That's interesting. Can you elaborate on what this "anti-obesity" forum was like? How was it different from a hate group?

Well, it was named "fatpeoplehate", which is a tiny little bit of a giveaway. Funny the original poster forgot to mention that detail, I wonder why.

Maybe they meant a different anti-obesity forum.

No other one matches the details given. Also, OP pretty much confirmed it.

Well, /r/fatpeoplehate was definitely a hate group. I wonder why they would go around claiming it wasn't.

Nobody ever thinks they are in a hate group.

I’d bet you and I both would agree that we don’t like people who recklessly put themselves in a situation where they are at extreme risk to catch or spread COVID. If we were to have a forum that criticized people who won’t vaccinate, won’t distance, won’t wear protective masks, and promote unproven treatments would that be a “hate group?”

Yes. I visited /r/hermancainaward the other day becsuse I wanted to check it out, and I was stunned at how hateful the comments were against people who, sadly, had opinions that lead to their death.

I was sad that people could be so misinformed/misled, but the subreddit seemed genuinely happy that these people died. That sounds very much like a hate group to me, and I'd like to see it as banned as fatpeoplehate (which has hate in the damn name) was.

It's not about the subject of the criticism, it's how you go about it. These subreddit are toxic hate-pools, they aren't a force for good. They're reveling in the misfortune of others instead of trying to somehow help, and that's what makes them hate groups, not whether or not being fat or an antivaxxer is bad.

> I was stunned at how hateful the comments were against people who, sadly, had opinions that lead to their death.

And yet Reddit management is ok with it.

Reddit management is fine with literally anything as long as it does not give them bad press.

For now.

>instead of trying to somehow help

The most popular winners of the hermancainaward that you're lamenting the loss of are the kinds of people who would aggressively decline such help, and probably shout at you for offering it.

You may call me a bad person, but I was quietly hoping that Trump died from the pandemic he exacerbated and Bezos' rocket exploded in a blaze of justice. Those people wouldn't shed a tear for you or your family, why would you for them?

There's way too many people on this planet as it is, a couple less loud selfish drains on society wouldn't be too unfortunate.

But that's not justice. It's just... hate.

I couldn't think of the best word to use. Actually poetic justice is what I was looking for.

Karma's probably pretty close to what I mean - for all the workers peeing in bottles toiling in his salt mines, and everybody's cumulative suffering because of the taxes he never paid.

Just because he's been involved in corrupting the system so much that those taxes aren't even demanded doesn't mean he gets out of a karmic obligation to all the people who's work he's built his incredibly narcissistic and tone-deaf space joyride empire on.

Imagine you're in a small tribe on a desert island with limited resources.

Do you think Mr hog-absolutely-everything-so-I-can-joyride-a-giant-dick-that-others-designed-for-me-into-what-can-only-just-be-technically-called-space-so-I-can-now-cringeworthily-call-myself-an-astronaut-without-having-any-actual-skills would be popular in the tribe, or not?

Well, we're all part of a larger tribe on a slightly bigger island with limited resources, and I have some ideas on who I wouldn't mind being seen thrown into the volcano.

And all the more satisfying if there's the added poetic justice of them falling into the volcano themselves because of their own incredibly loud stupidity. So call me a hater if you like.

> So call me a hater if you like.

I'd probably call it tribalism? 20th century had quite a lot of poorer people killing richer people in the name of same.

Yes, I'm in the 99.999999% population tribe.

The billionaires are clearly a hostile, rival tribe stealing our resources.

No, tribalistic thinking should go the way of the dodo. There's no "us".

There are just people, who can be convinced to do unspeakable things by media over a long period gradually activating their vestigial tribalism.

You see proved my point.

One man's hate group is another man's valuable discussion forum. Mocking people who won't take precautions against COVID is perfectly OK! Mocking people who won't take precautions against eating too much food is "hate."

FPH actively went after individuals who could be easily identified. And they weren't content to keep their opinions in their own sub. Instead they would pop up regularly in completely unrelated discussions. They also had a culture of harassment.

They made themselves rather unpopular. If they had stuck to their own sub, made an effort to hide the identities of their targets, and mostly just said: "boy, I really hate fat people. So disgusting", then they'd probably still be around today.

Those are some key differences between FPH and HCA. Not to mention HCA is a response to the ongoing pandemic. While fatness isn't contagious. The obese are only hurting themselves.

Obesity isn't contagious so these things aren't remotely comparable.

It was just a hate group, stop digging man.

> It was just a hate group, stop digging man

I like your ironic username.