William Shatner Joins Reddit, Calls Reddit Out For Hate Speech
The geek hero recently joined Reddit for an AMA. Now he’s questioning the seedy underbelly of the site.
Captian Kirk himself, William Shatner, recently joined Reddit to participate in an AMA (“ask me anything”) for Star Trek fans. To redditors’ delight, he’s stuck around the site, getting the hang of things and interacting more with Trekkies.
On Friday, in a message thread for admins about suggestions for improvements to the private messaging, Shatner says he’s been “appalled” by some of what he’s seen on Reddit, and questions why it isn’t moderated more.
A lengthy debate follows about Reddit’s place as a bastion of free speech versus the need for decent behavior. Shatner is surprisingly well-versed in how social media, and cites Tumblr’s guidelines about tolerating racist posts (they will delete certain offensive material).
Shatner doesn’t appear deterred from continuing to post and interact on Reddit – just today he posted a link for a fan event to the Star Trek subreddit.
Via: theverge.com
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golup 3 months agoPeople have a tendency to disregard rules in today’s society. The ‘go to hell’ attitude is truly eroding the morality in the world. Its seen on facebook too. Images with slogans such as ‘If you dont like what I post or comment then go to hell’ are becoming increasingly popular. Which is a shame.
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bschueler2 3 months agoThe main reason I loved Star Trek is that it showed us how we should be living if we were a mature nation. I hoped, when people saw how we should be behaving that they would start acting that way. Some people did but about half of the adult population retained it’s adolescent behavior and thinking processes. Reddit seems to be one of the main social media sites for those mentally- and socially-challenged people. Reddit does a disservice to all humankind when it lets those individual spout off their harmful rhetoric. Words hurt just as much as physical violence. If you wouldn’t let one person strike another then you shouldn’t let a person harm another person with their words. Reddit needs to step up to the plate and start moderating its site in a way that leaves no doubt that they will enforce their own stated guidelines.
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ronw9 3 months agoSticks And Stones! People have become so thin skinned and politically correct, its sickoning its called free speech if you dont like it dont read it! I do not agree on the hate,race, bullying Bs either everyone has their own opinion and is free to think and say what they wish,sometimes the view or need of the many doesnt outway the need of the few or the one I think Mr Shatner is a good man and means well! like most people mean well and want to get along there are just as many who dont! Ignore it,Dont go there,whatever it takes.Grow up! be an Adult use some common sinse you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink!
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epi loudmouth 3 months ago
Lucky for Reddit that there is still some quality in the site. If they aren’t careful, they might turn in to the sewer that craigslist has become.
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amjensen410 3 months ago
I’m with Shatner. I hear about the good parts of Reddit and would like to join the community but the shady parts are bad enough to keep me a mile away from the site.
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kimberlyp3 3 months agoFinally! I can’t stand reditt for all these reasons, I was on it for a week; then the sandy hook shooting occurred, I followed the event as it unfolded on reditt and was sick by some of the things I would see…had to leave so I could kept my sanity and personal standards of morality in-tact.
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AquaRegia 3 months agoThe fallacy of ‘no moderation’ equaling ‘free speech’ By allowing slurs and insults to run free under the thing guise of free speech, by not protecting anyone from the vicious attacks, you are telling the ones who get called names, who are attacked that they are not welcome on reddit. “If you don’t like it: leave.” And that is what ‘we’ do, leave. So all you’re left with is the pedophiles, the racists, the neckbeards, the trolls, the homophobes etc. And then you cry and whine anytime calls you out for the hateful environment you created by not moderating. In a nutshell: Reddit is not about free speech. Stop saying that, you’re validating their prosecution complex. You’re enabling them so that they can feel prosecuted and righteous.
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Davine S. 3 months agoRight on, AquaRegia. I cringe every time I read Huffington Post these days, because they used to be a legitimate news source, and now they’re nothing but hyperbolic headlines and Reddit reposts. The same is happening here. If I wanted to go to Reddit, I’d go there. I don’t like what it represents, so I boycott it - or I try to, when I’m not unwittingly reading stuff that originated there. It’s a shame mainstream sites don’t choose to do the same, at least for as long as Reddit’s incredibly violent, misogynistic and dangerous subcultures are still being allowed to fester. [Yes, I realise there are *layers* to Reddit and good parts along with the bad. But I can’t condone anything that turns a blind eye to the absolutely horrific stuff that goes on in the sleazy side.]
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mymaserati 3 months ago
Considering how much content Buzzfeed gets from reddit, this was kind of off-putting to see.
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karyna 3 months ago
While some people see Reddit as a single community, others see it as many many communities binded by a general structure (think planet Earth). It is the best and wost of us: a powerhouse of creativity, kindness and insight as well as a home for inconsiderate scumbags. However, it is structured by people, not corporate interests, advertisers and media partners. It reflects our society to a certain extent (obviously this is not a random sample but rather people who are active online). If you want a website that reveals all aspects of human nature and how different groups develop different social norms, that’s reddit. Sociologically, you can learn a lot from it.
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primavolta 3 months agoWhat would be nice, in this whole “free speech” debate, is if people just WANTED to be kind to one another rather than choosing their own amusement over the comfort of others. These days, if you speak out in favor of kindness, you are called oversensitive, “PC”, humorless… on the contrary, I have an excellent sense of humor, but I don’t find humor in everything - for example, laughing at people for factors beyond their control, as Shatner mentioned above. But we live in a selfish, “me first” world.
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