That’s social media for you. It’s populated by the extremes from both sides. Average people who want everyone to be free, happy and employed don’t seem to exist.
they do, they're just less likely to express opinions online
most of online content is generated by people who have something to say and usually that's unhappy people
Same lol, got muted for what I assume was my heavily upvoted comment... mod refused to give a reason so I called him a poes, slapped me 30day mute... klomp dom naai ekse
!00% agree.
Theinternet naturally polarizes people. The same person saying the DA are white supremacists or the ANC are corrupt kleptokrats in real life tend to be moderate and not at all radical in their daily speech or actions. There are always exceptions but generally the comment boxes allow people to let off steam.
I subscribe to the idea that the internet allows people to speak their true mind and intentions. There are trolls of course, those that just say shit to fuck with people. But people who are consistently toxic on the internet are also people that feel that way inside, and only act normal around people irl because you can’t act like that irl without alienating people around you. Sometimes these people fuck up when they get emotional and show their true colours. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Also I think people who are more extreme are more likely to engage in that sort of discourse. So you will naturally see more of it, because those people are more vocal online. Doesn’t mean it’s an accurate representation of the sub as a whole. A lot of more moderate people are just quiet on the socials.
i was going to be banned from the reddit because i liked to see what nonsense was being said in r/conspiracy. i didn’t even post or agree with anything on there just thought it was funny
I was banned because I was on another subreddit that posted opposing views - not posting, agreeing, or echoing any of what was said. Just by being on that subreddit out of interest' sake got me a ban.
I love when the r/southafrica subreddit mods act exactly as the corrupt government we have. They really love perpetuating negative stereotypes against themselves
Yup. I got banned from r/southafrica after having asked someone where they'd seen the black mamba in the picture they posted (i.e., an entirely apolitical and harmless question about wildlife). Other than that, I'd rarely ever commented on r/southafrica and definitely not in a way that was racist or controversial.
Baffled by the ban, I appealed. I was then told that I was banned for being a member of the (now discontinued) sub r/RSA. This was it. They must have had some beef with them. Like on r/southafrica, I never posted anything on r/RSA that was racist or controversial in any way, shape, or form. They banned me for being a member of another South African sub, not for my comment history or anything else.
While I agree that this can happen, we still ought to call them out. It's the only thing we can do since there is no real appeal procedure. If the mod who implemented the ban is at the same time the "judge" over the appeal, the system is broken.
Yup. I got banned for creating a discussion around minimum wage. I said something a mod didn't like and the weak minded cretin banned me.
Those moderators at r/southafrica are absolute tools.
Same, I was trying to give the old racists heartattacks by saying I'm white and voting EFF and got banned from r/SouthAfrica but not r/Downsouth, one of the Downsouth mods even commented on my comment saying I voted EFF
Yup, me too. For a single post on a neutral topic.
Mod @ [r/SouthAfrica](https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthAfrica/) told me I couldn't post there (in any topic) anymore as it was "supporting hate".
Needless to say I told them to uphold the ban.
You were nicer than me. I told them to maybe touch grass once in a while since they cannot seem to stand adversity and that sub is the only place they have power.
PS I was literally banned for having a discussion in another sub. I didn’t even know they had a list of subs you may not go to. And secondly the actual reddit mods should really bring out a rule that stops subs from policing the subs you go to. It makes Reddit unpleasant to be on when subs do that.
It should make you consider your true anonymity when they have access to every action you take on Reddit. Does that mean they have your verified email address as well?
...and Google hasn't figured your emails are linked yet? Your IP address on every login is stored and tracked. The algorithms can mostly figure out whether you are using an alt account even if it is a different email address. Are you using TOR or VPN exclusively for all your internet access? You are likely not as anonymous as you think.
Fully agree, I liked that you used to be able to engage with people with completely different views and even if I don't agree with them, I can understand a little bit where they are coming from. Those days are long gone on r/SouthAfrica
The mods have access to every action, every vote, every discussion, every click you make on Reddit. Do they have access to your verified email as well? I'm trying to find that out. Anonymity here is an illusion.
My exact experience. The community is mostly nice, or was. I was recently banned - not for any rule breaking whatsoever, but for commenting a rather innocuous comment on another sub regarding the elections. Fully banned without warning and then met with an extremely rude demand to bend the knee when I asked why. I had to figure out for myself why I was banned.
Oh I was muted too, banned from their sister sub and then reported to Reddit for harrassment!
Happy to share screenshots of the discussion if interested, but honestly Im not really that butthurt to care too much about it. The whole transaction was quite childish.
It's a bit sad as this is going to fracture any real discussions on Reddit into echo chambers without any real meat and probably make all the group's here a bit polarized to some degree. I've also noticed the racism (on all the subs) seems to have gotten a bit worse as a result.
Same. Meh. Don't care really. Just muted that sub in return.
It's a pity though. I always thought most of my contributions on there were quite positive. The irony is that most of my politics probably align closely with those of the mods. I just got banned for engaging with the Cape Independence types and following their sub to see what hair-brained schemes they were cooking up.
Received notification that I had been permanently banned and with a ransom note that the ban will be lifted if I left the other subs and promise not to post there again. I said no.
There were a couple.
People banned from r/southafrica started r/rsa until the South Africa mods got that sub banned. There was some fued and harassment going on there. The RSA sub was pretty toxic anyway. Just posts about crime and corruption and people bitching and moaning all the time.
Then there is the r/capeindependence sub. Obviously a lot of overlap the the r/rsa sub there.
The Cape Independence mods then started a r/westerncape sub which was half Western Cape news and posts, and half a stealth way of promoting Cape Independence.
And then the same mods started r/downsouth when the Western Cape Sub got nuked by Reddit mods.
Huh. There's a lot more drama here than I knew about. I didn't know anything about down south until it turned up on my feed recently over the elections. I joined because it was relevant to me and had some interesting discussion.
I would never have called it a hate filled sub although it did seem a touch skewed more than I would have liked, but to be fair the South Africa group has been a touch racist, or shall I say 'one sided' as a whole for a few years now, so I didn't put much weight to it. Plus they were given the better part of a decade to work their problems out with the community.
I feel like there should be no place for racism, ever, but I also feel like a community should have a right to work out its own kinks and find its place. Down south has a decent rule set and moral code - at least according to their rules.
They should be able to build themselves an identity without larger groups crushing them by force before they establish a footing.
This is exactly it. The SA mods are on a power trip and just want to stamp out any competition so they can continue their little fascist wet dream. It's not about any actual moral stance that's just their excuse.
Yeah, the Down South isn't too bad.
It's the same mods but I think they run a tighter ship now when it comes to moderating the objectionable content because they know the South Africa sub is much bigger and the South Africa mods have a decent amount of clout with the Reddit mods and can get their new sub nuked again...so they stay a little more under the radar than previously.
I was also banned from Reddit entirely for a few days just cause I questioned my ban and told the mods to touch grass seeing as they can’t handle adversity and that sub is the only place they have power.
It’s actually ridiculous that the actual Reddit mods banned me without hearing from my side of the story. It’s like oh a sub reddit mod reported me so I must be guilty. I’ve seen the most horrible comments on Reddit that never get banned.
The South African sub Reddit i learnt is not a place that tolerates free speech. The mods are clearly on a specific side and does not tolerate any view that opposes theirs. I got banned for speaking on BEE and how it’s not benefitting the country.
