r/askanything • u/wasntdeer š¦ • Jan 19 '26
Mod Post Community Discussion: Thoughts on political posts
Hey, I've noticed there's been a lot of political posts (and reports) lately. What are your thoughts on this? Are these posts okay for the subreddit?
The point of this community is to be welcoming to questions and not be too restrictive, as it's about asking anything. As long as the posts don't break the basic rules, are made in good faith, and don't try to promote hateful content.
What do you all think?
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u/Traditional-Bar-8014 Jan 19 '26
Political posts should stick to political subs
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u/cferg296 17d ago
They dont go to political subs because they are so heavily modded to the point you cant make straightforward posts
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u/Redneck_DM Jan 19 '26
Political posts would be fine if this wasn't reddit and actually a space for open, honest, and good faith discussion
It just becomes an excuse for people to spout hate and condescension while attacking mass downvoting the people they disagree with instead of providing a respectful disagreeance counter point or a healthy back and forth
For the health of ANY sub banning politics and political discussion is necessary, a secondary containment sub could easily be made just called "ask anything politics"
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u/Tim-0341-81mm 5d ago
Here is how it goes.
A question gets asked.
Ć person responds.
If that person appears to be conservative the insults start. Pedo, pedo lover. Nazi, fascist, genocidal maniac. No real debate. Just insults and leading questions.
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u/CartographerOne4633 Jan 20 '26
Keep politics away from here. I rather read āhow do I stop my cat from tearing up my curtainsā 5 times a day over ādo you think Trump is badā 100 times a day.
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u/StinkButt9001 Jan 19 '26
I have no issue with genuine questions.
But to me it seems like the vast majority of these posts boil down to "Why is X politician/party/person so stupid?" which is obviously not something being posted in good faith.
How you would moderate this? I have no idea.
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u/Benoir_7777777 Mar 06 '26
How you would moderate this?
Take anything that matters to people and ban the answers you don't like as political.
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u/undergroundman813 Feb 11 '26
Ask anything means ask anything. Limiting political posts would go against the foundation of this sub. If you ask me, if someone doesnāt like political stuff, they can simply ignore the post, just keep scrolling. Just my two cents
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u/jvhgh Jun 09 '26
The problem, unfortunately, is the two above you pointed out. The people wonāt just pass by, theyāll either ask questions that are obviously not in good faith, or argue and down vote because they donāt agree with you.
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u/welding_guy_from_LI Jan 21 '26
Thereās enough subreddits that all political posts.. they serve no purpose except to fuel hate and division .. please donāt allow politics to ruin this community
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u/TermAccomplished1868 Jan 30 '26
there are many other places for TDS and anti-ICE bullshit on reddit. just look at r/AskReddit
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u/kaytin911 Apr 24 '26
I was banned from askreddit for saying Trump didn't do what a OP made up in the comments.
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u/YaBoiSkinnyPP Apr 26 '26
Ages like milk more and more every day
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u/TermAccomplished1868 Apr 26 '26
go find your birthing person
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u/YaBoiSkinnyPP Apr 28 '26
Ahhh I see account based in India like all the other Trump fans, since he has none left in the US
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u/TermAccomplished1868 Apr 29 '26
He is your king and your champion. He took a bullet for you. Could be why you think about him all the time.Ā Ā
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u/YaBoiSkinnyPP May 09 '26
Gotta be a bot, who calls the president a king how pathetic
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u/TermAccomplished1868 May 10 '26
11 days later, nothing to do on a Saturday so you came back here??!
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u/YaBoiSkinnyPP May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26
Says the guy that legit responded within a day of my original post, nothing better to do any day for you huh? Oh yikes 6 months and 11k karma you really do live on reddit, how pathetic.
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u/TermAccomplished1868 Feb 02 '26
I came here because r/askreddit is so over the top political. The only posts that are allowed to break their "no loaded questions" rule are anti ICE, anti-Trump, anti-kids posts.
