It highly depends on the subreddits you subscribe to. The defaults and many big subreddits are a cesspool of vitriol, but some others have a great community.

Definitely agreed. Any particular favourites these days? Would love to find some current events or general interest type subs. /r/TrueReddit used to have some good discussion, but I find it similarly snarky and uncharitable these days.

AccidentalWesAnderson

dataisbeautiful

datasets

ImaginaryColorscapes

retrocomputing

What are you interested in?

I feel like the US has become a very hateful and bitter place. One could say there was an inflection point in that about five years ago, though it has been going on much longer.

I suspect that Reddit is reflecting that, rather than driving that. But it seems to happen to almost all sites eventually, unless they go to great lengths to avoid it.

I would say it started with the tea party protests. Everything about them was a protest looking for an excuse.

The Tea Party was hijacked by the Republicans, who attempted to galvanize American racial, xenophobic and anti-leftist fears against Obama in predictable race-baiting fashion. They failed to prevent a second term, but Trump's populism capitalized on the seeds of white rural discontent, reactionary fear and paranoia that they planted.

I think all of this is the result of the presence of a Black liberal (not even a leftist, mind you, but Stalin incarnate as far as the right was concerned) in the White House causing a cascade failure in American culture, and it's kind of beautiful to see.

I would put it 7 years ago, at least with media and aggressive narrative crafting against certain groups.