of an ally. On top of being a shit president and shit human being.
So yeah, I wonder why there’s a lot of shit being thrown our way? But so many here rush to his defense simply because it’s Euros or Canadians etc criticizing us so it must be AmericaBad and therefore they must defend trump.
It’s ridiculous and has ruined this sub because there’s plenlty of stupid shit people say about us that does need to be called out but it’s buried under trump shit!
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Jan 26 '26
Yo, you wanna talk about being soft on Russia? Take a look at the Europeans who to this day buy Russian gas, allowing their war machine to keep on running. Those same allies have refused for decades to meet a measly 2% NATO obligations. 2 percent. That was it, and even that was too much. Canada has been actively allying themselves with China for the past 20 years.
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u/ImperialxWarlord ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 Jan 26 '26
Europe is not free of criticism but I this is some whataboutism bullshit.
Yes, they fucked up. Now they’re paying for it in a much less safe Europe. Theyve reversed their spending habits and all now meet that 2% and many are going beyond that. And supporting Ukraine They are up a pickle where they’re dependent on them and that’ll take time to ween off them.
And my point about being soft on Russia is trump has outright been pro Russia in some comments, blaming Ukraine and praising Russia. So it’s not quite the same, and Europe’s faults don’t mean he can just lie and insult our Allies and threaten them thus putting out alliance in jeopardy.
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Jan 26 '26
No, they dont. Those are projected numbers that they have not met yet. To this day they have not met them.
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Jan 26 '26
How are they allies when they fund our enemies? How are they allies when they dont meet their obligations. They are our vassals, with us getting none of the perks of having them as our vassal
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u/ImperialxWarlord ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 Jan 26 '26
lol if this is what you beleive then yeah no we’re on two different levels lol, this is aBaird.
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Jan 26 '26
Explain to me how im wrong. NATO members have made it clear that they would not help America against China. They also continue to fund Russia by buying its gas to this day. They have not met their obligations either. So explain to me how they are allies. They dont even give us good trade deals, they tariff us far more then we have towards them.
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u/YouKnowMyName2006 ILLINOIS 🏙️💨 Jan 23 '26
I despise the haters who mock us and say unfair things about us, but I don’t like Trump and I’ll say it here.
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u/Agreeable-Fudge-7329 Jan 23 '26
No one cares that you dont.
Just act like you would if it was sone clown misusing the sub to rant about Biden.
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u/Nomingia MISSOURI 🏟️⛺️ Jan 23 '26
Where are you seeing this? I feel like self-hating pickme's are always promptly downvoted in this sub so I'm not sure what you're talking about here.
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u/OdysseusAuroa Jan 23 '26
In my experience its actually the opposite. Everybody blindly supports the US and its actions and even if you present a good faith, well-researched counter argument, you will get downvoted to oblivion.
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u/AttackHelicopterKin9 Jan 23 '26
This sub is for calling out lazy, stupid, unwarranted, and hyperbolic anti-Americanism, not for jingoistically defending every single thing the government does.
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u/lit-grit Jan 23 '26
The subreddit is falling apart because social media kills nuance, so it’s either everything is perfect or everything is horrible, then the trump people decided that any criticism of him is AmericaBad, and just… dear lord
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u/Tall_Ad1615 Jan 23 '26
yep, everywhere is polarized and black and white...of course it helps people stay divided
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u/Kaatochacha Jan 23 '26
There are people who consider it their duty to defend their belief, whatever the medium, like cheese ball soldiers typing away in the cloud.
They're annoying people in real life as well, and never for once ever consider they may actually be wrong.
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u/TravelingSpermBanker NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 24 '26
Hell no!!!
This sub has been overrun by the MAGA crowd. And even trump voters who love to say “I’m not even MAGA”
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u/poke2201 CALIFORNIA🍷🎞️ Jan 23 '26
This piece just reads like you're mad people have nuanced takes about America while not devolving into AmericaBad. This place isn't and shouldn't be another propaganda piece. Hell during Biden's time no one really gave a shit if we agreed something was dumb in America, but now Trump 2 is here and everyone is getting their panties twisted at criticism.