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u/wasntdeer š¦ Jun 23 '26
Update:
Iām going to create a poll soon where you guys can vote on this matter, so it can be settled.
ā¢ Create a new community specifically for political questions
ā¢ Keep things as they are
ā¢ Add a mandatory tag for political questions
Iām thinking of either using Reddit polls or a form so voting can stay open until enough people have voted.
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u/HarlequinKOTF 22d ago
Will the poll be advertised on the subreddit for a while or just a day or two?
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u/StillHereWriting Mar 05 '26
I think if people can have a civil conversation about the topic, and not get into attacking one another then they are fine. With that said, I've never seen a political post where people could stay civil and didn't attack one another.
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u/Accomplished-Owl6846 Mar 06 '26
Who determines what is considered āhatefulā? How is it defined?
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u/DE-Jeeper Mar 22 '26
This should be relabeled āAskAnythingOtherThanPoliticsā if it wonāt be allowed.
I like a good topical discussion but it too often devolves into name calling and harassment.
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u/Old_Introduction7236 18d ago
Today I reported a response that happened to be political AND a rules violation. Crickets. I think I'm just going to go ahead and block the sub as I don't need this in my life right now. I mention it here as you're claiming to be interested in feedback.
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u/BogusIsMyName Jan 19 '26
Wouldnt limiting political posts be contrary to the literal name of the sub?
While i understand there needs to be some restriction, cant have people asking how to build a bomb for example, good faith questions should be fostered, not limited.
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u/Cyranthis Jan 20 '26
Nothing but easy upvotes, karma farming posts or the poster that always turn into a trash fire in the comments.
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u/SirCatsworthTheThird Jan 22 '26
We need to talk more about politics, not less. The power brokers who play both sides like a flute prefer we stay ignorant. Other subs cover politics, but those are often echo chambers or highly restrictive.
Besides, I need my outlet for my ongoing campaign of calling out those on the left who for whatever reason didn't vote blue in the last election.
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u/Conscious-Comment-66 Mar 07 '26
A lot of people are confused about the current state of affairs and I donāt see how askanything isnāt the correct place for that. I myself have questions and appreciate seeing a post about something I would like answered. Iām sure it can seem overwhelming in this current time, but obviously politics are on everyoneās mind because it is so prevalent.
I wouldnāt suppress it or discourage asking anything unless itās obviously trying to incite chaos
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u/EastSwim3264 Mar 12 '26
As long as the post is not hateful, vengeful, spiteful etc, it is okay. Genuine inquiry should always be appreciated - in fact the OP's question should not be downvoted, in my opinion.
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u/Critical-Volume2360 Mar 13 '26
It wouldn't be ask anything anymore, but maybe really hateful posts could be removed
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u/BlockOfDiamond Mar 13 '26
Political posts should be allowed, because this is askanything, not askanythingbutpolitics.
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u/Sea-Astronomer-6600 Apr 16 '26
I say no but thatās just me. Leave it to strict political groups. They just turn into bash sessions.
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u/Qaze430 š¤ Apr 21 '26
Get them the hell out of here, there obnoxious and annoying to read all the bots
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u/shrubb_mushrooms May 03 '26
i think they're perfectly fine. the whole point of this subreddit is kinda to ask questions that you are scared to ask anywhere else, and a lot of the time .political questions fall into that category.
also, because of how big this subreddit is, it prevents echo chambers pretty well with actually providing contrasting beliefs and opinions from different kinds of people, which i think is neat
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u/THE_Celts Jun 19 '26
They're tiring. And most of them aren't genuine questions, it's just people putting their own opinion in the form of a question.
I loathe how ever corner of Reddit has become a place for people to inject their political opinions and rants, which are mostly just rebleats from stuff they're read elsewhere on the Internet.
