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Comment by treis | Hacker News Reader

Nothing showed this better than that anti-work mod. In that case the stereotype of a teenage loser posting from their mom's basement was laughably true. Reddit got a lot more understandable when you realize that most of the posts are coming from people like that.

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>the stereotype of a teenage loser posting from their mom's basement was laughably true

Let's not think that we on HN are much better

It’s somewhat self-serving to think this, but my inference after spending time on this site is definitely the opposite.

When that subreddit exploded in size, it also included a lot of people who weren't actually "anti-work", but using it as an outlet to complain about and discuss employee abuse and extremely low wages to the point of quitting.

And the mod also clarified she works 20+ hours/week in addition to being a full-time student, which is hardly a loser-teenager stereotype being peddled here. She clearly had no media training and the folks at Fox took advantage of that, though.

Nah that's ridiculous. I am probably somewhere around the average level of accomplishment here and there's a decent chance that you've interacted with my code at some point. I'm also married, have traveled the world, have a kid, and a home of my own. My life experience is way way way ahead of the mod I'm talking about.

And in the grand scheme of HN that's really not that much. We have people who have actual legitimate accomplishments like creating widely used software or founding businesses.

Yeah but there are also a lot of losers like me here so it averages out

Please, HN is intellectual paradise compared to reddit. I once tried to get into a debate on reddit about whether China was the next rising superpower or not. I pointed out China's demographic issues, how the developed world has largely turned against them in sentiment, how they're dependent on the outside world for food and energy, etc.

The response I got? "Lol people have been saying China's going to collapse for decades and it hasn't happened yet lol" Oh and I got downvoted while that response got up-voted. I basically became a full time lurker in reddit after that experience. Complete waste of 15 minutes typing out an actual argument.

Contrast that to HN where even when people have a misinformed argument they at least make an effort to engage, and I've actually been put in my place a few times with new information/well reasoned arguments that weren't just pulled out of someone's ass.

     I once tried to get into a debate on reddit about 
     whether China was the next rising superpower

Some subreddits are goldmines for particular topics. I know at least one that's pretty good for that sort of discussion.

But in general, it's best to take the temperature (ie, lurk) a bit in a particular subreddit before even attempting such a thing.

The default subreddits are uh, let's say, flippant at best.

The fact that downvotes require you to be on HN and get some upvotes first certainly helps.

I think we underestimate how many comments come from teenagers. Puts some of the insanity into context.

Its either bots or teenagers. I have noticed that Reddit is at its worst during the Summer. The rest of the time it can get pretty bad, but during the summer is when I hear the most extremist, poorly thought out opinions possible.

Or as another commenter put it, people who are "36 years old, but still emotionally a teenager".

It doesn't help that 40-50% are very impressionable, which is a bad combination when you put them all in a virtual room together like Reddit or Twitter.

I just think about how many of them like to be "edgy".

This comment is a great example of the effect Fox News wanted by spotlighting that person.

Could you elaborate on what effect that is?

Undermining the credibility of /r/antiwork and the labor rights/work reform movement in general.

I believe the subreddit chose the mod that would present on Fox news. So I do not think that it was Fox News that did the spotlighting.

Perhaps a nitpick or a misunderstanding, but subreddits don't choose mods. Mods choose mods. The initial mod is just the mod that started it.

If I remember correctly the popular sentiment on r/antiwork re: the mod's appearance on Fox was more along the lines of oh god why but I'm not certain.

antiwork has also largely just embraced the fact that it is a subreddit to bitch about work problems and awful bosses.

You are factually incorrect, in fact the subreddit told her not to do the interview. This has been well documented. It's not very helpful to post your unsubstantiated beliefs when it is very easy to look up the facts.

Do you have evidence of this?

Go look it up. It was all over reddit when it happened. The sub said don't do it and she did it anyway.

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