417 upvotes, 8 direct replies (showing 8)
I tend to stay in the good part of Reddit. I wasn't aware that /r/beatingwomen2 existed, although I had known subreddits of that sort do exist. Out of curiosity I visited it and now I feel sick to my stomach. I don't know how I feel about the idea of Reddit supporting free speech on every level anymore. I don't know that there is any way I can justify being okay with the existence of /r/beatingwomen2 or /r/rapingwomen. I mean, allowing things like racism or sexism to exist on Reddit is one thing. Those are at least legal and are limited to words. But to allow pictures of violence like rape and domestic abuse? I cannot bring myself to consider free speech important enough to allow such things. Those go beyond free speech and into a whole new realm of bad.
It makes me even more sad to think that there was such an uproar over nude pictures of celebrities, but nobody even talks about the girls in those subreddits. In the end it comes down to money and popularity. I'm having one of those moments where I'm just really disappointed in the world.
Edit: Changed some poorly worded sentences.
Comment by pseudopseudonym at 07/09/2014 at 23:35 UTC
290 upvotes, 7 direct replies
I'm leaving those links a nice shade of blue. Jesus.
Comment by Pas__ at 07/09/2014 at 23:37 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I mean, allowing things like racism or even sexism to exist on Reddit is one thing.
If you cast if back into the wilderness does that make it anyhow less prevalent in the physical world? No.
We like to shelter ourselves, because we are lucky that we haven't had to go through the experience (first hand, second hand, bystander, neighbor or else) of these inhuman acts. But they are there, every day people commit crimes against other people. Putting up pictures of these makes no difference, but selectively denying freedom of expression usually has rather severe consequences in the long run.
Those go beyond free speech and into a whole new realm of bad.
No, they don't. Free speech means nothing if you don't let it exist in the public sphere, because it's inconvenient to think about.
Sure, reddit could ban these transparently, keep a list of things that are no-no. But this as almost all censorship has an inevitable chilling effect. (When is it okay to mention rape? Only a subreddit that has predominantly foul content that's banned? Or can someone get banned for discussing the sexual aspect of rape? And so on.)
Anyway, my point is not that it's good for Reddit to have these subreddits, it bad for *us* that a lot of people flinch at this, and would gladly crawl back into the warm and fluffy chambers of /r/aww, while there are just as grievous deeds going on in the stories behind /r/worldnews, just without the pictures.
Comment by [deleted] at 08/09/2014 at 04:42 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
WTF? We can't expect the mods to be everywhere, but damn that's hard to justify keeping there. I'm conflicted between free speech and my hate for people who refuse to respect the sovergnty of other people.
Comment by SF_Gangplank at 08/09/2014 at 03:47 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
My friend, last I knew, neither of those are legally protected by free speech. If anything, those pictures are now on the internet in public domain where any officer may attempt to use them as evidence in a trial. Though it's sickening, and honestly, the individuals who can stomach uploading them (if they are not the ones committing such acts) are stronger than I. Perhaps such threads could be re-engineered to be used as a help line for those being abused and even as a safe-haven for such evidence. I mean, no one wants to go to jail for beating someone, and if they knew their victim was holding evidence of it, I'm sure they'd remove it. By putting it online, it's safe from their grasp. I'm not defending the subreddits, but I'm sure we can bring some shade of good from something so dark. Afterall, diamonds were coal once.
Comment by Helios321 at 08/09/2014 at 04:58 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Well that is not exactly true. As soon as the storm of negativity started to take hold there were many people who voiced the same opinion as you that it is ridiculous to protect the "rights" of celebrities more than everyone else who have had the same thing happen to them. The only response I remember reading was a simple "The FBI does also look into those cases." So its not a new criticism. I think it is unfortunate that there is a double standard especially considering how many celebrities love to claim that they are just regular people. One in particular was very adamant about how much of a normal girl she was, and it turned out she wasn't joking....
Comment by FlexoPXP at 08/09/2014 at 03:47 UTC
-2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Who's laws do we enforce though? In some countries slander against any religion is banned. In others, it's just slander against Islam. Do we ban vids of atrocities that the terrorists inflict on innocents? Do we ban videos of street fights? I hate to use the phrase "slippery slope" but that is what it would be if you start picking and choosing what the public sees. After all, even pictures of soldiers fighting at all will offend someone and from their perspective is illegal, immoral, or both.
I do want the content segregated into appropriate subs and the mods usually do a decent job of purging stuff that doesn't belong in a given sub. So if you aren't an atheist then you should stay out of /r/atheism and you should know what you'll find there.
I would be in favor of a click-through splash page for any sub that has NSFW/NSFL or other controversial content similar to what Liveleak has on their more hardcore videos.
Comment by kinsm4n at 08/09/2014 at 05:54 UTC
-1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
"I don't know how I feel about the idea of Reddit supporting free speech on every level anymore."
That's the thing with freedom of speech, there will be ideas that will go against your personal comfort level of what is acceptable and unacceptable. In general, most people can agree on a moral level, hence why there are laws to protect these "normal" moral ideas. The reason "Free speech" is such a great idea, though, is it governs itself for the most part. People who are involved in the community will choose what is actually moral and what is not. That's why we are able to report these extremely immoral/terrible things. That's why I like that reddit is leaving it to the community as well.
Comment by real-dreamer at 22/09/2014 at 23:31 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What is the difference between /r/beatingwomen2 and /r/beatingwomen