Thoughts on reddit?

[Shaman]

Personally I use it sometimes, it can be really helpful but toxic at times.

 

[Xenophon]

Sort of like a big bottle of hunnert-proof slivowitz, no? The trick is to space out your shots, and if one gags you, slam another one fast.

Just remember: Reddit is a collection of random strangers with time on their hands. There's no more need to credit their opinion than that of any knot of guys in any bar anywhere. Sure, sometimes you'll meet a Socrates, dialogue with a Diogenes. Still and all, "kakoi hoi polloi; oligoi d' agathoi": many the mediocre; few, the surpassing fine. (This from Heraclitus who, it seems, kept to himself.)

 

[Shaman]

Sort of like a big bottle of hunnert-proof slivowitz, no? The trick is to space out your shots, and if one gags you, slam another one fast.

Just remember: Reddit is a collection of random strangers with time on their hands. There's no more need to credit their opinion than that of any knot of guys in any bar anywhere. Sure, sometimes you'll meet a Socrates, dialogue with a Diogenes. Still and all, "kakoi hoi polloi; oligoi d' agathoi": many the mediocre; few, the surpassing fine. (This from Heraclitus who, it seems, kept to himself.)

Yea it's the anonymity that gives them the power to say anything they want. In reality if redditors said what they say on reddit in real life, their face would get smacked.

 

[Xenophon]

Yea it's the anonymity that gives them the power to say anything they want. In reality if redditors said what they say on reddit in real life, their face would get smacked.

Actually maybe not. The typical reaction to an 'outrageous' comment now is, "Hunh?! Did he just say what I thunk he said?!"

The only comments that get you beaten or shot are stuff like, "I'm sorry, sir. We're out of the Popeye's Chiggun Samwitch," "Looks like just a fender bender. What's your insurance company?," and "No, I don't have any dollars to give away."

 

[Robert Ramsay]

When I look up stuff on Reddit, it's usually quite ok, but then the subjects I am likely to be looking at are not to do with the occult

 

[HoldAll]

The occult and magick subreddits quite often have long and thoroughly considered comments that are well worth reading and many of them seem to come from actual practitioners and not from armchair magicians, even if the original question was naive of daft. Of course I don't agree with everything, it's often apparent that posters are set in their ways and have stock advice for beginners they are not likely to change in view of any innovations others might propose. All in all, I enjoy reading the posts, even the quips are intelligent most of the time.

 

[neilwilkes]

Personally I use it sometimes, it can be really helpful but toxic at times.

Of course it can be toxic - it's 'Social' media, after all.
I confess I use iot for a couple of videogames I play and that's about it.
I certainly would never trust anybody's magickal opinions on there - not as far as I can spit into a headwind!

 

[Konsciencia]

I'm not a fan of reddit. To much nonesense.

 

[Shaman]

Yea it's full of toxic users, IMO reddit is the worst social media

 

[WisdomAddict]

I remember my first attempts on search about occult ,esoteric material,reading lists,library links was on Reddit...
For me its a site that I visit time to time but not with intention of visting it you end up there from like in search results , you get what I meant I guess

 

[Doorman]

Reddit is pretty useful if you go with a purpose, like I want to find a way to fix this thing, or I want to know the awnser to that...
But if you start spending too much time just scrolling in reddit it gets toxic quite fast

 

[pixel_fortune]

r/occult r/hermetecism, r/goldendawnmagicians, r/thelema etc have a few very experienced, intelligent practitioners who answer questions probably as a form of service. Eg Polyphanes (Digital Ambler) gave some extensive answers to a question I had about Hermetic cosmology. (Not all of the great posters are 'known' esotericists).

You also get a bunch of bullshit from people who read a couple of keywords in your question and hallucinated the rest. No mud, no lotus?

And a tonne of the questions people ask are repetitive and make you despair for the world. There's a lot of feckless people who would rather make someone else re-type a whole answer than simply google it, a lot of scared people ("I did the LBRP and two weeks later, my neighbour got a cold - did I accidentally curse him???"), and a lot of people desperate for "permission". (Like "Is it okay to do x minor tweak to ritual?" They won't try ANYTHING without external validation first).

