Oh Reddit…you truly are a land of wonders, aren’t you. One of your users recently called me a snowflake and dick-for-brains (yes, that’s exactly how it was spelled) for…agreeing with him. Now I’m not here to discuss my hurt feelings, even though that one stings – along with moderators letting the offender off the hook. No, I want to talk about something altogether – and that is doomer subs, one of which is where the conversation took place.
Take a look at both r/doomerdunk and r/doomercirlejerk. Former claims that “doomers and terrorists are cringe” and latter says “Break free from the usual Red vs Blue nonsense” in spite of being mostly filled with MAGA contingent. In case still not entirely clear, doomer subs make fun of anyone claiming things are getting worse – and that would be mostly people on the left, judging by a quick scan of both, although its entirely possibly swipes at the right do happen here and there.
While I ran into circlejerk subs of Reddit in the past, those were mostly aimed at making fun of music fans and seemed rather harmless. Political circlejerks, however, appear to be far different in nature and way more willing to bash skulls of anyone disagreeing with the sentiments expressed within.
I developed an entire theory to try and explain the rise of doomer subs (as well as Doomer adjacent 4chan style subs such as r/memesopdidnotlike). And the theory seem to be that Reddit is now fighting against the accusations of being a leftist echo chamber by promoting thinly veiled conservative subs – ones that brand anyone disagreeing with Trump a doomer, if not a communist, if not a terrorist.
Now…make no mistake, doomerism is a real problem. Feeling apathetic about things and saying “we’re cooked” 24/7 is a path to nowhere. I just get the feeling that MAGA found a really good way to latch on genuine complaints and try to steer things in a different direction. It doesn’t help matters that I constantly see r/doomerdunk, r/memesopdidnotlike and r/doomercirclejerk being promoted to me via Reddit algorithm. Which leads me to another point…
Would it be doomer-like to say that Reddit promotes doom quite effectively itself? Some of the recommended subs I saw also include true crime, cemetery porn and catastrophes i.e. not the things anyone should follow unless they choose to do so or unless ones want to feel depressed / down. I believe its entirely possible to not doomscroll and have a healthy discussion of issues plaguing us at the moment – hard as it might not be to despair at the current political/cultural landscape. Too bad Reddit provides no such opportunity and is consistently getting worse…oops, now I sound like a Doomer myself. Mea culpa, won’t happen again.
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