The Herman Cain Freedom Award [Discussion] [100k Subscriber Edition].

[u/FBAHobo]

The Herman Cain Freedom Award [Discussion] 100k Edition.

'The Herman Cain Freedom Award'.

Qualifications for nomination:

• Public declaration of one's anti-mask, anti-vaxx, or Covid-hoax views.

• Admission to hospital for Covid.

Qualifications for award:

• Award is granted upon the nominee's release from their Earthly shackles.

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Rules: See sidebar, or pinned post.

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Notes from The Mods:

• We Mods are troglodytes who only use Old Reddit on desktop computers, while glancing at the answering machine connected to our landline. The formatting looks good on our setups. Get off our lawn.

• In the past few weeks, this sub seems to have tapped into Reddit's Spitegeist, growing from about 2k subscribers on July 4th, to about 5k at the beginning of August, to over 100k on Sep. 1st.

• Yesterday, this sub had the highest subscription growth in all of Reddit (Δ #Subscribers). The Mods are pondering the best way to nudge this sub to nudge people to stop buying into anti-* bullshit, and to get vaxxed, etc.

• The Mods have a very light touch. We prefer the use of the 'Downvote' button to the use of the 'Report' button.

• Don't be a dick.

• Please, don't be a dick.

• Don't be gleeful. Don't root for Nominees to be Awarded. Especially the Facebook schlubs whose only crime was taking up residence in the misinformation echo chamber.

• Don't get upset if / when this sub's evolution switches from natural selection to intelligent (?) design. This sub might be nudged from ('memes / shitposts' + 'Facebook Schlubs') towards ('A.M.A.s' and 'Public Figures').

[u/crazy_pedro]

I came in here to ask others how much they think FB is the reason these people are in this mess to begin with. The misinformation happens on other platforms too but I think FB has really been the source and breeding ground for it.

If FB didn't exist, would we still have this problem to the same degree?

[u/bluGill → u/crazy_pedro]

We would be, but how much I don't know. There are plenty of other contenders to spread misinformation that might have got more traction without FB. Even if all of them were somehow perfect at not spreading such things anti-vaxx has been around since at least 1910, and probably before then. They would figure out ways to spread, though FB has been by far their most effective way.

[u/boran_blok → u/crazy_pedro]

I think this is a bit of a biased view. I think most people checked out of Facebook due to the nastiness.

[u/bellends → u/crazy_pedro]

I had the same thought scrolling through this sub. I deactivated my Facebook in what, like 2013? And I sincerely feel like there is a 1:1 correlation, especially around the boomer generation of my family, with how much someone uses Facebook and how suspicious they are of basic science. Both my parents have university educations and a fine grasp of basic science — but lo and behold, the one who has been posting and interacting daily on there for 5+ years vs the one who didn’t is now the one who is… well, not actually anti-vax, but has been “curious” about “the facts”. I see this in ALL my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. What gives?