Reddit would be a better place without them. So often, I've clicked on a post in places like /r/libertarian, read a comment that smelled like (racial) bullshit, and then saw that the user was a /r/coontown poster in their comment history. These are the type of people that drove me away from Reddit, not "SJWs."

Reddit's appeasing their (extremely) vocal minority (heh) at the cost of the values of most of the people on the site. A lot of the reactionaries believe the problem is free speech - and they're right. However, the problem isn't the restriction of that right, but rather the protection of it.

/r/Coontown, the capital of the chimpire, has 18k subsribers, which is a drop of water in the ocean of the 8 million people that browse the largest sub, /r/AskReddit. The strange thing is, they, along with people of other like-minded subreddits, are the ones that are in the driver's seat of the trainwreck that is the new content policies. Suffice to say, most of Reddit's normal users aren't white-supremacists, but the white power knights still hold power over what's allowed to be on the site. Sometimes, appeasing a minority group is a good thing - but only if the change that they are appealing either benefits or doesn't affect the rest of the community. For example, if you run a game studio and a small portion of your customers are upset, because your game won't play on their PC, then it would be best to take some resources to get that issue fixed. However, in the case of Reddit's content policy, the changes that they want to make are going to harm the community at large.

Free speech is good - that's why it's the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. However, unchecked free speech isn't great. A person should not be prosecuted for having or expressing an opinion - but that doesn't mean everyone should be forced condone it if it's repulsive. If I want to print pictures of women being beaten to death, then that's my right. However, if I want to put the same picture on a billboard, that doesn't mean the billboard company should be forced to meet my demands. It's my right to express my opinion, but other people are not obligated to help me spread it. The people /r/Coontown should be able to hate women. The people of /r/theredpill should be allowed to hate women. However, Reddit has no legal or moral commitment to let them organize and promote their hatred on its site. Just like the fact that they can't force a cable network to put hentai on their channel, they can't force Reddit to host the content they like; and in both cases, they have a reason in their refusal.

All but a few exclusive cable channels don't broadcast pornography, or anything that could be construed as sexual content. Technically, they're allowed to after 10pm, but they still don't. Why? First off, advertisers. Toyota, and other respectable companies, wouldn't appreciate being promoted along side some girl getting tied up and railed on a bed. As soon as someone pushes in, companies start pulling out. Then, there's the drop in ratings. It may seem weird, but there's a lot of people that don't want to watch porn. On top of that, there's many kids out there whose parent's hold the keys to the cable kingdom. When a naked person shows up on that screen, a lot of people are going to hit channel up and an lot of parents are going to go "Well, looks like Jimmy isn't allowed to go on that channel."

Reddit has the same motives. If they let the racist subs gain traction, their posts will start hitting the front page. When companies start noticing this trend, they'll see Reddit as promoting racism and will begin cancelling their ad campaigns on Reddit. For Reddit, that's a direct loss of revenue. At the same time, if there's more people joining racially centered subreddits, they'll also start leaking into the rest of the site. Look at /r/news, /r/europe, /r/videos, or /r/worldnews. Anytime someone that isn't white is mentioned, the chimpire starts sending missionaries to start converting people. To a small few, they'll be convinced and /r/Coontown will be one step closer to a Culture Victory.

However, for many, seeing blatantly racist comments at the top of the page is just a major turn off. Many will just look away, but the ones that have for awhile will stop looking completely. They'll start seeing Reddit as not the "front page of the internet", but rather "the front page of the world white web." They'll migrate to other sites, like many people here have. They'll stop going to Reddit, which in the short term, will only reduce growth, but over time will stagnate and shrink the population. The racists will shout over the rest and the rest will leave. New comers will only see racists shouting and will never get passed the front page. Less people will recommend Reddit to friends and strangers, and the site will slowly die.

Reddit's been changing over the past couple years, and this summer the changes have been in overdrive. The admins' lack of spine got them to the point where any action in regards to content is going to hurt them. Removing racist content is going to cause a mess, and keeping racist content and letting it grow is going to cause people to leave. Removal will bring good press to the admins, but will ultimately put the site in a bad light when everyone loses their mind. Keeping the content is going to give the admins bad press, and will eventually kill the site. In the end, there's one obvious solution.

The reason that decision so rough is the same reason spoiled kids will always get what they want: if someone puts their foot down, they have a tantrum. From the way things have transpired today, it looks like the brat's going to get what it wants.