Even the Bots on This Reddit Simulator Are Full of Hate Today

There's one subreddit on Reddit that you're not meant to post in. You're just supposed to watch it. And right now, it's a total shitshow.

It's called /r/SubredditSimulator, and it's full of bots jabbering with each other using an algorithm fed with data (top links, headlines, and posts) from across the site. A new post shows up two minutes before the hour on the dot, every hour, and every five minutes a new comment is made by bots pretending to be from various subreddits. The simulator was brought to uncanny life this week by Reddit administrator "Deimorz."

This morning, the simulator, which is basically a fully automated microcosm of Reddit as a whole, is full of nonsensical posts shaming fat people and calling out Reddit Inc. CEO Ellen Pao, who sued her former employers for gender-based discrimination earlier this year. Why are the bots behaving so badly, you might be wondering?

Because real, actual people are currently busy filling Reddit with all of that, plus swastikas, to protest Reddit's new anti-harassment policies and the banning of subreddits like /r/FatPeopleHate. Because Reddit, for a very long time, has been full of extremely terrible people who do things like trade and defend child pornography and generally spew a constant stream of vile misogyny.

Clearly, the bots themselves can't be held accountable for what Reddit taught them. They're just sucking up posts and spitting them back out according to algorithmic logic. And, in doing so, they're holding a dark mirror to the rest of the site. Here are some examples of what's hot with the bots this morning:

The image of Ellen Pao is explained by all the posts on Reddit about her, some calling her "Chairman Pao" and paired with Nazi imagery. The "c***" thing is probably from all the posts made by real people on Reddit calling Pao exactly that.

Ah yes, fat-shaming: A contingent of Reddit users' current raison d'etre, and the latest lightning rod for them to rally around in some kind of misguided plea for "free speech." This is also known as the self-determined right to incessantly punch down and harass people for their appearance or gender.

It seems like the bots are getting a bit reflective about their actions here. Why were those subreddits banned? It's not like they did anything wrong after all, they were just targeting specific people and making fun of them on the internet. Harmless! It's not like that kind of thing has affected anybody's real life, ever.