That said, starting from zero is still a good idea.
Start from a blank slate and search for subreddits that actually interest you and seem reasonable. Yeah, you're also creating an "echo chamber" if you participate in polarizing topics, but hopefully you're aware that you're doing that to yourself.
As for the Russiagate stuff, the front page is riddled with it because it's a very important subject in the US, Reddit's user base is primarily people from the US, and there are bombshells dropping every day.
Share blue for example was given a budget of 40+ million a year to do just that. (Over 100k a day)
The other paid campaign is 'deplatforming' (their term). They do your best to silence opinions which don't match the paid script.
But you'd have to be willfully blind to describe the events up to now as a "nothing burger."
If you start a fishing expedition for the Loch Ness monster, you're bound to find some fish but that doesn't prove the existence of the Loch Ness monster.
These questions are not nothing.
This attitude is something you find everywhere because it's simpler for people who believe something strongly, to also believe that anyone who disagrees has been paid to do so. So it's attractive to dismiss anti-trump articles as "paid propaganda", and dismiss people like you as russian bots.
But you're going to have to wake up from that attitude at one point or another because it's going to catch up with you. As others have said, arrests and indictments aren't a "nothing burger". You won't get to the truth by dismissing sources you've been told not to like.
Arrests and indictments for things unrelated to illegal dealings with Russia, except for maybe failing to renew registration as a foreign agent but that's a stretch.
Wouldn't be too hard considering the amount of valid concerns regarding her practices.
Not really. Describe how each news articles has impacted your day-to-day life. It's only important in that it keeps readers coming back who are excited about a big conspiracy taking down the president they don't like.
If you go onto subreddits that mostly focus on non-US news whenever Trump comes up it's pretty obvious that the majority of the world views Trump's White House in a negative light.
Turns out if you unsubscribe from all of those types of subs, Reddit becomes a really funny and interesting time killer where the community actively tries to come up with ways to make you laugh.
People say that a lot, but, although there are a lot of people I don't agree with on there, I don't know about the applicability of the analogy "toxic". Most times, when people say reddit is "toxic", they're referring to a specific subreddit that I won't name here, but it's mostly just full of innocuous posts like "we have the greatest president, don't we?" - clearly designed to ruffle some feathers, which I suppose is in itself counterproductive, but "toxic" as in, leaches out into the surrounding area and makes it unusable? Seems a bit of an overstatement to me.
I suspect that this is happening more than before, but that the opposite (people finding structured, intelligent opposing viewpoints) is also happening more --people spend a lot more time informing themselves overall-- but that the more constructive phenomena is less destructive therefore harder to notice.
https://www.reddit.com/user/A_UPRIGHT_BASS/m/uplifting/
I found that just going to a few subreddits on topics of personal interest that I can browse through for new ideas, user stories, etc. results in a much more positive experience.
Smaller communities for specific hobbies/videogames/etc (in most cases) seem to be less polarized on the platform.
By logging in you can select your subreddits which lets you filter out subreddits you don't care about and add ones you do care about.
Browsing subreddits is the best way to check out a particular topic but I do find their algorithm is okay at pulling up an okay overview of your subreddits if you login. (assuming you remove all the noisy defaults)
Look at this commentary from just today: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8da2uu/trump_wel...
Do you think this is constructive? https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8da2uu/trump_wel...
What about this? https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8dga0r/trump_tol...
There is no intelligent discourse occurring in those comments. It's just a big echo chamber.
I ended up blocking like every state subreddit when the front page was nothing but net neutrality posts.
Because its one of, if not, the biggest story in the world right now? I mean, of course its going to occasionally top /r/politics and /r/worldnews.
The president and the highest levels of the GOP are directly targeted in an investigation that has brought 20+ indictments with several guilty pleas with apparently more to come.
This is a bit like saying the news in 1974 was too focused on Watergate.
Have you actually ventured over there? Saying Russiagate/Trump stories are "occasionally" at the top of /r/politics is a bit of an understatement. They're obsessed over there.
Honestly, no major scandal in the last few days is the exception now, not the norm.