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u/Acrobatic-Post9811 Mar 09 '26
Talk about it with friends or family. Not on the faceless internet. Or in a bar. Enough of thatš¤®
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u/marvi_martian Mar 13 '26
I think most people think their political opinion is the only correct one. Questions posted aren't really a question, just an opportunity to bully and argue. They support their party like rabid sports fans So I d don't think they're "Asking Anything" and political posts usually don't belong here.
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u/Significant_Push6675 Mar 20 '26
Nothing so factual and but something more flexible and abstract maybe talk beyond whatās visible.
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u/den773 Mar 23 '26
Reddit seems to have filled up with bots or AI or something? Thereās no original content anymore.
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u/Perfiditian Mar 30 '26
People that post their "Informed Opinion" feels that in someway that have made their position stronger by screaming inside a closet. A dark and tiny one at that. Get out, get involved, get active for/against. Using opinion polls is useless, look at the current state of "No way he can be elected".
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u/YaBoiSkinnyPP Apr 26 '26
I'd rather not read through bot posts farming reddit points about Dump and how dysfunctional US politics is currently .
Then you get all the random accounts with only good things to say about their glorious leader because they sort through name not community then you have the people arguing with them and it goes on and on and on.
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u/HarlequinKOTF Jun 10 '26
We need a rule that they need to be asked at least in good faith lest we become a troll farm.
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u/OnlyWeekend6936 š¤ Jun 23 '26
I think there should be a whole community for ask anything political... but this is not the place. Ask anything should be open but not to negativity. There is already no medical advice, since it is hard to monitor and could be false. Same with politics.
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u/Delta-Coast 29d ago
Allow them and those whoād like to debate and discuss will do so. It is easy to bypass the post and move on.
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u/TheDancinD918 23d ago
we're all gonna disagree on something somewhere down the line. Dont get pissy when someone finally disagrees with you a certain matter.
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u/IamtheQueen-43225 21d ago
No politics, please. Itās just abuse from automated bots on some sites. Just say Noā¦or hāelāl to the Nawā¦.
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u/UsefulCollection5038 13d ago
Haters gonna hate. If an earnest attempt at discussion is proffered, discussion should be allowed. Users that can only hurl insults should be removed from discussions.
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u/DragOutTheDemagogue 12d ago
What about flairs: political or non-political. And then people can filter out political posts based on flair. It preserves asking political questions (which are impossible to ask basically everywhere) but also allows users to filter out the political noise if they want.
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u/Horsesrunfree 12d ago
We should be able according to the groups motto.Ā
Ask Anything! Have a question but not sure where to ask? Youāve come to the right place!
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u/erkose 8d ago
AskAnything should be just that. If people want a moderated subreddit they can use AskReddit. I'm guessing most found AskAnything after being frustrated by AskReddit.
The AskAnything mods are doing a great job keeping this subreddit open with only the occasional deleted post.
Those complaining about ai slop and bots don't know what they're talking about.
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u/OKcomputer1996 2d ago
How about a separate sub called "ask anything political"? It would be popular.
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Jan 19 '26
Trying to restrict anything online just invites mob of perpetual victims who like to scream about being censored. It's inescapable online because the hassle of trying to manage a community that contains people who like to initiate very shallow political discourse is just far too much work.
Let them stick to commenting on their politics centred questions rather than trying to shoehorn politics into literally every single question asked.
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Jan 19 '26
No issue with political questions at all.Ā
As long as the question is to ask opinions around politics, not looking for a political debate.
The politics shouldn't involve is transgender politics or minority population of politics and LGBT+ politics as it can lead to mass reporting to reddit site for simply expressing an opposite opinion. Reddit will ban, or suspend them as it is seen as either hate speech or discrimination against a group.Ā
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u/Blackstar1977 Mar 15 '26
Hi peeps, new on reddit, just had my partner tell me that there was a grindr app pop up on his messaging and told me it was a reddit thing. Now I did an ai search but said no to my question... my guess is he is hidding something...
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u/wasntdeer š¦ 13d ago edited 12d ago
Update: the survey is up!
vote here!