The problem with Reddit

Reddit is nice. You can organize discussions into topics, and registration is free and not curated (unlike neogaf). There is one little thing, however, that threatens to undermine it all: the downvote-button.

The downvote-button promotes mob-mentality, discourages independent thought, discourages free speech, and promotes bullying and ganging-up.

It's a spiral, whether it's up or down. By default, the comments with the most upvotes land at the top of a discussion, while the comments with the most downvotes are at the bottom. This allows the most popular comments to be even more successful, while it buries the unpopular ones. This is a great disservice to the expansion of the mind, which should be the ultimate goal of people.

It doesn't matter whether you're wrong or right, if your comment is unpopular, it is punished, and that's a damn shame. This is typical human behavior, but that doesn't excuse it. Galileo was metaphorically downvoted during his time, and he was correct in his assertions. That was over 300 years ago. Have we not evolved much during that time? That is pathetic.

When we see a comment that has been downvoted to oblivion, it is kind of human nature to downvote it ourselves, as if we're picking on a kid that has been bullied, whether we know why or not. We like to kick someone that is already down, so that we feel better about ourselves. This is disgusting behavior and we need to stop it right away.

As good as the internet is, Reddit's downvote-button threatens to undermine everything great about it. It is time for the upvote and downvote-buttons to go away. Let us rejoice in independent thought and go away from mob-mentality. We can have peace without homogeneity.

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