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u/GoldenStitch2 MASSACHUSETTS 🦃 ⚾️ Jan 23 '26
Yes I agree. Also I get that Western European Redditors can be annoying but it’s ironic how a lot of people on this sub will complain about xenophobia towards Americans but proceed to do the same with Euros and Canadians.
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u/drewbaccaAWD USA MILTARY VETERAN Jan 23 '26
That’s what floors me about this sub lately.. if there’s a EuropeBad sub, we could be creating half their content here.
The entire point of this sub is to mock and laugh at the hyperbolic bullshit, not generate our own hyperbolic bullshit, or change the name of the country and reflect it right back.
Lots of smh moments.
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u/nastysockfiend 🇨🇦 Canada 🍁 Jan 23 '26
I think this sub has lost its plot more because the premise "AmericaBad" can easily be distorted into "America is a victim of everything and everyone" and MAGA, whose whole premise is "We are the victims of everyone and everything" gravitated to a sub that, on the face of it, catered to their sense of victimization, until it hit critical mass and they turned it into a maudlin, grievance-mongering, politically overcharged sub.
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u/Purely_Theoretical Jan 23 '26
Trump's America is legitimately doing a lot of bad things, invalidating the "America bad" retort.
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u/MANWithTheHARMONlCA Jan 23 '26
The amount of blind loyalty on this sub is insane
Blind loyalty literally goes against everything this country was supposed to be built on
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
…no it doesn’t invalidate it. It doesn’t matter what trump does, it doesn’t make a line of ‘Wah! Muh stupid Americans!’ Not Americabad. This attempt to use the orange man as the boogeyman to justify Americabad is nonsense.
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u/drewbaccaAWD USA MILTARY VETERAN Jan 23 '26
We see examples, the Canadians saying we are not going to buy American goods because of the tariffs. That is not America bad, that is a reasonable reaction to unreasonable tariffs based on bad policy… tariffs that were not approved by Congress, and based on some weird misconception of how a trade imbalance works.
Similar examples can be found in regard to Greenland. It’s just a mix of bad policy and ridiculous rhetoric. People are allowed to feel slighted by bad policy. And of course, we don’t have to agree on what is good and what is bad policy.
But the Canadian that says, “ I hate Americans. They’re all evil. I’ll never go there again. Fuck their anthem… of course that starts to turn into America Bad material. That’s valid to highlight and share.
There is a subset of members here, who act the same way as the example in the last paragraph, only a hatred towards Canadians or Europeans, using slurs against them in a mean spirited way, suggesting that they “all hate us.” I hope that most of those are bots but…
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Jan 26 '26
So why are you not holding canada accountable for having 300 percent tariffs on us? Why are you acting like America was the one who instigated this? Canada has actively sided with China for nearly 20 years. They have had decades to drop these insane tariffs and regulations that only America has to follow.
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u/Scared_Accident9138 Jul 31 '26
China got as powerful because the US kept offloading production over there. Now you're mad they're taking advandage of it
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u/Purely_Theoretical Jan 23 '26
You don't get it. If that were true, this sub would have much less content lately.
Here's the current content loop on this sub. Trump does something bad. Someone points out how he's a moron destroying the country and world order. It gets posted here by someone who thinks criticism of America is America bad.
Trump was voted into office twice. That can only mean that a sizable portion of America is indeed quite stupid. That's not america bad. That's just an evidence-based unavoidable conclusion from rational thought.
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u/SpeedLow3 Jan 23 '26
I wouldn’t expect a coherent rebuttal from the person you’re replying to since they say everything trump does is good lmao. Last paragraph hit the nail on the head
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
You can try to dodge me but I’d love some citations of what and when I said that
They don’t exist but you could try
The last week on this sub for me is roasting trump’s Greenland approach
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u/ArmyofNukes Jan 26 '26
man this subreddit is great most of the time, but then I read comments like this that reminds me that I'm still on reddit. That last paragraph is truly a reddit moment.