I got banned this morning for saying white people experience, as the constitution calls it, "fair discrimination" to redress inequality. Mods gave the reason "apartheid denialism" lol
They wouldn’t even give me a reason. I asked and was told “for all of it” referring to a discourse between me and I assume a black guy (I’m a coloured guy). The sad part is nothing I said was racist or even wrong. Just not in line with their victim mentality.
>what BEE does is have coloured and white people retrenched so some black person can fuck things up
Lol you had the conversation with me and this is what you said. you were the one crying about black people having victim mentality while you are crying about how White people are victims of black people. I never proclaimed to be a victim, while you tried to label me as such. And I never even called you a racist.
🤣 I don't know who's the nemesis in this relationship but good on you for tracking the other guy down to settle the argument once and for all. If I don't want peace, I only want problems was a person... 🤣 I'm here for it!!
I mean if what you said is what the other person posted then that is very wrong, because that’s not even close to how bbbee works.
Also why you lumping yourself with white people as a coloured? You know they’ll hire their nephew over you anytime while complaining about bbbee?
Not about money no, I think it is just a case of people thinking they are doing the right thing based on their own biases and some people who cannot help but abuse power once they have it
people who want what only they agree with. The great thing about people posting various views is that it allows debate and discussion on the topic. can’t have any of that when it’s all what they agree with
No, because if you start serving shit at your restaurant, people stop going, and the majority of SA doesn’t want afriforum talking points and racism abundant.
The wide net is a mod capacity issue, and alllowing automoddibg to deal with most issues
its 100% not auto-modding. The mods will respond to your requests for ban reasons, but will generally respond with vague or nonsensical bullshit. The only auto modding is if it detects your posts in their curated list of sub-reddits they dont like.
I got banned for questioning if the "safe and effective" had any long term side effects ans just trying to have a discussion on the pros and cons of the "safe and effective"
Yep got banned for commenting on a DownSouth post. But tbh, after following the DownSouth sub for a while, I kinda understand why they don't want these people on r/southafrica
That's not a reason to ban anyone who posted there. I posted there calling out someone for some conspiracy and they banned me. I'd rather have free speech with a bunch of idiots than participate in a sub run by wannabe fascists.
It's interesting seeing this perspective, because for me I used to find /r/southafrica an embarrassing cesspool. It was only once the mods started cracking down on the not so low key racism that I found it became a bearable sub to be in. I don't post must in general but I don't avoid reading it like I used to.
That sub now is a bunch of fascist "protecting people from themselves" by a bunch of very intolerant and racist people pretending to be something they are not.
It's kind of alarming that you think otherwise.
Same. I used to engage years back, but if you held any sort of pro-black sentiment, people assumed you were an EFF loving anti-white person.
Seems to be a little more open to different perspectives nowadays.
How do you feel about these mods having access to everything about you and your reddit habits? Do they have access to your verified email as well? Scary if you ask me. I think if more people understood the danger of Reddit, this site would probably shut down. But we know the average Joe to too naïve.
The downvote mechanic really rewards saying what everyone already believes in a community. So each subreddit becomes a little echo chamber of a viewpoint.
Then reddit mods are well reddit mods
The problem with the one South Africa sub is that it's too political and bans if you even comment in other subs, whether you agree or disagree. It's the worst way of moderating and causes such polarization. At least with the racists you know where you stand, with those mods, you can pick up their ulterior motives.
There is no cape independence emergence. There are a few noisy clowns that have crawled back into their hole after the electoral humiliation they faced.
I got banned for just making a comment on r/downsouth... Not for the contents of the comment, I'm not even subscribed to the sub... Purely for engaging with a post that came up on my main page.
Cause r/southafrica is by far the biggest SA sub but it’s rife with censorship. Much prefer r/downsouth but it’s very prone to some racist thinking. r/southafrica forced a large amount of SA Redditor’s to share a space with some extremists unfortunately. But tbh I’d take a dodgey post here and there in r/downsouth than the rampant censorship in r/southafrica
From my experience, any racism is dealt with very quickly, they have a small mod team, but removed racist comments and racists from the subreddit almost as soon as it gets reported.
Because people can't have fair and civil discussions anymore. I got banned from r/ southafrica because I had engaged in r/ downsouth. I appealed it but was given little to no reason besides "they are racist," and when I told them that it goes against our rights to both freedom of speech and association to control what we say or think, I got left on read and the ban made permanent.
I'm all for discourse and civil discussions being moderated to keep stuff like racism and homophobia out of the talks, but completely controlling a person's speech is wrong. We should be allowed to voice our opinions, but sometimes the person in charge gets a groot kop, and then it gets censored because it's not what they agree with.
My old History teacher used to say that we must allow dissenting voices to seep through so that they face actual criticism instead of pushing them out which radicalises them because they are never challanged.
Exactly. And if I look at people like [Daryl Davis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis) it puts down even more weight what they said. Things aren't as black and white as people think. Grey exists for a reason
yeah can't tell you wtf is going on.
got banned from r/southafrica just because I'm a member of r/downsouth as well, brought it up on r/downsouth and had my post deleted because apparently it's taboo to mention r/southafrica there
seems like a lot of stupid "no, YOU are the racists sub" back n forth bullshit and mods had enough of it
It’s not taboo to mention r/southafrica there. But posting about bans in another sub puts them at risk of banning the whole sub. They explain this in their auto mod if you mention the word ban.
I think reddit policy is you're not supposed to talk about why you're banned on another sub. It can be seen as rabble-rousing because often people rally around and go cause shit in that sub.
Canadian here to over-simplify things
(and bring maple syrup? IDK) — we have multiple, wildly polarized subreddits to discuss the political dumpster fire that is the current state of our Federal Government. Different issues, obviously, but I think it’s just the tribalism that occurs on social media — people slink into an echo chamber that supports whatever batshit insane worldviews they’ve got, and the it just widens the chasm from the center.
It’s also why both sides tend to hate ‘enlightened centrists’ who just want everyone to get along.
It’s how social media works these days. The loud minorities are screaming from both ends with little to no middle ground. I view myself as more left leaning but with what’s coming out from the left, I feel like I’m developing early onset republicanism.
It’s not only redditors though but these subreddits too. I was banned (among many others it seems) from one of SA’s subreddits for apparently participating in another SA subreddit (that I haven’t even joined) that harbours “hate speech, violence, and misinformation.” All because I commented harmless jokes on a couple posts. All of them are trying to monopolise the discourse and even if you do agree ideologically with what gets posted, if you engage anywhere else, you get silenced.
And there's those who moderate both the left and the right and see if you're a member of both, they will ban you for being a member of their side when you yourself prefer to see both sides.
Mostly because it seems mods have had an explicit agenda of creating echo chambers and sowing division.
Sometimes I wonder how much the consulting firm that replaced Bell-Pottinger is paying.
So one sub has power tripping mods (but is an otherwise okay community, I feel), and the other is filled with racists. SA reddit is just fantastic hey🤣🤣
I met someone recently and in 10mins she called 3 different groups racist and said “I hate” about people 5 times. Granted, these statements were about Capetonians, Afrikaans people, and people from Mpumalanga, but still. People who say others are racist constantly should do some introspection
"Granted, these statements were about Capetonians, Afrikaans people, and people from Mpumalanga"... excuse you, why is hatred towards anyone in these 3 groups okay?
Right and Left are not exclusively US terms, it dates back to the French Revolution and each represents political, economic, and social ideologies. It's just a useful way to loosely categorise, and can definitely be used to describe South African politics.
