William Shatner Throws Shade At Reddit, Wishes They Didn't Turn Awful Because 'Anything Goes'

William Shatner is just one of a few celebs who did a Reddit ‘AMA’ (Ask Me Anything) and decided to stick around.
What he found, though, he didn’t particularly like. He stays to try and change it.
When he says he’s disappointed in the kind of community they have, he’s talking about the willingness to look past racist, homophobic, and sexist content that’s there… just because it can be. Mainly, he’s asking why anyone would, just because that option is open.
Here’s what he thinks:

“[I’m] appalled by some of the immature, horrifically racist, sexist, homophobic, ethnic, etc… posts that are just ignored here. The fact that someone could come here, debase and degrade people based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference because ‘they have a right’ to do so without worry of any kind of moderation is sending the wrong message.”

While it’s a fundamental right, the right to free speech, we just don’t understand why anyone would willfully be awful for the sake of being awful, and how an entire community can just stand by and watch it happen! Free speech helps when it’s used for good!
William has been vocal about his problems with the community, too, which led to someone telling him to become President because he apparently knows everything (Dripping with sarcasm, clever!! LOLz!), to which William replied:

“First of all, I’m Canadian. Second of all Reddit is worldwide. So ‘First Amendment’ means nothing online. Reddit has been the first ‘mainstream’ site that I have been to that actually appears to allow racists and other hate mongers to group, congregate, incite and spread their hatred.”

This is usually when the community points towards the system of voting they have in place, which allows users to highlight or suppress the content they like or dislike. To this, William replied:

“You obviously agree with me that there are ‘shameful comments’ on Reddit that users can downvote and hide, but they are still here at the end of the day as are the accounts that make them. Do you believe that the folks who don these cyber masks to post hatred will stop making them because they get downvoted?”

As far as the anything goes mentality over at Reddit, there ARE a few rules — no spam, no personal information, no cheating the system, and no suggestive or sexual content featuring minors. Which leads William to ask this:

“All I am asking is why there are rules if they are not enforced. If censoring or disabling accounts is not an outcome of breaking the rules, then what exactly is? I do not pretend to know where the managers of Reddit wish to go with this site, but embracing that kind of culture I feel is counterproductive to where this world is heading.”

It’s hard to argue with the man!!
We just don’t know why people have to abuse open rules by being mean and hateful — can’t we acknowledge that we COULD be those things, but be proud of the fact that we aren’t??
[Image via WENN.]