I’m sorry, I don’t know your community that well, but I was banned off of r/futurology for this post.

I’m going to say what we all know.

Reddit has undergone a shift, and the presence of bots/AI-generated content, propaganda, and coordinated campaigns is a documented reality.

1. Bots & AI Are Proliferating on Reddit
2. Automated Accounts: Tools like ChatGPT make it trivial to generate human-like comments/posts at scale. Farms deploy these to farm karma, sway discussions, or spam.
3. Karma Farms: Bots repost popular old content/comments to gain karma, then get sold for propaganda or advertising.

4. Detection Difficulty: Reddit’s anti-bot systems struggle to keep up, and AI can now mimic writing styles flawlessly.

5. Astroturfing & Propaganda Are Common.

6. Corporate/PR Influence: Companies use bots or paid accounts to promote products, downplay scandals, or attack critics (e.g., gaming, tech, or finance subs).
7. Political Manipulation: State actors (Russia, China, Iran, etc.) and domestic groups manipulate narratives on news/political subs. The "news" you see may be amplified or distorted.

8. Agenda-Driven Subreddits: Entire communities are sometimes covertly run by ideological/political groups to push narratives.

9. Reddit is Less "Human"

10. Algorithmic Incentives: Reddit rewards engagement (upvotes, controversy). Bots/farms exploit this, drowning out organic discussion.
11. Decline of "Old Reddit" Culture: As Reddit commercialized (IPO, API changes), authentic communities shrank. Heavy users remained, leaving voids bots fill.

12. News Aggregation Risks: Reddit is now a top news source, but unvetted. Bots can spread misinformation rapidly via upvote manipulation.

13. How to Spot Suspicious Activity

14. Account Red Flags: > Generic usernames (e.g., "Word_Number123").
    > Sudden activity bursts after months of silence.
    > Overly polished, emotionless, or repetitive language.
15. Post Patterns: > Rapid, identical comments across threads.
    > Posts pushing niche agendas (e.g., crypto, supplements, fringe politics).
    > "Outrage bait" designed to provoke engagement.

16. Subreddit Anomalies: > Sudden shifts in moderation or topic focus.
    > Highly polarized discussions with lack of fact checking.

17. Protecting Your Trust

18. Cross-Check Sources: Treat Reddit "news" as a lead, not truth. Verify via established outlets (AP, Reuters).
19. Stick to Niche Communities: Smaller, topic-specific subs (e.g., hobbies, academics) have fewer bots.
20. Use Tools: Browser extensions like "Reddit Investigator" or "Bot Sentinel" analyze account behavior.
21. Question Consensus: If a thread feels unnaturally polarized or amplified, disengage.

Bottom Line:

Reddit is no longer a purely organic space. While genuine human interaction still exists (especially in smaller communities), the platform is saturated with manipulation. This doesn’t mean "all Reddit is bots," but it does mean healthy skepticism is essential. Trust should be earned through consistent, transparent behavior—not assigned by default.

Stay critical, don’t give out trust, and prioritize subs with active, transparent moderation. The degradation here reflects a broader internet crisis—awareness is the first defense.

Admission: I did use a language model (AI) to collect and format this information. That doesn’t change that it took personal effort, thought, and intention to make this post. and it definitely doesn’t change my message.