So: the Q is how irritated you are by bullshit, or whether you can tune it out (I try to remember: many of the people posting a lot online are like 14. That's why they're online: they can't go out and seek an IRL community. It's easier not to get mad at someone for being ignorant when you remember there's a good chance they're a kid.).

If you can scan through garbage without getting mad, there's real gold there. If you get really infuriated, the gold's not worth the effect on your mood and equilibrium.

(I go through phases, after too long on reddit I find myself feeling the need to answer every dumb question someone posts - in a helpful way, but to what purpose? - which is a huge timesink, and then I need to take a break for a couple of months. But I can't deny I've also found some EXTREMELY useful info there.)

Eg a post by a higher-up guy in Golden Dawn that completely shifted by understanding of the Middle Pillar. (You're not "activating energy centres", they're not chakras, you're creating flow and communication between different levels of consciousness, everyday, subconscious, higher, divine, etc. Vertical integration, as it were).(I'm sure other people would disagree, but regardless, it's a good to hear new and intelligent ideas, even if you don't agree with them.)

 

[Taudefindi]

if you start spending too much time just scrolling in reddit it gets toxic quite fast

Agreed.
It can end up being just as toxic as Twitter, if not more(though sometimes it feels like Twitter is more toxic while Reddit is more filled with ignorant assholes).

But there are a lot of amazing niche communities there.

They won't try ANYTHING without external validation first

I think most of those are less about seeking validation and more about seeking attention, even if for a short while.

 

[Xenophon]

When did "toxic" become the go-to synonym for "annoying"? It's flying fast & furious 'round the forum of late. Why not something less dramatic? Personally I like Clausewitz's favorite term. Having gone through the wars against Napoleon, the worst he would say about any affair was that it featured "friction." Reading an annoying post online is more like a floor-burn from friction, I aver, than it is munching on a cyanide capsule.

 

[Vandheer]

I love reddit. Toxic people will be everywhere. Its just what it is, block button is shiny. There are lots of decent information and lots of laughs for me on that place.

 

[SkullTraill]

I only use Reddit in 4 ways:

• I post my art in relevant art subs
• I consume like 80% of my porn content from Reddit (it has the best OC and niche porn)
• I have a script that automatically posts all WF threads as links on the WF subreddit. Google may have blacklisted WF but they can’t blacklist Reddit (get fucked google). It’s free real estate
• when I google questions, I often find myself on Reddit reading the answers others gave to similar questions

I never really ask questions myself, cause I don’t want to wait that long for an answer, also I don’t typically get along with the average Reddit enjoyer. I find it to be a collection of hive minds that are either too snowflake or too whatever-pilled. If I have a question that can be answered by someone on Reddit, it’s already been asked, so google does the job. If I want to have a discussion with a sane, mentally balanced and equipped individual, I have much better avenues. IMHO Reddit is the epitome of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Yeah ofc there are exceptions, but it’s not really worth my time.

 

[Wintruz]

Having gone through the wars against Napoleon, the worst he would say about any affair was that it featured "friction."

This is your peak English moment.

Reddit: I have been banned more times than I care to mention. I start with immaculate, on-topic, relevant knowledge and then Dionysus rebels and tells me to post egregiously controversial things (the bar is low on there) in contexts that cause maximum upset, while I laugh and laugh and laugh.

 

[stratamaster78]

I’m surprised when anyone refers to Reddit as ‘Toxic’.

It has that reputation so badly that when I finally started visiting the site I was shocked at how much of a positivity echo chamber it actually is pretty much everywhere.

You have to actually go out of your way and sort by ‘Controversial’ to actually find differing views.

Most people who post against the current get downvoted into oblivion and to the absolute bottom of the comments.

 

[Xenophon]

I’m surprised when anyone refers to Reddit as ‘Toxic’.

It has that reputation so badly that when I finally started visiting the site I was shocked at how much of a positivity echo chamber it actually is pretty much everywhere.

You have to actually go out of your way and sort by ‘Controversial’ to actually find differing views.

Most people who post against the current get downvoted into oblivion and to the absolute bottom of the comments.

Hypersensitivity to criticism results in a spiral of ever-increasing hypersensitivity. What was once a homeopathic dose of constructive criticism becomes psychologically fatal "bullying." And this all because li'l Cyber Safespace has been cocooned his whole half-life.