Reddit is a popular social commentary website that houses the largest hive mind (collective conscience) on the internet.
The said hive-mind often loves to find the tiniest bits of "hidden meanings" in
people's opinions and use it against them, regardless whether those implications were intentional or not. It is essentially an act of guessing what the
opinion giver failed to admit (as if they had any) and calling them out on it.
Most of the
time, the hive-mind's guessing game turns out to be plain wrong and the opinion giver is left in a state of astonishment and resentment, as they obviously didn't mean to imply
whatever the hive-mind claims they were implying.
This often results in the
OP (original poster) to give a grudged reply to the Redditor, clarifying that this is not what they meant to say. If such a reply is disdainful enough, it will warrant more Redditors to come in and defend the hive-mind with more ridiculous accusations (e.g. "you're just trying to cover up that...", "you're failing to see...", etc.). And the hive-mind will do this until the
OP gives up from all the downvotes.
While such an interrogative 'tactic' is useful in places such as academic critiquing and obviously
police interrogation, on a social commentary website, it is practically
useless and quite frankly infuriating. It is doing nothing but gaslighting the opinion giver.
Example of the
Reddit hive-mind in action #
1:
OP: Can weed make you as intoxicated as alcohol?
Redditor 1: No, and why do you ask? Please don't tell me you're going to use weed as a date rape drug...
OP: Ummm... what? No, why would you even assume that that was my intention?
Redditor 2: Because the way you phrased it seemed like you were asking to use it on somebody.
OP: *feeling astonished* I-I literally was never even aware of the way I phrased it.....
Redditor 3: Well now you're aware.
OP: .....I'm sorry? What did I even do wrong?? I was literally just curious, jeez
people.
Example of the
Reddit hive-mind in action #2:
OP: I think that every topic can be joked about, within reason.
Redditor 1: Soooo basically you don't think every topic can be joked about....
OP: What.... well I mean yeah I guess if you put it that way, but that wasn't really my point. Obviously some jokes can't be taken to the extreme.
Redditor 2: But that means you're implying that
people can't freely express what they might think is funny. You have no right to control someone else's thoughts or humor.
OP: You know what? Just shut the fuck up. I'm sick and tired of the
Reddit hive-mind.
