This is a bit of a vent, I’m sorry in advance. I’m still a little bit triggered honestly. If this type of post doesn’t fit for this community I apologize, I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this.
Reddit has been pushing me away over the past year, mostly because of how antagonistic people are becoming.
The straw that broke the camels back for me was encountering a user with the “r” word in their username, being used in a derogatory way. I am autistic, and that triggers me based on my past experiences. It’s a slur against autistic or ND people, and it violates the reddit content policy that states “Users that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.”
So it turns out on Reddit there is no way to report someone for using slurs in their username. I tried all the other avenues for reporting and nothing worked. I tried to contacting a handful of admins but was ignored over several weeks.
This was all very frustrating for me and I thought I would post about it on the autism subreddit, but I was met with rude responses that boiled down to “Get over it.” or “Shut up.” I posted on a few other autism related subs and was met with similarily harsh responses. Some of the subreddits actually deleted my post.
I honestly didn’t expect that kind of response from other people on the spectrum, and its at this point I realize reddit is unhealthy, regardless of the subreddit.
I have deleted my account and wont look back. I am thankful that a place like beehaw exists, its a shame more spaces online don’t try to cultivate a friendly userbase.
I’m sorry to hear you experienced that. I speak out when I see the R word in use like that. Most of the time I get laughed at, sneered at, downvoted, even kicked out of a gaming guild once. Many NT folks don’t understand the harm that using a word like that does. I imagine, just like women who go to bat for patriarchy, there are ND folks who haven’t figured it out, either. In any case, you’re not alone. I’m glad you called it out, even if you were unable to get the name banned or changed. The act of speaking up still matters.
Thank you and I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all that. It’s wild, I get a lot of pushback online when I call it out but in real life most people seem to understand. But I guess that’s just the way the internet works.
Thank you for your perspective on speaking out. I hadn’t thought about it like that, I appreciate it.