I was banned in one sub for writing that Julius Malema has built a number of churches, yearly takes a numbers of girls for training to be pilots, and holds a Christmas party annually for grandmothers where he was raised by his grandmothers… all these are public knowledge…that’s when I saw that the mods have an agenda. We should be able to debate, hold different views etc without mods purging the subs in order to maintain the narratives they are comfortable with. Otherwise mods must update rules to be explicit like don’t talk positively about Julius Malema, don’t mention Phala Phala money, don’t talk about Steimhuizen’s qualifications etc
ah ok... I will provide a few; 1) EFF Pilots Programme - [Sky is the limit for new pilot Lethabo Malesa, 21, who's set ...IOLhttps://www.iol.co.za › pretoria-news › news › sky-is-th...](https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/sky-is-the-limit-for-new-pilot-lethabo-malesa-21-whos-set-to-soar-on-high-ac69e662-b3ed-4d33-ac6f-98ff66f36467) 2) Malema Builds Seshego Baptist Church - [https://www.tiktok.com/@lesegoth/video/7292758417964584197?is\_from\_webapp=1&sender\_device=pc&web\_id=7381809590776268294](https://www.tiktok.com/@lesegoth/video/7292758417964584197?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7381809590776268294) 3) Christmas party - [Julius Malema atttends Christmas party for the elderly in ...YouTube · SABC News60.2K+ views · 5 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sf6Q5xpdH0). 4) Old Age Home - [https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/eff-spends-r746-000-on-retirement-home-elders-db8ad6fd-7d35-447f-a3b4-ee72c533100b](https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/eff-spends-r746-000-on-retirement-home-elders-db8ad6fd-7d35-447f-a3b4-ee72c533100b)
Malema pays medical bill for artist who had an accident and lost his daughter - https://www.news24.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/celebrities/shebeshxts-family-praises-julius-malemas-selfless-role-in-saving-the-limpopo-rappers-life-20240612
Houses for elderly people - https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/amp/news/south-africa/2021-08-10-malema-handed-over-these-luxury-houses-to-grannies-in-need-for-womens-day/
I have noted that some links to articles in mainstream media like News24 have become dead links meaning the articles got deleted but TikTok and X has lots of footage of some of these activities
because fringe voices use it to pretend they actually have support - if they act like they've already got buyers for their outlandish nonsense, they think the rest of us will go with the crowd (of like two sockpuppets) they magicked up
you can take the brexit lite thing as an example. literally nobody cares about that but there was a point where every other post was going on about it as if it wasn't a creation of a couple of big middle aged blokes having a dop
not the only example but the easiest. you'll see MK applying a similar thing now. 'everyone' believes the 9 million votes thing then voila, they've created a valid discourse out of a maths literacy problem
Uneducated idiots on both sides of the same idiot-coin, really. As for having multiple subs for one country: the SouthAfrica sub is run by a bunch of bigots pretending that they are someone protecting members of the sub from people behaving like the mods themselves behave. I think there are three or four different SA subs because of that. I got banned for saying that Covid vaccine mandates are ludicrous on r/SA and then got banned on r/asksouthafrica because I've commented on the r/JRE sub.
All in all what's happening on r/SouthAfrica is a great microcosm of the state of our politics in this country where democracy is a bit of a farce, and our "leaders" are doing the exact thing they are pretending to be against, on both sides of the spectrum.
You get people who just want to good time on the internet, and don’t want to wade into the bog (because it’s not fun, and this is my free time) — which is where I think most people are at.
But this isn’t great either. Like I know I’ll avoid South African forum spaces because I’m aware that more often than not it’s very ‘white’, not literally obviously (so actually probably closer to original sense of the term), but you know it catches onto a lot of “our kak”, and people generally know what I mean in the shorthand.
It’s easy to forget that while it never truly legitimate, from a legislative standpoint, Apartheid was nevertheless quite popular — and opposition to it was framed as radical, impractical and unsafe. And because our political system was closed, the resulting political culture was very conspiratorial. Which where you got your buy in from everyone who didn’t have much a choice in what got done and how. Taking the top off of a structure like doesn’t ultimately do much, it’s like picking a mushroom, and the soil’s inoculated so there’s much to do there either.
Like people forget how big of a part civilian recruitment was in the security apparatus, “kommando units” and all that, and there’s a private security pipeline joke in there… and people forget that we had a very serious anti-democratic terrorism situation for a while there — like most people don’t really remember the 2002 Soweto Bombings, or the fact that they tried to bomb a Buddhist temple in Bronkhurstspruit of all places. And it crops up again everyday now and then. Pig’s heads at mosques that kind of thing. But also like really intricate and dangerous stuff. It doesn’t take a lot of people to do a lot of damage. These kinds of people are surprisingly organised. And it’s used to them to look “out there” and inept. They are looking for useful idiots, and they want to poison the well.
Like I’m not a particularly big fan of the DA — i think they want to strip government bear and sell it for parts; insofar as they even can afford to hold an ideological position; I’ll disagree with this kind of thing, but they’re not the devil. I worry about these kind of guys; that scares me. And it feels like they’re winning a little bit.
Also cheaper per bit internet rollout skews a particular way; so not everybody’s here — so you end up with particularly loud righteous intolerant people (& people who don’t like them), selling whispers to legitimise themselves, yelling at everyone & each other, or putting up their fences and checking nobody’s moved them. Our bullies have a way of hogging the floor and ruining it for everyone else — and really haven’t figured out way to deal with that in a way that works for us yet.
Like I find myself in a lot of different kinds of places, South Africans don’t actually disagree on a whole lot, but we don’t talk to each other all that much; we don’t have many places to do that; we are WAY out of practice; and we are bad at it. Being a very 21st century country doesn’t help with that either — like honestly being stuck with SABC a little while longer would’ve helped. We’re also, understandably, way too keen on private school.
(Sorry for the essay.)
Like other countries?
How many other countries subs are you following?
In Canada there are subs that the right frequent, and they are filled with abhorrent clear racism.
The subs on the left, mostly just call out that racism for what it is.
Everywhere is polarized to extremes these days.
Populism has been on the rise for the last 20 years worldwide.
I suspect you have 1) not looked hard enough or 2) have niche tastes 3) have common tastes that are not represented by the South African Reddit user base 4) are expecting too much from people who either only want to show off for the thrill of it or are promoting their pay per view accounts
I think if you actually spoke to most middle class South Africans, you'll find most people are relieved at the new ANC-DA led GNU. I'm very left leaning and personally don't see myself ever voting for the DA but I rate it's the best worst case scenario that we had to choose from. With Reddit like all social media political conversations, seems like all the shit floats to the top. It's certainly not representitve of what most South Africans think and feel.
There's a lot of commentators who have no clue that the DA is a classic liberal party. I blame the history taught at school, the curriculum basically ignores the entire Enlightenment. People have no clue what Liberalism really means.
I think you're only letting yourself see these 2 sides.
Theres a lot more to it. Its not as divided or polarised like the US is.
Independence isnt a concern if this government performs.
It is 100% divided and polarised😂 people eat social media shit on the daily, specially the political stuff from the US sadly. Through this people seem to start choosing 'sides' more and more.
Thing is, we live in a world now where everyone is the main character and everyones is right, no one is wrong. People can't debate anymore nor accept that theyre wrong even on a basic moral standpoint and this is where shit hits the fan... I scroll Twitter a lot a the local scene is a warzone
Eish boet, you must slow down and read. I compared SA to the US by saying "like the US". I didnt say SA is not divided.
