I’ve felt it too. I can’t fight the feeling that it happens to attract a certain kind of mentally ill person. Specifically, the preponderance of anxious, neurotic persons, often with a persecution complex and a militant ideology, is enormous. The result is a climate of unbridled vitriol and outright hate for whatever group they hold responsible for their woes.
It increasingly feels like Reddit is a breeding ground for various types of extremism (usually left-leaning, with some notable exceptions).
People who seem to want to be offended. I hate the /s they've adopted. It ruins the joke by explaining it. I dislike the implication sarcasm cannot be conveyed via text. Hundreds of years of authorship and numerous popular works tell otherwise. But people do it to shield themselves from what sometimes feels like intentional misinterpretation.
Showing votes is possibly a huge contributing factor. It's well known they gather momentum.
It increasingly feels like Reddit is a breeding ground for various types of extremism (usually left-leaning, with some notable exceptions).