Everything I dislike about Reddit I ultimately realize more and more has been because of "globalized" Terms of Service being pressured into place by US, EU laws, and individual governments.

I've thought Reddit, and just the internet got increasingly claustrophobic since 2013 and onwards, exponentially so, and Reddit used to be one of the sites that were closer to something like 4chan, but without the outright shocking content you would find by going there. I was never really a 4chan user, but I knew about it since 2007 or so thanks to a friend who introduced me to some of the really degenerate humor. I probably visited 4chan 1-2 times per year then.

Now I go to 4chan almost daily, because otherwise everything on the internet is a censorship hellhole, full of AI-autoflagging, and Terms of Service that are so narrow because they have to accomodate like 8 different governments around the world, because the user-base has to be compliant with all rules at the same time.

You look at the rediquette and the right-side panel on every Subreddit and you look at the #Rules in every Discord server you're in. And you realize "oh". All of it is that way, because of governments in the end. Yes, it's because of corporate culture... but why do companies become "corporate" over time? It's not just to look sanitized and fancy for clients. It's something you do, because the bigger you are, the more Government is up your ass, making sure your influence on civilization is not in their way.

That's what this is, and that's why this hunt for a "Reddit Alternative" is stupid. Reddit isn't this way because the corporation itself only got shittier. It is this way, because global politics are shifting towards a China-like attitude towards the internet. They hate anonymity, privacy, and instead of risking users misbehaving, they'd rather quench the wildfire with a nuclear bomb, and just sic a Palantir AI on every person in society, and make an alarm anybody dissents from Government's narrative, or does something illegal.

I'm not saying the illegal stuff were good back in the day, but even Hate Speech laws were originally put in place as a reaction against the Holocaust against the Jews, and not intended for the various uses it's being used for now. It used to be you could actually say things people didn't like, and they could simply tell you "fuck off" and it not being a moderation problem. Now everything is in this nanny state, and we can't talk to each other, except those of us who already agree on our worldviews in advance, and respect rules that basically limits freedom of speech.

And I'm not hearing any "Freedom of speech doesn't strip you of Freedom from responsibility". "Responsibility" is the word being used constantly by politicians since 2020. "Digital Responsibility". That's why everything is just becoming Facebook, and a few years from now we'll not have usernames, and you'll just be talking to "real people" anywhere you go online. Then the internet is no longer the thing that originally interested me, a little world away from the stresses of society, where you geek out over various interests, and talk in ways that differ from how I talked at school or at work.

This is why you will never find a better Reddit, because the problem is not Reddit, but politics.