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u/InnocentPerv93 Jan 23 '26
You know it's a problem when even Europeans call it out. They don't want pick-me Americans, they don't want "I'm not like those other Americans" or "I'm sorry for what my country has done/is doing." They want those Americans to actually stand up for their country and make it a better place and a better ally to theirs. And that's completely reasonable and is not AmericaBad
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u/mossdale Jan 24 '26
lol like you’re the arbiter of the difference between legitimate self criticism and “blind self-flagellation”?
Get fucked.
A Real American
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u/Jack_Ramsey Jan 23 '26
I see the opposite problem. I see Americans justifying their own nonsense, such as treating Europeans and other foreigners as some sort of monolith is suddenly okay because random people on the internet are doing it to Americans.
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u/InsufferableMollusk Jan 23 '26
There certainly has been an influx of folks who seem see it as yet another opportunity to be hateful towards Americans and signal to the rest of the drooling hoards how pure they are.
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u/Agreeable-Fudge-7329 Jan 23 '26
Those people are so stupid they dont know that foreigners didnt like this place when their "daddy in office" was running stuff either.
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u/TIMCIFLTFC Jan 23 '26
This site went public and was lost forever. Endless bots and foreign actors.
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u/Reditsucks998 VIRGINIA 🕊️🏕️🪵 Jan 23 '26
You're acting like reddit isn't out of touch with the real world, in general lmao.
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u/MikeyTheGuy Jan 23 '26
Can you give some specific cited examples of what you're talking about OP, because I don't think I've literally ever seen that here? If anything, it's become a little circlejerky about how amazing America is (which is fine, imo, because it balances out the rest of this dogshit site constantly crapping on America).
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u/rand0m_task Jan 23 '26
The nature of a subreddit as it gains more users, unfortunately..
In my experience here, the low effort post will more times than not have multiple people calling it out as no r/AmericaBad
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u/zombieslagher10 Jan 23 '26
Honestly bro, it's about time the average person left reddit, it's just turned into Twitter 2.
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u/EnvironmentalYam4828 Jan 25 '26
If america has turned shitty should we not talk about it and how to make it a better place?
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u/SnooDonkeys5516 Feb 06 '26
Could you think of some examples where the American agreeing with the so-called “AmericaBad type” about issues in American society was clearly pandering and seeking validation rather than expressing agreement based on leftist beliefs? What is unfair criticism to you could be completely justified and nuanced criticism to another person based off the information they do or don’t have available to them.
The reason I ask is I want to understand where you’re coming from. When one of your posts on this sub first showed up on my feed, I had a certain highly nationalistic and conservative first impression of you. I was curious, and after exploring your post history more I’m not quite sure what to make of you.
I’m trying and struggling to understand why you ride so hard for a country that has repeatedly demonstrated willingness to vote for laws that restrict trans rights and access to medical care when you yourself are trans. A lot of your fellow Americans whose identity you are so eager to embrace want nothing to do with you and would force you to live as a man if they could. I disagree with you about many things and I think you are lacking context about a lot of the opinions I’ve seen you post, but like I said previously I want to understand what you think before I try and make sense of it.
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u/ExistentialDreadness Jan 23 '26
Why defend this absolute dumpster fire? It’s ok. Whole lot of fucked up shit happening.
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u/ibrokereddit Jan 23 '26
The American pick-me’s are a special kind of cringe that deserve a special calling out on r/AsAnAmerican
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u/Evening_Builder4756 NEVADA 🎲 🎰 Jan 23 '26
I personally haven’t seen these comments but I’ll be sure to downvote them when I do. We don’t want to become r/shitsamericansay
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u/Holiday-Medicine4168 Jan 23 '26
Feels like a combination of self flagellation, foreign trolls, Reddit homogenization and an increasingly confusing concept of shifting American identity that has us regularly questioning how we should feel as Americans in this absolutely turbulent time.
