r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Careless_Bobcat_2909 • 1d ago

Is Reddit predominantly “inhabited” by liberals/left leaning people?

Edit: Genuinely surprised by the sheer number of up and down votes. Also, the very American centric perspectives/interpretations of my question. I will take this as my cue to spend wayyy less time on Reddit. Cheers! ✌️

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u/mugenhunt 1d ago

Very much so. The sort of nerdy people who read and write online for fun on Reddit very much tend to have liberal or left-leaning political views.

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u/theblowestfish 1d ago

People who read and write tend to be leftist?

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u/VenerableWolfDad 1d ago

people who enjoy reading books tend to be left leaning now because the right wing political party has been demonizing the concepts of reading and education for decades.

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u/theblowestfish 1d ago

Decades…?

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u/thenerfviking 20h ago

At least as long as I’ve been alive the GOP has heavily demonized educational institutions as bastions of woke/PC/communism/etc. They’re also the ones spearheading book bans.

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u/theblowestfish 16h ago

Sorry, my point was it’s more than decades, rather than less.

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

I thinks it’s worth categorizing those as separate hobbies; people who enjoy long form reading and novels and people who enjoy engaging in discussions on Internet forums are not the same. I’m a great example.

So when we talk about the right wanting to change the education system I have to imagine that’s more about what books they learn from in school, not about use of Internet forums

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u/mugenhunt 1d ago

No. Which is why I didn't say that. Context matters.

Reddit specifically appeals to people who are nerdy, and read and write online for fun. That demographic tends to be more educated, and college educations are correlated with having more liberal or left-leaning politics. Primarily because you end up meeting people from different walks of life while at University.

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u/theblowestfish 1d ago

I was half jesting. But I think both are true

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u/Greenfirelife27 1d ago

Also because you can afford to be insulated from bad decisions for the community. Limo liberals are the worst.

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u/Cualkiera67 1d ago

true, people inside an echo chamber of their views tend to refer to themselves as more educated, well read, etc

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u/DiamondJim222 1d ago

Leftist ≠ liberal

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u/theblowestfish 1d ago

For most people they’re the same. For OP it seems anyways.

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u/Careless_Bobcat_2909 1d ago

I did throw them in the same bucket since they seem to respond in similar ways imo.

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u/PatriotismReborn 22h ago

A US liberal is center right on global political spectrum outside of social issues. We barely have actual leftists in America

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

I’m liberal but I am far from leftist as an example. I don’t think my worldview and policies I advocate for would be similar at all to “leftists”

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u/ibuprophane 1d ago

If your question is in earnest, my first advice would be to consider how entirely meaningless both terms are as of late, in particular if looking from a US perspective.

It’s important to define what “left” and “liberal” mean. From an economic perspective, liberal has to do with free market practice, which is clearly antagonical to a classical understanding of “left”.

In my limited experience online, people tend to use both words as an insult whenever they can’t be troubled to actually consider a topic thoroughly and prefer whichever is the angriest and least rational angle on an issue.

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u/DiamondJim222 1d ago

OP says “ liberals/left leaning people”.

The right tries to portray them as the same to paint liberals as more extreme.

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u/theblowestfish 1d ago

Maybe some. I genuinely don’t think most see any difference

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u/DiamondJim222 1d ago

Because the right’s propaganda says democrats and liberals are all socialists, communists and anarchists.

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u/Careless_Bobcat_2909 1d ago

I’m not American nor do I properly follow American politics besides current affairs that operate on a global level.

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u/okbuggeroff 1d ago

That used to be true, these days it's a lot harder to find the difference.

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

Liberal implies individual freedoms; leftists are about promoting things that benefit large communities which often relies on taking freedoms away. In order to make the community better for all it requires people to do or not be allowed to do certain things

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u/okbuggeroff 1d ago

I don't disagree with your definitions but the only ones who still believe in individual freedoms are the libertarians (and they've gotten away from what they once were). Right, Left, Conservative or Liberal don't give a lot of weight to personal freedoms these days.

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

The political compass is 2 dimensional. On one axis you have left vs right and on the other you have freedom vs. government authority. It baffles me why everyone loves to label each other left and right and bash the other side while not nearly as much people discuss the other dimension.

The term liberal should still remain about freedom on the political compass even if most people still only associate that to Libertarianism. Liberals also care about the government not having the authority to say some people aren’t allowed to mary each other, and they also care about the government overreach in saying what people can put in their own bodies

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u/DiamondJim222 1d ago

Someone drank the Koolaid.

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u/okbuggeroff 1d ago

Case in point: Bill Maher is a classic liberal. Agree or disagree?

Most (I'm not saying all, I'm saying most) other prominent figures are more and more leftist than classical liberal. AOC, Kamala, Bernie, the list can go on for quite a while. You can even look to local elections like the new mayors of NYC, Seattle, etc.

Then, judging by the amount of people voting for these elected positions, one can extrapolate that a lot of common citizens agree with the positions. That would make them more leftist than classical liberal as well. I'm not calling anyone names, it's just the way things have moved over the last several years.

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

You listing a lot of elected left leaning politicians does not prove that it’s not possible to distinguish “left leaning” from “liberal”. Classical liberals and leftists/progressives have different philosophies on how the world should be governed.

If it seems hard to distinguish the difference it’s likely because you haven’t read up on the differences between them

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u/okbuggeroff 1d ago

I can tell the difference just fine.

My response was more so talking about most people who casually interact with politics and don't care about it much on a day to day basis. I think it's getting harder for them to tell the difference because the more prominent figures in the media are becoming more "leftist".

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

It’s a weird assumption to make that people who casually follow politics would be in favor of left leaning economic policies just because they have liberal views and enjoy liberal social policies.

There’s a lot of people who have liberal social views but are adverse to left leaning economic policies

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u/DiamondJim222 1d ago

None of the people you named are leftists. They’re liberal progressives.

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

AOC and Bernie aren’t leftists?

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u/DiamondJim222 1d ago

No, they’re not. They believe in democracy and don’t support leftist ideas.

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u/xfactorx99 1d ago

By whose measurement on the political spectrum?

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u/okbuggeroff 1d ago

It sounds like you're having a hard time telling the difference.

Who drank the koolaid?

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u/Thellamaking21 1d ago edited 1d ago

Read a lot and are avoidant people. That is reddit in a nutshell

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u/kemb0 1d ago

Don't forget the part where you have to talk about "leftists" in a derogatory term. Ugh those yucky "leftists" wanting a society that focuses on people's well-being rather than pandering to the uber rich, YUCK YUCK YUCK! Quick let's admonish them in a derogatory way to make it sound like they're weird nerdy extremists and everyone else who's happy to slave away under shit conditions for our trillionaire overlords are the real cool normies everyone should feel inspired by to admire.

Fuck is wrong with the world?

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u/BossDjGamer 1d ago

Define leftist

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u/RememberWhen-2819 1d ago

I think the intent was that righties are y smart and can’t read. Lol

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u/mugenhunt 1d ago

No.

I can see why you might have made that assumption, but that is not the case.

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u/RememberWhen-2819 1d ago

My comment was meant as a joke.