this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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[–] Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt 66 points 1 year ago (11 children)

"Huffman said in an interview that he plans to institute rules changes that would allow Reddit users to vote out moderators who have overseen the protest, comparing them to a “landed gentry.”"

I had to google Landed Gentry, it still don't make sense; "The landed gentry, or the gentry, is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate." That's a weird way to describe an unpaid moderator. Either way, there's no reddit to return to if they're going scorched earth on the moderators anyways. This is home now.

[–] bspar 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I saw somewhere that the analogy was supposed to be "whoever got there first owned the land." The idea I guess is that the landed gentry settled down on the land (subreddits) first, and now the subreddit is a dictatorship because the users could never vote on who their "landlords" are.

Yes, that analogy is also terrible, and it also goes to show that spez has no idea why people hate landlords.

Edit: everyone that's replied to me has provided more reasons why it's a stupid analogy, and that makes me happy :)

[–] TechyDad 10 points 1 year ago

But that analogy would make Spez the king who rules over all the lands of Reddit-tania, doling favors out to people who support him and punishment out to those who oppose him no matter what the people of Reddit-tania want.

Wait, maybe the analogy has some merit to it after all.

[–] Umbrias 9 points 1 year ago

It's also just not how landed gentry work, strictly speaking. So it's a terrible analogy on multiple fronts.

[–] fuser@quex.cc 6 points 1 year ago

in practically all cases, the "landed gentry" were not there first - they mostly obtained title to their estates via political manipulation and legal skullduggery or, if they could get away with it, outright slaughter of the previous occupants.

[–] Plus_a_Grain_of_Salt 5 points 1 year ago

Thank you, your explanation made some sense of this metaphor. I'm not familiar with this period of British history, so this metaphor shot right over me. Either way, I'm interested to see how the voting goes.

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