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Comment by tkahn6 | Hacker News Reader

Ah yes there is 'flood' of pro-Israel comments so it must be a conspiracy.

And what about the 'flood' of anti-Israel comments?

How very reddit of you.

Reddit has traditionally been left in its political thinking and the left traditionally disagree with the current political direction in Israel.

Just like you attempt to denegrate my comment by suggesting Im a conspiracy theorist, so too do many people on reddit find their comments subjected to a barrage of downvotes or whimsical retorts for posting something that may be construed as pro-palestinian or anti-israel.

I mean look at your comment as an example. I wrote about the obvious nature of comment and post manipulation on reddit and you instead try to shift the attention towards Palestine and Israel, selectively quoting my post to construe.. something unnecessary.

Maybe you think you and others are a target of 'whimsical retorts' not because you are the target of 'whimsical retorts' but because you have a poor grasp of what legitimate rhetoric is.

Your claim is that there is manipulation of reddit. Manipulation implies that there is a 'non organic' illegitimate entity or group of entities working to exert their influence - a conspiracy to influence reddit. You are asserting that there are conspiracies to influence reddit and therefore you have a conspiracy theory and therefore you are a conspiracy theorist.

I could go on from here and tear down the other ridiculous accusation that I am maliciously 'shifting' the discussion, but this should be sufficient enough to encourage you to reconsider your position.

And yes, reddit is left of center and the left tends to be anti-Israel. What of it? Does that imply that there are no members of reddit that are not left of center? Does that imply that there are no people who are left of center that also are not anti-Israel? Does that imply that all rhetoric that does not strictly echo traditional left of center views is illegitimate?

More things to think about.

I turn your attention to such organisations as the Jewish Internet Defence Force which has a [twitter feed](https://twitter.com/JIDF) listing reddit posts. This is lifted straight from their about page.

>r ACTION ALERTS are now well known throughout the Jewish and Israel advocacy world, and by our many enemies, as they have led to the removal of thousands of antisemitic and jihadist pages online. Whether it's an antisemitic Facebook page with millions of members, or a YouTube video promoting global jihad, our team is on it, monitoring it, and urging companies to adhere to their own rules.

If that isn't a non organic entity working to exert influence on reddit I don't know what is!

So you have proof that there are entities that fit an ideological profile that is consistent with pro Israel comments.

Now you have to show that the 'flood' of pro Israel comments are a result of this organization or others like it to game reddit.

The existence of the JIDF and other similar organizations that have the explicitly stated goal of flooding Internet conversations with pro-Israel comments, would make the argument self evident.

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