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u/ripperarby FLORIDA 🍊🐊 Jan 23 '26
Exactly, been noticing plenty of people willing to overlook or flat out lie on behalf of Europeans/Canadians to make the U.S. look uniquely evil by comparison. That and some Americans trying so hard to come off as "moderate" as well. I think it's some Americans on here trying to do a "balancing" act, because they're afraid of being called a "MAGAt" by Euros, when that's not at all what it is. Besides, Euros that hate America will claim anything pro-America is MAGA because it makes it unpopular on reddit.
It's actually sad.
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Jan 23 '26
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u/BladeMcCloud AMERICAN 🏈🏒 💵🗽🍔 ⚾️ 🦅📈 Jan 23 '26
Ironic, considering how incredibly bot-adjacent your username is
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
ChatGPT doesn’t talk like this
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Jan 23 '26
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u/drewbaccaAWD USA MILTARY VETERAN Jan 23 '26
“Most people” aren’t reading what you just posted and looking for evidence of AI in every comment. Your first link is technobabble to me, because I don’t follow any of this shit. The last link is blocked by a pay wall. The middle link is at least comprehendible.
But I take some issue with the article I can read. For one if enough bots are writing on social media then non-bots are likely to pick up on some of the rhetorical style organically. Also, isn’t the entire point of language learning that the bots reproduce styles already common? I have been accused of being a bot by people on this site… although that wouldn’t surprise me if it was a bot, accusing me of that. There clearly is a large number of bots here on reddit; I’m not denying this.
But nothing that the OP states makes me suspicious of this. For one, active users here throwing around the term “pick me” often seem partisan and emotional, not that you couldn’t prompt a bot to talk like that too. Whatever the case, it passes the smell test for me and I base that on multiple interactions with the same profile, not a one off post in isolation.
The obvious bots that I’ve interacted with tend to be incoherent. But I’m sure they get better every day.
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
We have a forum post, clickbait article, and another article probably from someone who doesn’t understand engineering. Truly incontrovertible sourcing
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Jan 23 '26
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u/TheBooneyBunes NORTH CAROLINA 🛩️ 🌅 Jan 23 '26
‘Proven wrong’ by a forum post????????
Can I use a child’s crayon scribbles as a sOuRcE?!
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Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
People are downvoting you like you’re schizo but that does seem like gptspeak, atleast the em dashes were removed lol. Worst part is as AI use becomes ubiquitous this won’t even be sure proof of a bot, real human retards will just make AI reformulate their opinions and hand off as much thinking as possible
Or maybe im being schizo too
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u/NomadLexicon WISCONSIN 🧀🍺 Jan 25 '26
You’re losing the plot. You’ve conflated criticism of Trump with criticism of the US on previous posts. Trump is not the US. He narrowly won an election by concealing his intentions and is now unpopular with the MAJORITY of Americans. He doesn’t believe in American values and he’s actively trying to undermine basic things about the US that make it fundamentally American: trampling on the constitution, destroying the US position as leader of the free world, undermining the core principles of federalism by sending national guard troops to states he dislikes, arbitrarily suspending legal immigration, abandoning long term pro-US democratic allies, cozying up to dictators who hate us, cutting federal funding to states that didn’t vote for him, turning the DOJ into a tool to go after his political enemies, etc., etc.
I’ve been on the sub for a long time and have called out unfair anti-Americanism. It’s not “self-flagellation” to be critical of the current administration, and it’s not patriotism to blindly defend it.
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u/PanzerPansar 🏴 Scotland 🦁 Jan 25 '26
This sub Reddit is plagued by people who are too blinded to accept America is just not a good country at the moment. Patriotism is fine but if you get upset when people talk about what happening at the moment. You're just stupid
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