Reddit's hive-mind is ultra-liberal.

It is worth noting that Russia's goal with its initial propaganda efforts was not necessarily to elect Trump, but instead to sow dissent against a likely Clinton presidency. This included a heavy pro-Trump campaign, but also a sizable pro-Sanders campaign. Therefore the extremist views you see on Reddit on both sides of the aisle have likely been spiked by Russian propaganda. I'm not saying Reddit doesn't lean liberal, just that the "ultra-liberal" side of the site that appeared during the 2016 primaries might not be completely genuine.

Ultra-liberal, in the USA meaning of 'liberal'.

Originally, the word referred to classical liberalism, which has freedom as its primary value.

Modern 'liberals' — the one's you're referring to — have values very different to the original liberals. They are, in fact, opposite in the current political landscape.

It's worth making the distinction to avoid confusion.

Downvotes without explanation are a pretty liberal use of the downvote button, either way.

which makes sense. It seems to have been built on libertarian principles and rejects authoritarian principles. not sure how much more liberal you can get.

You're mixing up liberal with libertarian.

I don't think I am. I think perhaps you have conflated liberal with progressive.

Libertarians are at least related to liberals, but it seems the words left, liberal, and libertarian are often confusing, and they're not very fine grained descriptions anyway.

In the US they are related to conservatives as well. Libertarians share very little with liberals when it comes to views on what the government should regulate.

The thing they have in common is social liberalism (allow gay marriage, individual drug use, etc).

So heres the problem I'm seeing here. Liberal is not the opposite of Conservative. Conservatism opposes Progressivism, Liberalism opposes Authoritarianism. For the most part people in the US are liberal, they believe in general equality and freedom. Progressives are also generally liberal but also tend to stir the pot and want change. It is also very possible to be conservative and liberal, which a large minority in the US are. I'd also argue there are a lot of authoritarian conservatives and authoritarian progressives. But I think most believe in the basic principles of freedom and equality that define liberals.

The way I see it, the authoritarians in the US hijacked the word liberal and want to conflate it with progressive, despite the derivation of the word itself. If one is a proponent of liberty, forcing people to do things/ not do things is authoritarian, and therefore, not liberal. I'm all for change, but I despise force (other than Gandhi's 'force of truth', Satyagraha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha).