DC Trawler

Reddit bans “climate deniers,” but not 9/11 Truthers, Chemtrail kooks, other actual lunatics

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I don’t pay much attention to Reddit. And of course, they can do whatever they want with their own site. But as ever, it’s instructive to take note of the perpetual double standard among our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters on the left.

Giuseppe Macri reports:

A content editor on Reddit’s science forum wrote Monday that the site has banned climate-change skeptics, and asks why more news outlets haven’t done the same.

“About a year ago, we moderators became increasingly stringent with deniers,” Reddit content editor Nathan Allen wrote in grist. “When a potentially controversial submission was posted, a warning would be issued stating the rules for comments (most importantly that your comment isn’t a conspiracy theory) and advising that further violations of the rules could result in the commenter being banned from the forum.”

Allen explains that climate change became an ironically heated topic among commenters on Reddit’s science forum, /r/science, which he described as “a window into the Ivory Tower” for “non-scientists” to connect with experts like himself.

Good call. How are you supposed to discuss science when people are allowed to disagree with you? What’s scientific about that?

That’s why Reddit still has a forum for 9/11 Truthers:

Reddit911Truth

And Chemtrail kooks:

RedditChemtrailKooks

And fluoride paranoiacs:

RedditFluorideParanoiacs

And Area 51 nuts:

RedditArea51Nuts

And Hollow Earth head cases (who even get their own special logo!):

RedditHollowEarthHeadCases

And so on.

It’s okay to discuss ridiculous scientific conspiracy theories on Reddit, unless you disagree with the one being pushed by Al Gore.

(Hat tip: @neontaster)