The big issue is there are no moderation standards. The mods of a sub can do whatever they want and there is no real appeal process. I was banned from /r/atheism for replying to a joke with another joke. The mods apparently thought I was a super religious person trying to overtake the sub or something. I tried to appeal and they told me to write a long paper, where I talked at length about how and why I was wrong and how and why it won’t happened again. It would have taken me hours, and I would have been lying, because I don’t think I did anything wrong. They simply didn’t understand the jokes in the comments and have egos so big they want people to write pages and pages of text to make sure people know who to bow to. Kind of ironic that the mods of an atheism subreddit were trying to act like gods.
>But they are punishing engagement, which I have to believe will not turn out well for them in the end. It'll become even more of a brainless echo-chamber.
The echo chamber has been in effect for a while, but it’s gotten so much worse. It used to be some downvotes here and there. Now they simply ban anyone who doesn’t bend a knee to the “correct” opinion. That type of environment isn’t enjoyable.
Give it time and I’m sure society will shift away from this madness. It’s only a matter of time before all these people turn on each other, I’ve already seen it happen a few times. That’s when people will hopefully wake up and figure out that we need to be tolerant of other people’s views in order to have the freedom to express our own views.