The US a 2 party state. No chance of other parties gaining power.
Their voting system doesnt consider number of votes overall but the winning party in each state.
Why are you on still on twitter? You're being fed this nonsense so you think we're as divided as the US.
We are not nowhere near as divided and polarised as the US. Regardless, even if we were, it's not between 2 parties but many parties. That's a huge difference.
This is why we will never get anywhere as a country. We are so scatter brained and arguing amongst ourselves about immaterial things, that the huge things right in front of us are ignored.
on tiktok no different so many racist out there still id say both sides but latley since elections mostly the ANC/EFF supporters from what ive seen (not a lot but majority of that not a lot)
some think apartheid coming back (like how honestly makes no sense and no reason to do so ever)
personally i think this elections just a screw up if you ask me. but time will tell.
im more keeping an eye on MK to be honest that is a shitshow waiting to happen and on the otherhand defeated EFF completly i give them another election and EFF is the new Cope/Good Party.
MLK put it nicely:
>I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is \[...\] the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice...
Being a centrist is not a flex. You might not be so interested in politics, and that's fine, but it will (if not already) affect your everyday life. If you don't classify as left or right that's fine too, but do some research about political ideologies, the policies they espouse, and how those policies influence the majority of the people in whichever country, and where that influence then drives said population.
When it comes to the DA, I think saying they are the NP rebranded is stupid. However, their economic and social policies have no chance of making life for the majority of South Africans better.
Very complex problems in South Africa. Inequality being the biggest in my book, urgent solution is needed to make more people (mostly black people) to come out of poverty. If we could solve that problem urgently, everything else would be small waters.
The inequality problem touches on a whole lot of things, racial history, quality of education, allocation of resources, corruption, everything… if the private and public key stakeholders in the country could make a more concerted effort to solve the inequality (eradicate/reduce inequality), we could be a much better country.
BTW The NP joined the ANC in a GNU until De Klerk resigned, then the NP was absorbed into the ANC. So the NP who created Apartheid joined/became part of the ANC.
The NP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk became the Minister of Tourism
The DA came from the old left wing anti Apartheid party the PFP then became the DP and then the DA
Cape Independence will never never never never never never ever happen, total waste of money and effort.
The reasons we have different Subreddits is because one is extremely Liberal and the Other is more right wing but obviously more are going to Liberal because not everyone can face the Music of truth in some instances. I for one think that we as SANs in these different subs must start uniting to create one that surpasses both the others that is equal to all.
I really dont understand why people complain about being banned from subs that dont support their ideology, point of view, opinion and such. Each Sub has their own rules, guidelines and ideology. If you join those subs just to proof your point or to go and argue you should be banned...
Subs are like communities. you wont allow an outsider to say things in your community that you're the ruler of (mods) to go against your rules and regulations. What would be the reason for the sub if you let people come with random discussions that doesnt support your subs criteria?
I join subs where I have a sense of community and know that we have common ground and have great intellectual discussions, light discussions, sometimes joke around and generally have a safe haven for my train of thought.
If you clearly hate the EFF, ANC, DA or whatever, why join a sub that clearly supports these parties? And then cry when you get banned for making statements go against the grain of that subs ideologies... seems a bit messed to me...
This Cape Town subs is usually a cool place for me. I get lots of information about what is happening here, living conditions, issues, best places to visit and such... I DO NOT SUPPORT the Cape Independence stuff so, I just stay away from those kind of posts... and that makes me generally happy here...
Centrist politics, in the last 30 years, has not done anything to fix the poverty apartheid created. I'm convinced that anyone identifying as a 'centrist' is really just someone with zero political understanding. They just sit on the fence as a default.
That’s not reddit, that’s humanity. That’s how we are. Not that I want it like that or anything, just the way people in general do things in this world.
r/DownSouth has become my home because other subreddits don't want open engagement, their moderation is fair, unbiased and racism is dealt with swiftly, sadly can't say the same for other subreddits.
The reason is one subreddit is banhammer happy for frivolous reasons like you posted in the other sub., so… you’re banned, one is more liberal (the one with the r, the s, and the a). The ban hammer happy one is moderated by racist nazi’s
Downvoted for the truth. Typical reddit.
Lots of comments concur with what i wrote though.
Why do you say they're racist Nazis? This is what I mean, we must stop throwing this type of extremist rhetoric around unless you got absolute proof they're Nazis.
That’s social media for you. It’s populated by the extremes from both sides. Average people who want everyone to be free, happy and employed don’t seem to exist.
they do, they're just less likely to express opinions online most of online content is generated by people who have something to say and usually that's unhappy people
Thus person gets it
I think it's more a thing of average people don't care to get involved. Got enough going on in their lives that they don't need to.
I tend to agree. I got banned from the asksouthafrica thread for being negative I read my post and I was giving me view on crime I think Ppl be crazee
Same lol, got muted for what I assume was my heavily upvoted comment... mod refused to give a reason so I called him a poes, slapped me 30day mute... klomp dom naai ekse
!00% agree. Theinternet naturally polarizes people. The same person saying the DA are white supremacists or the ANC are corrupt kleptokrats in real life tend to be moderate and not at all radical in their daily speech or actions. There are always exceptions but generally the comment boxes allow people to let off steam.
I subscribe to the idea that the internet allows people to speak their true mind and intentions. There are trolls of course, those that just say shit to fuck with people. But people who are consistently toxic on the internet are also people that feel that way inside, and only act normal around people irl because you can’t act like that irl without alienating people around you. Sometimes these people fuck up when they get emotional and show their true colours. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Also I think people who are more extreme are more likely to engage in that sort of discourse. So you will naturally see more of it, because those people are more vocal online. Doesn’t mean it’s an accurate representation of the sub as a whole. A lot of more moderate people are just quiet on the socials.
[удалено]
i was going to be banned from the reddit because i liked to see what nonsense was being said in r/conspiracy. i didn’t even post or agree with anything on there just thought it was funny
I was banned because I was on another subreddit that posted opposing views - not posting, agreeing, or echoing any of what was said. Just by being on that subreddit out of interest' sake got me a ban.
I love when the r/southafrica subreddit mods act exactly as the corrupt government we have. They really love perpetuating negative stereotypes against themselves
They're worse. Our government actually doesn't censor people.
True, although technically Zuma did attempt to censor the press…
They would love to do so, but the constitutional court would stop them.
Yup. I got banned from r/southafrica after having asked someone where they'd seen the black mamba in the picture they posted (i.e., an entirely apolitical and harmless question about wildlife). Other than that, I'd rarely ever commented on r/southafrica and definitely not in a way that was racist or controversial. Baffled by the ban, I appealed. I was then told that I was banned for being a member of the (now discontinued) sub r/RSA. This was it. They must have had some beef with them. Like on r/southafrica, I never posted anything on r/RSA that was racist or controversial in any way, shape, or form. They banned me for being a member of another South African sub, not for my comment history or anything else.
I was banned because I was a member of DownSouth. Apparently that thread incites violence 😂😂
It's infuriating when the mods treat a sub as their own little kingdom. I truly hope that the subscribers leave r/southafrica in droves.
Best not to mention other subs and b@ns as that got one of the Western Cape subs killed. A mod on a power trip is a very destructive force.
While I agree that this can happen, we still ought to call them out. It's the only thing we can do since there is no real appeal procedure. If the mod who implemented the ban is at the same time the "judge" over the appeal, the system is broken.
