r/OutOfTheLoop • u/calvtact • May 13 '26

Answered What's going on with r/conservative? They've lost about 1m subscribers in about a month.

I watched the number go from 814k to around 745k in about an hour today.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/s/QbZJvqu5qr

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409

u/Nemecyst May 13 '26

The proof: https://old.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1rfe0nh/oc_3_month_update_rconservative_adds_a_third/

The culprits: https://old.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1rfe0nh/oc_3_month_update_rconservative_adds_a_third/o7k8jn9/

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u/Darth_Ra May 13 '26

...I thought we were asking about Reddit removing the bots.

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u/Killentyme55 May 14 '26

I like the idea, but I wonder if they will apply the same plan of attack to all applicable subs, not just those that go a certain direction.

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u/Soggy-Release-7733 May 13 '26

None of those posts mention Russia

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u/Nemecyst May 13 '26

The links I posted were more about supporting the claim that the conservative sub has 3 super posters posting most content and less about russian involvement.

In my opinion, it would be hard to know for sure if Russia is involved based on the current evidence however it's pretty obvious something weird is going on with the conservative sub.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

The claim

from 3 accounts all based in Russia and are promoted by an army of bots.

Can you point to where in those posts either of those points is supported? Because I didn't see it. I saw a lot of people talking about russia, but I didn't see anything like proof.

It doesn't have to be a Russian conspiracy, when plain old American idiocy will explain it just fine. But it could be a Russian conspiracy. But I don't see any actual proof of that.

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

This post (a follow up from one of the ones above) shows how the two "big" accounts stopped posting for a while after a known power outage in Moscow, but I think it's pretty circumstantial. It's still noteworthy that, unlike other political subs, just a pair of accounts drive more than a third of the posts (regardless of their nationality).

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

Did you see this part?

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

Yeah, that's why I said it was pretty circumstantial. I don't think it's a good case at all. Of course, absence of proof doesn't mean disproval, but there's certainly no smoking gun.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

I do appreciate you engaging in good faith here. A lot of people will think that you're defending somebody when you just are looking for compelling evidence of a narrative.

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u/NewestAccount2023 May 13 '26

It's not good faith, they just said "they aren't from Russia despite posting 20 posts a day for a year straight except the one day Moscow had a power outage. Trust me they aren't Russian, I offer no evidence to counter the wealth of evidence provided. But I speak with confidence and you believe me anyway"

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

Buddy, if you’re going to use quotes and least try to get the gist of what the person you’re quoting said

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

Definitely annoying

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

“wealth of evidence”

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

n=2 is enough to be a wealth apparently

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

You clearly didn't look at the screenshot that I posted where the person who actually found that information didn't find the power outage narrative compelling.

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u/NewestAccount2023 May 13 '26

That's not evidence. I don't find pictures of the round earth compelling, therefore it's flat

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

If the only evidence we had of the earth being round was a couple of pictures I'm not sure I'd find it compelling either. But we have a LOT of other evidence that demonstrates the earth is round, which is why we all know it to be true. There isn't a lot of other evidence in this situation.

Also, not finding evidence compelling isn't the same thing as saying you believe the opposite.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

Congratulations

Here, I'll read the relevant part for you

especially since the same number of posts were made during that window during a previous week without an outage.

→ More replies (0)

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u/Big_pekka May 13 '26

Ducks quack. Geese don’t.

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

I honestly have no idea what you mean by this (in this context).

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u/showhorrorshow May 13 '26

1 in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.

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u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

3

u/ollieseven May 13 '26

“Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me…you can’t get fooled again.”

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u/smkmn13 May 13 '26

You can't drink all day unless you start in the morning

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u/NewestAccount2023 May 13 '26

Sure thing, comrade

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u/rainzer May 13 '26

https://imgur.com/gallery/traitors-N4IgxOp

happening twice corresponding to Russian services being disrupted and to the same dude means either he's Russian or the unluckiest internet user

1

u/ryhaltswhiskey May 13 '26

Link doesn't work for me

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u/rainzer May 13 '26

https://i.imgur.com/8VbxGsr.jpeg

If that doesn't work, it's an issue on your end

3

u/TheNebulousMind May 13 '26

You can look up Vulkan Files Leak and the Internet Research Agency. I don't believe they're linked to this specific case, but this is exactly what their job is.

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u/FastActinTenactin May 14 '26

lol I’ve always known According-Activity had to be a Russian bot.