I went back to Reddit this morning. Yeah I know, but I just wanted to check the place out after all the blackouts. As I was scrolling through my typical stuff I was down voting dumb things as is pure habit and it struck me.. after being here only 2 days and not having any down vote button, what was just a pure habit suddenly felt a little dirty.
Those people I just down voted didn't do anything wrong I just didn't agree with them. But by down voting them I'm basically doing one little part in actually silencing them. It felt bad. In fact all of Reddit felt bad.. like, it was just such a habit and I was ready to go back, but once I did it wasn't as good as I remembered it.
All it took was 2 days away using a different platform that gives me essentially the same stuff I want to read and this no down vote thing somehow has resonated with me more than I would have thought. I actually went back and removed the down votes. Those people have the right to feel how they do whether I agree or not. I don't need to silence and invalidate people over things that are so incredibly minor.
I've decided I will use Reddit only via Google search if it has the content I'm looking for, just like any other webpage, but I think Lemmy, and Beehaw specifically, are my new home. It no longer feels like "the alternative." It feels like a place I actually chose to be. I wrote in my application that I wanted less toxicity in my life and I think that's already happening. I'm really grateful to have discovered this place.
So many don't understand that the mods need those tools, and don't care about people who need the accessibility (although I suspect that argument is popular more for having the moral high ground).
Everyday users don't understand all the work that goes into certain things sometimes. Mods really have a thankless benevolent job sometimes. We should appreciate what they do more instead of just going back to Reddit with our blinders on.