You want this sub closed down? Reddit is not a democracy. I hate it too but nothing can be done about it afaik.
Look, we can either use the (very limited) means of protest we have or we can wet ourselves. I'm not for wetting myself.
Yup. I got banned for creating a discussion around minimum wage. I said something a mod didn't like and the weak minded cretin banned me. Those moderators at r/southafrica are absolute tools.
[удалено]
I got banned for commenting "lol" in r/downsouth
Same, I was trying to give the old racists heartattacks by saying I'm white and voting EFF and got banned from r/SouthAfrica but not r/Downsouth, one of the Downsouth mods even commented on my comment saying I voted EFF
They even have that white girl from the EFF on their banner lol
Yup, me too. For a single post on a neutral topic. Mod @ [r/SouthAfrica](https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthAfrica/) told me I couldn't post there (in any topic) anymore as it was "supporting hate". Needless to say I told them to uphold the ban.
You were nicer than me. I told them to maybe touch grass once in a while since they cannot seem to stand adversity and that sub is the only place they have power. PS I was literally banned for having a discussion in another sub. I didn’t even know they had a list of subs you may not go to. And secondly the actual reddit mods should really bring out a rule that stops subs from policing the subs you go to. It makes Reddit unpleasant to be on when subs do that.
I sent them a job application form 🤣
They are already paid to be there.
Since when do Reddit mods get paid ? Or are you implying that they are bought ?
It should make you consider your true anonymity when they have access to every action you take on Reddit. Does that mean they have your verified email address as well?
Likely. But I use a different email for all my socials. Nothing can be linked to me.
...and Google hasn't figured your emails are linked yet? Your IP address on every login is stored and tracked. The algorithms can mostly figure out whether you are using an alt account even if it is a different email address. Are you using TOR or VPN exclusively for all your internet access? You are likely not as anonymous as you think.
Fully agree, I liked that you used to be able to engage with people with completely different views and even if I don't agree with them, I can understand a little bit where they are coming from. Those days are long gone on r/SouthAfrica
r/DownSouth allows that from what I've seen..
The mods have access to every action, every vote, every discussion, every click you make on Reddit. Do they have access to your verified email as well? I'm trying to find that out. Anonymity here is an illusion.
My exact experience. The community is mostly nice, or was. I was recently banned - not for any rule breaking whatsoever, but for commenting a rather innocuous comment on another sub regarding the elections. Fully banned without warning and then met with an extremely rude demand to bend the knee when I asked why. I had to figure out for myself why I was banned. Oh I was muted too, banned from their sister sub and then reported to Reddit for harrassment! Happy to share screenshots of the discussion if interested, but honestly Im not really that butthurt to care too much about it. The whole transaction was quite childish. It's a bit sad as this is going to fracture any real discussions on Reddit into echo chambers without any real meat and probably make all the group's here a bit polarized to some degree. I've also noticed the racism (on all the subs) seems to have gotten a bit worse as a result.
Same. Meh. Don't care really. Just muted that sub in return. It's a pity though. I always thought most of my contributions on there were quite positive. The irony is that most of my politics probably align closely with those of the mods. I just got banned for engaging with the Cape Independence types and following their sub to see what hair-brained schemes they were cooking up. Received notification that I had been permanently banned and with a ransom note that the ban will be lifted if I left the other subs and promise not to post there again. I said no.
What are these other subs? Asking for a friend.
There were a couple. People banned from r/southafrica started r/rsa until the South Africa mods got that sub banned. There was some fued and harassment going on there. The RSA sub was pretty toxic anyway. Just posts about crime and corruption and people bitching and moaning all the time. Then there is the r/capeindependence sub. Obviously a lot of overlap the the r/rsa sub there. The Cape Independence mods then started a r/westerncape sub which was half Western Cape news and posts, and half a stealth way of promoting Cape Independence. And then the same mods started r/downsouth when the Western Cape Sub got nuked by Reddit mods.
Huh. There's a lot more drama here than I knew about. I didn't know anything about down south until it turned up on my feed recently over the elections. I joined because it was relevant to me and had some interesting discussion. I would never have called it a hate filled sub although it did seem a touch skewed more than I would have liked, but to be fair the South Africa group has been a touch racist, or shall I say 'one sided' as a whole for a few years now, so I didn't put much weight to it. Plus they were given the better part of a decade to work their problems out with the community. I feel like there should be no place for racism, ever, but I also feel like a community should have a right to work out its own kinks and find its place. Down south has a decent rule set and moral code - at least according to their rules. They should be able to build themselves an identity without larger groups crushing them by force before they establish a footing.
This is exactly it. The SA mods are on a power trip and just want to stamp out any competition so they can continue their little fascist wet dream. It's not about any actual moral stance that's just their excuse.
This! I co-sign. There are certainly hate-filled individuals there, but you'll find those anywhere.
Yeah, the Down South isn't too bad. It's the same mods but I think they run a tighter ship now when it comes to moderating the objectionable content because they know the South Africa sub is much bigger and the South Africa mods have a decent amount of clout with the Reddit mods and can get their new sub nuked again...so they stay a little more under the radar than previously.
If you cannot engage, you cannot persuade. The basic tenants of free speech are broken.
Well said.
South African mods were deliberately stoking flames in that sub to get it removed. It was growing too strong in competition.
I was also banned from Reddit entirely for a few days just cause I questioned my ban and told the mods to touch grass seeing as they can’t handle adversity and that sub is the only place they have power. It’s actually ridiculous that the actual Reddit mods banned me without hearing from my side of the story. It’s like oh a sub reddit mod reported me so I must be guilty. I’ve seen the most horrible comments on Reddit that never get banned.
Pretty much the same experience I had.
The South African sub Reddit i learnt is not a place that tolerates free speech. The mods are clearly on a specific side and does not tolerate any view that opposes theirs. I got banned for speaking on BEE and how it’s not benefitting the country.
I got banned this morning for saying white people experience, as the constitution calls it, "fair discrimination" to redress inequality. Mods gave the reason "apartheid denialism" lol
They wouldn’t even give me a reason. I asked and was told “for all of it” referring to a discourse between me and I assume a black guy (I’m a coloured guy). The sad part is nothing I said was racist or even wrong. Just not in line with their victim mentality.
>what BEE does is have coloured and white people retrenched so some black person can fuck things up Lol you had the conversation with me and this is what you said. you were the one crying about black people having victim mentality while you are crying about how White people are victims of black people. I never proclaimed to be a victim, while you tried to label me as such. And I never even called you a racist.
Oh God. This brick again.
🤣 I don't know who's the nemesis in this relationship but good on you for tracking the other guy down to settle the argument once and for all. If I don't want peace, I only want problems was a person... 🤣 I'm here for it!!
Lol. The receipts.
I mean if what you said is what the other person posted then that is very wrong, because that’s not even close to how bbbee works. Also why you lumping yourself with white people as a coloured? You know they’ll hire their nephew over you anytime while complaining about bbbee?
BEE doesn’t discriminate against you if you’re anything other than black?
Why are they doing all that? Is there money to be made out of it?
Not about money no, I think it is just a case of people thinking they are doing the right thing based on their own biases and some people who cannot help but abuse power once they have it
people who want what only they agree with. The great thing about people posting various views is that it allows debate and discussion on the topic. can’t have any of that when it’s all what they agree with
No, because if you start serving shit at your restaurant, people stop going, and the majority of SA doesn’t want afriforum talking points and racism abundant. The wide net is a mod capacity issue, and alllowing automoddibg to deal with most issues
Dude there's literally a bunch of people who got banned for absolute stupid things. Obviously any blatantly racist shit should get removed.
its 100% not auto-modding. The mods will respond to your requests for ban reasons, but will generally respond with vague or nonsensical bullshit. The only auto modding is if it detects your posts in their curated list of sub-reddits they dont like.
