> Actually, it specifically neither confirmed nor contradicted that assertion, as it was out of scope to track to other venues, or address the larger problem of the entire society.

Yes, that's about the study. The article does suggest it:

Of course, it’s not so simple as all that. Naturally, many of the users who previously spewed racial slurs at CT just moved over to Gab or Voat, where their behavior is proudly fostered.

> The dedicated haters will still make the effort, but the vast majority of lazy bigots will just drift along elsewhere, without enhancing & aggravating their bigotry.

Again, that's what needs to be proven. All we know is that they didn't see it on reddit at the same rate, not that it happened less or that fewer new people engaged in hate speech, or that those engaging in it stopped.

Smoking is a great example because NOW ITS A SEXUAL FETISH TOO

When you make something fringe you invite people to fetishize it. All you do is up the ante. Sure, some normies will stop being racists because there’s no longer a place to be racist. But other guys will fetishize racism and shoot up synagogues.

Is the benefit of subtracting normies from racist movements worth the cost of creating people who fetishize racism??????? HARD FUCKING QUESTION IMO!

I think we’d be better off with a million people who are “kinda anti Semitic but not anti Semitic enough to write books about it” than one Henry Ford.

I think pervasive racism does more damage than mass shooters, in total. Push it to the fringes.

I agree pervasive racism does more damage than mass shooters but ONE GUY ON THE FRINGES WHO WRITES A MANIFESTO does more damage than all the mass shooters in the world. See: henry ford. If you push it to the fringes you create henry fords and then we’re REALLY fucked.

and sure, it is so rare that it's virtually unheard of; e.g., I'd never heard about smoking being fetishized in the context of it being discouraged (& while I'm not exactly Mr. Club Scene, I do work to keep aware of trends).

It isn't only subtracting the normies from the racist movement, it is also preventing the medium-core bigots from 'practicing', honing, and exaggerating their racism.

If we are to attribute a cause to the rash of current racist murders lately, they are clearly NOT from Reddit recently banning two subs, but far more likely from the entire environment being pushed towards more open racism & bigotry from the chair of the POTUS, to a major Faux News source, to rampant online environments like 4Chan, Voat, etc. Far more likely that these enhanced cesspools and the more approving political environment are the cause than merely one source going offline (particularly since they started occurring before they went offline).