We're encountering several little phenomena here.

1. Many of the people who were passionate or concerned about this issue are here and elsewhere - but they're no longer on reddit. The anti-protesters are those who didn't understand, didn't care, and are just annoyed that their opium hit is suddenly asking them to give a shit. They're consumers, and in the absence of those who care, they've gotten bolder and a larger proportion of representation on the site. In the ~2 times I have checked in on Reddit, I've noticed a drop in comment quality.
2. This is a classic Conservative reaction. Not exactly the Donkey/Elephant kind, but that raw conservative instinct endemic to humanity. It's the fear that change is a zero-sum game, where is people move up, other's status degrade, or if it doesn't. that someone will create a new environment that they themselves are less familiar and adept at navigating. Some people are so insecure that they'll lash out at anyone as long as it makes them just sit still in their chairs, please. These people are fear-driven ghouls, it could have been anything and you'd get a similar reaction.

Reddit is full of contrarians. A lot of the smaller subreddits in particular likes to be contrarian to anything they saw as mainstream Reddit

Also, the people who are really pissed at Reddit probably have left so the remaining population has a larger proportion of people who don’t care or even support what Reddit does.

Finally, let’s be honest /r/piracy was dominated by casual pirates at best as shown by the posts and comments “what’s a seeder” “what’s Usenet” “OMG Rarbg down what do I do”. So they’re not hardcore pirates with a dedication to piracy/warez ethos just casuals looking for links and shit

I'm happy to be a mod bootlicker. I happily left Reddit when all this came about. I feel like too few of the subs I was in had good communities, so no big loss. Happy you folks jumped.

So much irony especially coming from a piracy sub. You'd think pirates would support decentralized communities. It's also just another example of reddit's complete inability to understand how protests work; they're supposed to be an inconvenience, that's literally the point.

Oh well, I'm kinda glad a lot of them are staying there, there's a noticable lack of toxicity here vs. reddit. I just hope the decent ones will make their way over.

Anyways, in the last few days I’ve noticed that for some reason, especially on the r/piracy sub (although other subs are of course no exception), that there has been a more positive sentiment towards spez (the CEO of Reddit) and a very negative one against the mods and the protest.

I could swear this is the bot campaign run by Reddit.

Honestly mate. Ignore reddit. Its full of drama and crap now. Stop going back to look at it, all you are doing is adding fuel to the fire of drama.

Anyways, in the last few days I’ve noticed that for some reason, especially on the r/piracy sub (although other subs are of course no exception), that there has been a more positive sentiment towards spez (the CEO of Reddit) and a very negative one against the mods and the protest.

Do we even know if these are actual real humans (aka: not reddit bots, admins, or shills)?

We know 100% that spez made hundreds of bots in 2012 to fake "busy-ness", and that was when reddit was started.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/reddit-founders-made-hundreds-of-fake-profiles-so-site-looked-popular/

r/piracy users out of all? Wow, I can't even believe that, as piracy to me is the epitome of freedom, which Reddit itself certainly isn't.

"Mod Bootlickers", huh? I'd call them "Spez Bootlickers" in return. Wth.

Your probably seeing more anti-protest sentiment there because pro-protesters are not on the site now to defend themselves, were all on lemmy/kbin or taking a break from social media.

For hire private 50 cent party. Typical PR move, beyond just Reddit. A statement like

You’re shilling for a different company lmfao…pot calling the kettle black…

is probably written by someone who doesn't know or care about the details of what's been happening. Which means they're probably either using a script, or making assumptions to just do their job. The fact that decentralised communication is a far cry from corporations is completely missed because they probably just don't know.

Huh. This is kinda weird... but I think I'm done protesting Reddit. It's not that I approve of any changes, but rather... I'm happy here on Lemmy? Protesting would kind of imply that I want to go back to Reddit and I think I might be good here...

As more of us move to Lemmy, the less push back you'll see on Reddit cuz we're all over here. I guess that's expected.

I find it hilarious that the link to reddit in the sidebar is tagged "Bootlicker Bay" -- genius :)

There's something extremely pathetic about complaining about a problem that only concerns you, but wanting to pull everyone along

The literal definition of a protest. A protest that isn't disruptive to others is just a parade.

i mean, i'm pretty sure the majority of people who are still on reddit are the ones who don't care about the protests. So this doesn't surprise me.

Well, you're here so to hell with Reddit. There's so much garbage there you have to filter, so many shitposts. Totally different environment here so welcome and enjoy.

But yeah you'd think the piracy sub would be in more in support of the mods and devs, but I don't know, they're probably just being selfish about the protest. Anyway, doesn't matter. I think it's been a week or two since I've logged into Reddit and I'm never going back.

BTW I see you're on Kbin, how do you think that compares to Lemmy.

I haven't been commenting in /r/piracy or reddit for that matter anymore, so if there are large numbers who have taken that attitude it is expected that the voices you'd expect to hear would change as active user demographic changes.

They can do whatever they want. I expect to see the quality of the subreddit go down very quickly as the people that made r/piracy worth visiting and ensured the quality have either left or being called mod bootlickers have all either left or will leave. So it's gonna be fun to watch.

People usually don't care about distant fires, till it is too late, and that fire has slowly crept its way to their backyards. Our ignorance and apathy towards communion ship given the fact we are supposed to be social creatures is ironic to say the least. I have made my peace with the fact that most people are selfish and will not budge until something inconveniences them directly and so it is important to be independent and to have the courage to stand alone for your cause. Along the way if you meet likeminded people then consider yourself lucky and cherish them.

I'm confused too, but my interpretation so far is that some people are choosing piracy because they want to get a fast and easy access to the things they're looking for, and that the protest is making things harder so they are just mad because it's not easy anymore

Most of those are bots, some of them are just casual users who dgaf.

It's a small minority if you see the upvote/downvote count on comments

Just make positive comments encouraging the move to Lemmy/kbin and it'll be fine.

I've been explaining what's going on in the comments for the confused people and they've mostly been in support.

I am with you! Reddit fans are pathetic.

They don't understand they are giving away their data so a selected few can profit from it.

Sounds like a civil war is about to within many subreddits

Fuck Reddit (the company and the website). Spez can suck it. The echo chamber mods can also suck it.