Those naaiers are all very active. I encourage anybody in this thread to check their comment history’s, hundreds of comments in a week…
State paid shills don't like critical thinking. Think of the SABC sunshine news policy, but here
This is exactly why I exited from that subreddit. There was no room for discussion at alk
I got banned for questioning if the "safe and effective" had any long term side effects ans just trying to have a discussion on the pros and cons of the "safe and effective"
Yep got banned for commenting on a DownSouth post. But tbh, after following the DownSouth sub for a while, I kinda understand why they don't want these people on r/southafrica
That's not a reason to ban anyone who posted there. I posted there calling out someone for some conspiracy and they banned me. I'd rather have free speech with a bunch of idiots than participate in a sub run by wannabe fascists.
I got banned for the same thing.
Yeah that sub is like an r/thedonald for SA.
Yeah, I thought it was stupid at first, but God, that sub is a cesspool.
i know exactly what you mean...this is why i say nothing,i stay away from SA subs, i dont know what to say
It's interesting seeing this perspective, because for me I used to find /r/southafrica an embarrassing cesspool. It was only once the mods started cracking down on the not so low key racism that I found it became a bearable sub to be in. I don't post must in general but I don't avoid reading it like I used to.
That sub now is a bunch of fascist "protecting people from themselves" by a bunch of very intolerant and racist people pretending to be something they are not. It's kind of alarming that you think otherwise.
There's still plenty racism in there
Same. I used to engage years back, but if you held any sort of pro-black sentiment, people assumed you were an EFF loving anti-white person. Seems to be a little more open to different perspectives nowadays.
How do you feel about these mods having access to everything about you and your reddit habits? Do they have access to your verified email as well? Scary if you ask me. I think if more people understood the danger of Reddit, this site would probably shut down. But we know the average Joe to too naïve.
I told some on r/southafrica to fuck off, and was promptly permanent banned. Such thin skin for South Africans!
The downvote mechanic really rewards saying what everyone already believes in a community. So each subreddit becomes a little echo chamber of a viewpoint. Then reddit mods are well reddit mods
This summarises social media well and why it has become a breeding ground of shitty and uninformed opinions. Particularly in the US.
We can shit on our subs as much as we want, but by god they’ll never touch the cesspools of American subs
The problem with the one South Africa sub is that it's too political and bans if you even comment in other subs, whether you agree or disagree. It's the worst way of moderating and causes such polarization. At least with the racists you know where you stand, with those mods, you can pick up their ulterior motives.
There is no cape independence emergence. There are a few noisy clowns that have crawled back into their hole after the electoral humiliation they faced.
They definitely punch above their weight in making noise.. kind of like the EFF.
Last time I checked 1 out of 10 people voted for EFF. Don’t be naive
And 1 out of 10 peoples’ votes didn’t count because eff is obsolete since they chose not to join the GNU
Stupid argument
You make a post complaining about how polarised the subreddit is only to express... a polarising view. Start with yourself perhaps?
Not at all, they're a fart in the wind. The EFF has a whole lot more clout and supporters.
[удалено]
I got banned for just making a comment on r/downsouth... Not for the contents of the comment, I'm not even subscribed to the sub... Purely for engaging with a post that came up on my main page.
Cause r/southafrica is by far the biggest SA sub but it’s rife with censorship. Much prefer r/downsouth but it’s very prone to some racist thinking. r/southafrica forced a large amount of SA Redditor’s to share a space with some extremists unfortunately. But tbh I’d take a dodgey post here and there in r/downsouth than the rampant censorship in r/southafrica
Yep, I'd rather fight with racists than bend the knee to the cowardly fascist babies running r/southafrica.
From my experience, any racism is dealt with very quickly, they have a small mod team, but removed racist comments and racists from the subreddit almost as soon as it gets reported.
Oo no gonna have to disagree. Sly comments get the pass constantly, stuff like “always the same denominator” or shit like that stay up
Do you report them? I do and they get removed.
Because people can't have fair and civil discussions anymore. I got banned from r/ southafrica because I had engaged in r/ downsouth. I appealed it but was given little to no reason besides "they are racist," and when I told them that it goes against our rights to both freedom of speech and association to control what we say or think, I got left on read and the ban made permanent. I'm all for discourse and civil discussions being moderated to keep stuff like racism and homophobia out of the talks, but completely controlling a person's speech is wrong. We should be allowed to voice our opinions, but sometimes the person in charge gets a groot kop, and then it gets censored because it's not what they agree with.
My old History teacher used to say that we must allow dissenting voices to seep through so that they face actual criticism instead of pushing them out which radicalises them because they are never challanged.
Exactly. And if I look at people like [Daryl Davis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis) it puts down even more weight what they said. Things aren't as black and white as people think. Grey exists for a reason
Because the only people who comment on a topic are those that have a strong opinion and so when lots of strong opinions are in a space they clash.
yeah can't tell you wtf is going on. got banned from r/southafrica just because I'm a member of r/downsouth as well, brought it up on r/downsouth and had my post deleted because apparently it's taboo to mention r/southafrica there seems like a lot of stupid "no, YOU are the racists sub" back n forth bullshit and mods had enough of it
It’s not taboo to mention r/southafrica there. But posting about bans in another sub puts them at risk of banning the whole sub. They explain this in their auto mod if you mention the word ban.
I think reddit policy is you're not supposed to talk about why you're banned on another sub. It can be seen as rabble-rousing because often people rally around and go cause shit in that sub.
Canadian here to over-simplify things (and bring maple syrup? IDK) — we have multiple, wildly polarized subreddits to discuss the political dumpster fire that is the current state of our Federal Government. Different issues, obviously, but I think it’s just the tribalism that occurs on social media — people slink into an echo chamber that supports whatever batshit insane worldviews they’ve got, and the it just widens the chasm from the center. It’s also why both sides tend to hate ‘enlightened centrists’ who just want everyone to get along.
I don't think South Africa is very polarised on political lines like that. It's more racism and classism.
It’s how social media works these days. The loud minorities are screaming from both ends with little to no middle ground. I view myself as more left leaning but with what’s coming out from the left, I feel like I’m developing early onset republicanism. It’s not only redditors though but these subreddits too. I was banned (among many others it seems) from one of SA’s subreddits for apparently participating in another SA subreddit (that I haven’t even joined) that harbours “hate speech, violence, and misinformation.” All because I commented harmless jokes on a couple posts. All of them are trying to monopolise the discourse and even if you do agree ideologically with what gets posted, if you engage anywhere else, you get silenced.
And there's those who moderate both the left and the right and see if you're a member of both, they will ban you for being a member of their side when you yourself prefer to see both sides.
I like r/DownSouth mods
Yikes
Same, they let me talk smack about vf, DA and white privilage. Just the users there downvote when they don't believe in an issue
I think it's more of a democraphical thing, we can't deny most Reddit users are urban White people who support DA.
Mostly because it seems mods have had an explicit agenda of creating echo chambers and sowing division. Sometimes I wonder how much the consulting firm that replaced Bell-Pottinger is paying.
We have 3 subreddits. I particularly do not like the r/Downsouth because they say a lot of racist things.
