The misogyny of many of those who badgered Ellen Pao out of her CEO position at Reddit was about as subtle as an explosive fart at a dinner party. And it’s not exactly difficult to find evidence of widespread racism directed at her as well.
There was the whole “Chairman Pao” thing, for example, and the blatantly racist “humor” that it unleashed:
And, yes, it gets even worse than that (link very much NSFW).
But some of Pao’s more, well, imaginative detractors, it’s Pao’s defenders who are the real racists and misogynists.
A blogger by the name of Blixkrogg, a self-described “rational freak,” puts it this way:
Ellen Pao was ousted for incompetence. It didn’t matter whether she was Asian-American or had a vagina. Excusing incompetence and having a lower level of expectation just because someone’s Asian or a woman is condescending prejudice. Arguing that she should have stayed CEO despite her competence is the actual racism and misogyny.
Also, black is white and night is day and the car alarm going off outside my apartment is not annoying.
So the #RedditRevolt was about “incompetence?”
If you want to see the real incompetence at Reddit, look at the way in which the powers that be at Reddit allowed their site to be used to disseminate child porn and stolen celebrity nudes. Look at the toxic culture of hate and harassment that their tolerance of blatantly hateful subreddits has allowed to flourish — so much so that white supremacists have started using Reddit as a hunting ground for new members.
Pao’s detractors aren’t angry about the toxic wasteland that Reddit has become — and in some ways always has been. They’re angry at Pao because of the tiny steps she was taking to try to clean up the worst of that mess — by banning the FatPeopleHate subreddit and a few others that were actively harassing people.
The powers that be at Reddit have now made it abundantly clear that they can be bullied by the hate mob that their policies have essentially created. Setting that precedent seems like a pretty incompetent thing to do, if you ask me.
Hey, David, you have to see this (thanks to Ghilie for posting this in the other thread) and this.
HTML mammoth’d. Eh, at least the links still work.
Incompetence? How dare you suggest that? I mean, it’s not as if Reddit’s new CEO said that
And therefore implied that he wanted to make basic moderation fucking useless, defeating the point of the original blackout.
Oh wait. He did.
Sorry, I’m just SO ANGRY. Besides making it look like Reddit is willing to have their employees be bullied out of their positions, now a CEO outright said that he hates deleted comments and wishes to read them anyways.
WAY TO SAY THAT YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT MODERATION, PERIOD, REDDIT.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/bbbls.gif
Burn Reddit Down. Then salt the earth.
This new CEO sounds like he may feature on this site someday, from what I’m hearing about him. I’m a little scared to go look him up. :/
@theladyzombie
I concur.
http://38.media.tumblr.com/812acd91caa07623d479205d7d215c41/tumblr_mzxlvnnRUg1tpe7lxo1_500.gif
Oh, so he doesn’t have a problem with child porn or hacked nude photos. He’s just ban the content to protect reddit from a lawsuit. Classy!
I fucking hate capitalism and libertarianism sometimes.
Well, all the time.
“Rational freak”? Now THERE’s an oxymoron.
And yeah, way to project, Rational Freak Dude. If anyone thinks Asians and women are incompetent, it’s undoubtedly you. I think the real problem with Ms. Pao is that she simply wasn’t geisha-like enough for your wankish tastes.
Same here.
On the other hand, I just love Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys!
My reaction after seeing the NSFW link: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2e8S-Oxk9Y&w=560&h=315%5D
I don’t know how to make an embedded video start at a specific time, so in the video go to 0:38 to see the reaction.
Burn down reddit, salt the Earth, leave Earth and colonize a new planet would be a more appropriate way to solve this mess.
I didn’t click on the link It seems like me I’m better off that way?
Is there talk amongst the mods of the non shitty reddits of flouncing? If neither ethics or morals can appeal, that might be the only option. I’ve always heard that redditor can still be enjoyable if you limit yourself to good subs with good mods, but if the mods won’t be able to do anything anymore, it kind of seems like that won’t be possible anymore.
I don’t care there so I don’t know. Just wondering how the non assholes who still use the site are going to deal.
http://41.media.tumblr.com/28d999bee92a141844db19a329460321/tumblr_npcmq5TrHQ1snquqlo1_500.jpg
Reddit has been cleaning uptheir product because it has a public image problem. They want mainstream success. There’s a lot of investors expecting a return on their money so there’s lots of pressure on the company’s leadership to find some way to be profitable.
The libertarian crybabies complaining about freedom are actually weeping over pure capitalism. Pao wasn’t acting alone in stomping on the jerks of the Reddit community. She was acting on behalf of Reddit’s investors. Everyone in Silicon Valley knows Reddit needs to make money. Fundamentally, these fedora-wearing jackasses are demanding to be assholes on someone else’s dollar. When their own political philosophy turns against them, they reach for racism and misogyny.
Reblogged this on Subspace Radio Signals.
Of course they’d go “NO U” when discussing their bad behavior. Because they’re three.
“What?! We’re not racist or sexist! We just don’t want an Asian woman here! YOU’RE sexist and racist for making it all about her being an Asian woman! *posts about ‘Chairman Pao’, types in a gross stereotypical “Asian” accent, calls Pao a “cunt”, etc.*
Nope. All you. Sexists and racists.“
In other horrifying news… It seems Jared from Subway is a paedophile. The director of his children’s foundation (because OF COURSE) has already been arrested and the FBI’s started clearing out Jared’s house for evidence on him too.
Soooooo the harassers were showing that she’s incompetence by making racist and sexist remarks? Plus death threats?
@SFHC
I can’t say I’m surprised because I heard about this a couple of days ago but I still wasn’t surprised then. Totally no idea why.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Dwight-Schrute-Shakes-Head-and-Rolls-Eyes.gif
weirwolftreehugger:
I know one subreddit has a contingency plan in case staying on Reddit becomes that intolerable; if the current CEO fucks up mod tools to the point that moderation becomes pointless, it might push them over the edge to go off-site.
I can’t speak of anything else; there’s a sort of informal “do not leak” policy since they’re private subreddits.
If I wasn’t on the burn reddit to the ground train before, I’m def on it now. (I was on it before, oh god, was I ever. Fuck reddit and the libertarian horse it rode in on.)
I say we dust off and nuke the site from orbit,its the only way to be sure.
Well I follow stuff like rooster teeth and they can always use their own fourms, once they are remade well enough to be usesble. Most will leave if another option ever becomes better, it just depends on when that happens.