/u/spez is right about feudalism and that’s why reddit as we know it is doomed

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, people have been making a lot of comparisons between internet institutions – particularly various social media things – and premodern political forms and figures.

These comparisons typically rely on the level of understanding of antiquity or of medieval life you’d expect to get from DKfindout! Castles. I am not a historian, but I know, like, just about enough to be embarrassed for the speakers.

So in this post, I want to talk a bit about how the relevant historical phenomena worked, a bit about why feudalism tends to be a pretty bad comparison to internet stuff, and a bit about why Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is – still! – maybe more correct than he knows when he compares moderators to landed gentry… in a way that suggests the end coming for Reddit as-we-know-it

Amazing article, well worth the reading time. The linked references are also fascinating as well.