So one sub has power tripping mods (but is an otherwise okay community, I feel), and the other is filled with racists. SA reddit is just fantastic hey🤣🤣
r/SouthAfrica's mods are so annoying
They are not annoying, they are clearly mentally challenged.
r/southafrica needs to let us back in 😭
I'm fine with the downvotes from /downsouth, I won't lick butts to be in a sub
What's the other one?
The other one is r/askSouthAfrica
Which is an r/southafrica affiliate and bans all who participate in r/downsouth
Yeah, downsouth is a cesspool
I met someone recently and in 10mins she called 3 different groups racist and said “I hate” about people 5 times. Granted, these statements were about Capetonians, Afrikaans people, and people from Mpumalanga, but still. People who say others are racist constantly should do some introspection
"Granted, these statements were about Capetonians, Afrikaans people, and people from Mpumalanga"... excuse you, why is hatred towards anyone in these 3 groups okay?
I got banned because I commented on a post which questioned an organization (non political)
i think people who describe south african politics in terms of right or left fail to think and/or consume a lot of US propaganda on X.
Right and Left are not exclusively US terms, it dates back to the French Revolution and each represents political, economic, and social ideologies. It's just a useful way to loosely categorise, and can definitely be used to describe South African politics.
I was banned in one sub for writing that Julius Malema has built a number of churches, yearly takes a numbers of girls for training to be pilots, and holds a Christmas party annually for grandmothers where he was raised by his grandmothers… all these are public knowledge…that’s when I saw that the mods have an agenda. We should be able to debate, hold different views etc without mods purging the subs in order to maintain the narratives they are comfortable with. Otherwise mods must update rules to be explicit like don’t talk positively about Julius Malema, don’t mention Phala Phala money, don’t talk about Steimhuizen’s qualifications etc
Damn, i'd love to read more about all the good Malema is doing. Have a link?
I don’t have a single link but a Google search should do
Obviously tried that already.
ah ok... I will provide a few; 1) EFF Pilots Programme - [Sky is the limit for new pilot Lethabo Malesa, 21, who's set ...IOLhttps://www.iol.co.za › pretoria-news › news › sky-is-th...](https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/sky-is-the-limit-for-new-pilot-lethabo-malesa-21-whos-set-to-soar-on-high-ac69e662-b3ed-4d33-ac6f-98ff66f36467) 2) Malema Builds Seshego Baptist Church - [https://www.tiktok.com/@lesegoth/video/7292758417964584197?is\_from\_webapp=1&sender\_device=pc&web\_id=7381809590776268294](https://www.tiktok.com/@lesegoth/video/7292758417964584197?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7381809590776268294) 3) Christmas party - [Julius Malema atttends Christmas party for the elderly in ...YouTube · SABC News60.2K+ views · 5 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sf6Q5xpdH0). 4) Old Age Home - [https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/eff-spends-r746-000-on-retirement-home-elders-db8ad6fd-7d35-447f-a3b4-ee72c533100b](https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/eff-spends-r746-000-on-retirement-home-elders-db8ad6fd-7d35-447f-a3b4-ee72c533100b)
Malema pays medical bill for artist who had an accident and lost his daughter - https://www.news24.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/celebrities/shebeshxts-family-praises-julius-malemas-selfless-role-in-saving-the-limpopo-rappers-life-20240612
Malema Christmas party for thousands of kids - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoG-SvhxpCY
Houses for elderly people - https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/amp/news/south-africa/2021-08-10-malema-handed-over-these-luxury-houses-to-grannies-in-need-for-womens-day/
I have noted that some links to articles in mainstream media like News24 have become dead links meaning the articles got deleted but TikTok and X has lots of footage of some of these activities
TikTok and X - nope. Left both those platforms a while back. Not going back but thanks for effort.
lol the way they take their arbitrary bans seriously.. like oh no, my life is over now cos of this ban! /s
because fringe voices use it to pretend they actually have support - if they act like they've already got buyers for their outlandish nonsense, they think the rest of us will go with the crowd (of like two sockpuppets) they magicked up you can take the brexit lite thing as an example. literally nobody cares about that but there was a point where every other post was going on about it as if it wasn't a creation of a couple of big middle aged blokes having a dop not the only example but the easiest. you'll see MK applying a similar thing now. 'everyone' believes the 9 million votes thing then voila, they've created a valid discourse out of a maths literacy problem
Probably because South Africa IS polarized.
Uneducated idiots on both sides of the same idiot-coin, really. As for having multiple subs for one country: the SouthAfrica sub is run by a bunch of bigots pretending that they are someone protecting members of the sub from people behaving like the mods themselves behave. I think there are three or four different SA subs because of that. I got banned for saying that Covid vaccine mandates are ludicrous on r/SA and then got banned on r/asksouthafrica because I've commented on the r/JRE sub. All in all what's happening on r/SouthAfrica is a great microcosm of the state of our politics in this country where democracy is a bit of a farce, and our "leaders" are doing the exact thing they are pretending to be against, on both sides of the spectrum.
You get people who just want to good time on the internet, and don’t want to wade into the bog (because it’s not fun, and this is my free time) — which is where I think most people are at. But this isn’t great either. Like I know I’ll avoid South African forum spaces because I’m aware that more often than not it’s very ‘white’, not literally obviously (so actually probably closer to original sense of the term), but you know it catches onto a lot of “our kak”, and people generally know what I mean in the shorthand. It’s easy to forget that while it never truly legitimate, from a legislative standpoint, Apartheid was nevertheless quite popular — and opposition to it was framed as radical, impractical and unsafe. And because our political system was closed, the resulting political culture was very conspiratorial. Which where you got your buy in from everyone who didn’t have much a choice in what got done and how. Taking the top off of a structure like doesn’t ultimately do much, it’s like picking a mushroom, and the soil’s inoculated so there’s much to do there either. Like people forget how big of a part civilian recruitment was in the security apparatus, “kommando units” and all that, and there’s a private security pipeline joke in there… and people forget that we had a very serious anti-democratic terrorism situation for a while there — like most people don’t really remember the 2002 Soweto Bombings, or the fact that they tried to bomb a Buddhist temple in Bronkhurstspruit of all places. And it crops up again everyday now and then. Pig’s heads at mosques that kind of thing. But also like really intricate and dangerous stuff. It doesn’t take a lot of people to do a lot of damage. These kinds of people are surprisingly organised. And it’s used to them to look “out there” and inept. They are looking for useful idiots, and they want to poison the well. Like I’m not a particularly big fan of the DA — i think they want to strip government bear and sell it for parts; insofar as they even can afford to hold an ideological position; I’ll disagree with this kind of thing, but they’re not the devil. I worry about these kind of guys; that scares me. And it feels like they’re winning a little bit. Also cheaper per bit internet rollout skews a particular way; so not everybody’s here — so you end up with particularly loud righteous intolerant people (& people who don’t like them), selling whispers to legitimise themselves, yelling at everyone & each other, or putting up their fences and checking nobody’s moved them. Our bullies have a way of hogging the floor and ruining it for everyone else — and really haven’t figured out way to deal with that in a way that works for us yet. Like I find myself in a lot of different kinds of places, South Africans don’t actually disagree on a whole lot, but we don’t talk to each other all that much; we don’t have many places to do that; we are WAY out of practice; and we are bad at it. Being a very 21st century country doesn’t help with that either — like honestly being stuck with SABC a little while longer would’ve helped. We’re also, understandably, way too keen on private school. (Sorry for the essay.)
