the_dunk_tank
It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.
Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.
Rule 3: No sectarianism.
Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome
Rule 5: No ableism of any kind (that includes stuff like libt*rd)
Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.
Rule 7: Do not individually target other instances' admins or moderators.
Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this. Posts that do not meet this requirement can be posted to !shitreactionariessay@lemmygrad.ml
Rule 9: if you post ironic rage bait im going to make a personal visit to your house to make sure you never make this mistake again
view the rest of the comments
A few comments down threw some sense into the mix saying it sounds like astroturfing is at least playing some role, and someone linked a very interesting web archive link: Reddit admins accidentally reveal "Eglin Air Force base as the most "Reddit addicted city", from 2013. (and here's a link to the web archive page if the original reddit post goes missing)
I found this paper that a Redditor said was funded by Eglin which shows how to influence conversations online and control majority opinion, but keep in mind I haven't read the paper nor looked any deeper into the authors so take it with a grain of salt, unless you wanna look further.
Edit: apparently the official explanation is that Eglin is where military VPN traffic goes through, so everyone browsing Reddit on military networks does through Eglin. Kinda sus but seems reasonable imo
having all vpn traffic go through the same military base seems like it would be a major vulnerability