While Reddit is a whole lot of fake and gay, I found an interesting example of what happens when shilling is not in full force. For the background, I heard of a real piece of shit politician named John Thompson. I mean real piece of shit, this state representative tried to play the race card when he was stopped for not having a front license plate. Turns out he did not have an Minnesota license either, but a Wisconsin one.
Anyways, I go to the less mainstream subreddits, and I was surprised.
They actually called him out for being a piece of shit. And this was not some bastion of right wing politics, it was a local subreddit for a city in Minnesota. Almost all of them have left wingers, no matter the state or region.
This got me thinking. Yes, I am well aware of the shilling and fakery on the site, but it was quite a stark difference to see these opinions be on display, as anything that goes against the Democrat party gets snuffed out with downvotes and mod fuckery.
What I have concluded is that the full scale shilling only takes place on the most prominent parts of the website. The politics, science, and other normie subreddits that have millions (or allegedly millions) of subscribers get the full court press of shilling and mod abuse. So a politician like John Thompson will be absolutely berated when there is organic discussion taking place, but if he ever had national prominence, there would be all the stops pulled to cover for him.
I bring up John Thompson because he checks all the boxes for the shills to circle the wagons. He is a black Democrat, which is one of the sacred cows in more than one way for their side. Keep in mind that George Floyd was in the same area and had glowing praise in spite of the fact that he was also no one worthy of praise. What a difference it makes to have shills working behind the scenes to keep the narrative in check!
Reddit sucks and will continue to suck. Believe nothing that has 10K or more upvotes to be organic. It is absolutely astroturfed and manipulated to the core.
I saw r/politics go from pro-Bernie and anti-Hillary to full on Hilldawg lovers the moment she got the nomination. I recall that ShareBlue literally bought out that sub, so it should be no surprise that we saw the ultimate results.
In short, Reddit sucks ass and is full of fraudulence and homosexuality.
Covering for him does not need to be denial or "fact checking," but also in the form of memory-holing and silencing any discussion. I would not be surprised if that did happen with him already on the more mainline subreddits. But even so, he is certainly not a politician who is on the national radar at this time. Probably won't ever be either, because he is so bad that his own party disowned him.