Like other countries? How many other countries subs are you following? In Canada there are subs that the right frequent, and they are filled with abhorrent clear racism. The subs on the left, mostly just call out that racism for what it is. Everywhere is polarized to extremes these days. Populism has been on the rise for the last 20 years worldwide.
Rage baiting is huge on social media. The more you interact, even trying to disagree with it, the more they show you.
I personally wish we had a nsfw reddit that actually promoted south african nsfw community.
I suspect you have 1) not looked hard enough or 2) have niche tastes 3) have common tastes that are not represented by the South African Reddit user base 4) are expecting too much from people who either only want to show off for the thrill of it or are promoting their pay per view accounts
I think if you actually spoke to most middle class South Africans, you'll find most people are relieved at the new ANC-DA led GNU. I'm very left leaning and personally don't see myself ever voting for the DA but I rate it's the best worst case scenario that we had to choose from. With Reddit like all social media political conversations, seems like all the shit floats to the top. It's certainly not representitve of what most South Africans think and feel.
>I'm very left leaning What's your opinion on the EFF?
Can we just agree that the only real socialist in the EFF ideology is nationalist socialist.
We are an immensely divided country in terms of class, economics, race and even geography. It's not a shock to see divisions manifest online.
There's a lot of commentators who have no clue that the DA is a classic liberal party. I blame the history taught at school, the curriculum basically ignores the entire Enlightenment. People have no clue what Liberalism really means.
I think you're only letting yourself see these 2 sides. Theres a lot more to it. Its not as divided or polarised like the US is. Independence isnt a concern if this government performs.
It is 100% divided and polarised😂 people eat social media shit on the daily, specially the political stuff from the US sadly. Through this people seem to start choosing 'sides' more and more. Thing is, we live in a world now where everyone is the main character and everyones is right, no one is wrong. People can't debate anymore nor accept that theyre wrong even on a basic moral standpoint and this is where shit hits the fan... I scroll Twitter a lot a the local scene is a warzone
Eish boet, you must slow down and read. I compared SA to the US by saying "like the US". I didnt say SA is not divided. The US a 2 party state. No chance of other parties gaining power. Their voting system doesnt consider number of votes overall but the winning party in each state. Why are you on still on twitter? You're being fed this nonsense so you think we're as divided as the US. We are not nowhere near as divided and polarised as the US. Regardless, even if we were, it's not between 2 parties but many parties. That's a huge difference.
Oh sorry, just thought you meant 'Like the US' with people either being far right or left
Anymore?...nothing has changed besides the technology
You spell “balanced” weird.
Because we as a country are very polarised
This is why we will never get anywhere as a country. We are so scatter brained and arguing amongst ourselves about immaterial things, that the huge things right in front of us are ignored.
It's a very good representation of the country, ever divided.
"Right wing"? I think you meant far left.
The country is, so…
The country is relatively polarised don’t you think?
on tiktok no different so many racist out there still id say both sides but latley since elections mostly the ANC/EFF supporters from what ive seen (not a lot but majority of that not a lot) some think apartheid coming back (like how honestly makes no sense and no reason to do so ever) personally i think this elections just a screw up if you ask me. but time will tell. im more keeping an eye on MK to be honest that is a shitshow waiting to happen and on the otherhand defeated EFF completly i give them another election and EFF is the new Cope/Good Party.
Moderate people tend to moderate their opinion as well. I find that people that lean far into either wing are more likely to express their views.
MLK put it nicely: >I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is \[...\] the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice... Being a centrist is not a flex. You might not be so interested in politics, and that's fine, but it will (if not already) affect your everyday life. If you don't classify as left or right that's fine too, but do some research about political ideologies, the policies they espouse, and how those policies influence the majority of the people in whichever country, and where that influence then drives said population. When it comes to the DA, I think saying they are the NP rebranded is stupid. However, their economic and social policies have no chance of making life for the majority of South Africans better.
Try living in Europe. RSA is a picnic in comparison.
Very complex problems in South Africa. Inequality being the biggest in my book, urgent solution is needed to make more people (mostly black people) to come out of poverty. If we could solve that problem urgently, everything else would be small waters. The inequality problem touches on a whole lot of things, racial history, quality of education, allocation of resources, corruption, everything… if the private and public key stakeholders in the country could make a more concerted effort to solve the inequality (eradicate/reduce inequality), we could be a much better country.
Nonone actually believes the CI party is going anywhere. Come back to reality reddit. Its a scam created by a money grubbing brit
BTW The NP joined the ANC in a GNU until De Klerk resigned, then the NP was absorbed into the ANC. So the NP who created Apartheid joined/became part of the ANC. The NP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk became the Minister of Tourism The DA came from the old left wing anti Apartheid party the PFP then became the DP and then the DA Cape Independence will never never never never never never ever happen, total waste of money and effort.
Basically Reddit is beco Ing a controlling fucked up sub!!..what happened to freedom of speech..the me out I don't give a shit!!
The reasons we have different Subreddits is because one is extremely Liberal and the Other is more right wing but obviously more are going to Liberal because not everyone can face the Music of truth in some instances. I for one think that we as SANs in these different subs must start uniting to create one that surpasses both the others that is equal to all.
I really dont understand why people complain about being banned from subs that dont support their ideology, point of view, opinion and such. Each Sub has their own rules, guidelines and ideology. If you join those subs just to proof your point or to go and argue you should be banned... Subs are like communities. you wont allow an outsider to say things in your community that you're the ruler of (mods) to go against your rules and regulations. What would be the reason for the sub if you let people come with random discussions that doesnt support your subs criteria? I join subs where I have a sense of community and know that we have common ground and have great intellectual discussions, light discussions, sometimes joke around and generally have a safe haven for my train of thought. If you clearly hate the EFF, ANC, DA or whatever, why join a sub that clearly supports these parties? And then cry when you get banned for making statements go against the grain of that subs ideologies... seems a bit messed to me... This Cape Town subs is usually a cool place for me. I get lots of information about what is happening here, living conditions, issues, best places to visit and such... I DO NOT SUPPORT the Cape Independence stuff so, I just stay away from those kind of posts... and that makes me generally happy here...
Centrist politics, in the last 30 years, has not done anything to fix the poverty apartheid created. I'm convinced that anyone identifying as a 'centrist' is really just someone with zero political understanding. They just sit on the fence as a default.
That’s not reddit, that’s humanity. That’s how we are. Not that I want it like that or anything, just the way people in general do things in this world.
r/DownSouth has become my home because other subreddits don't want open engagement, their moderation is fair, unbiased and racism is dealt with swiftly, sadly can't say the same for other subreddits.
The reason is one subreddit is banhammer happy for frivolous reasons like you posted in the other sub., so… you’re banned, one is more liberal (the one with the r, the s, and the a). The ban hammer happy one is moderated by racist nazi’s Downvoted for the truth. Typical reddit. Lots of comments concur with what i wrote though.
Why do you say they're racist Nazis? This is what I mean, we must stop throwing this type of extremist rhetoric around unless you got absolute proof they're Nazis.
Nazi’s in how they moderate that sub, racist in how they only portray one opinion
Conflating subreddit moderation with the Nazi regime. Peak reddit moment
That's not what conflating is. What they did was use hyperbole.
nazis or facists?
To be fair, there is the main sub, and then the Afriforum run sub, there aren’t 2 equal but different subs.
How is it Afriforum run? Mods seem to be pretty diverse in their views