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I try to stay off social media. When I do get on forums – I tend to stick to programming forums that don’t have the political vomit. I do, grudgingly, sometimes catch up on local forums to see if there are any cool shows – and ran across this great comment that summed up how I feel about an a growing portion of Reddit.

More and more subreddits are increasingly just becoming the worst of echo chambers. Members openly mock, insult, gaslight, and psychologically attack those who post things not onboard with the accepted political and social views of that subreddit. Contrary evidence and data is downvoted and ignored. More forums are just outright banning people who post things against a political stance. In short, it’s now a walled enclave of double-plus good thought. Even on forums as left-leaning as the local Portland forum. One member complained thusly:

So I’ve been complaining about issues at a corner store in my neighborhood for over three years and PPB FINALLY BUSTED THE OWNER ON SEVERAL NARCOTICS AND FIREARM CHARGES.

I should feel vindicated but quite frankly I’m just angry about how many people tried to gaslight, insult, or victim blame me for things that I and immediate neighbors of the store were onto.

Reddit is nigh on the verge of collapse and no longer the helpful resource it once was. Most of it’s communities are now servants to their rules instead of real human members who aren’t just spewing slop.

Links:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/1j7x24j/dear_portland_march_10_2025_weekly_rant_thread/

Besides the very public failing of the new Ritz-Carlton in downtown Portland facing foreclosure, now ‘Big Pink’ US Bancorp tower is up for sale for a fraction of it’s original value. There’s a reason Portland has the highest commercial vacancy rate in the country; and the internet company that just moved out didn’t hold any punches

After Digital Trends moved out of the U.S. Bancorp Tower in Portland, Ore., the technology publisher didn’t hold back about why it left.  

The property, once a premier address in the city, was afflicted with “vagrants sleeping in hallways of vacant office floors.” They were “starting fires in stairwells, smoking fentanyl and defecating in common areas,” according to papers the company filed in a lease-termination lawsuit. 

The building, once a cornerstone of the the city, is now joining a long line of other top building being fire-sold at huge losses:

The 42-story tower was recently put up for sale. The building affectionately known as Big Pink because of its pink-hued Spanish granite and pink glazed glass has an asking price of about $70 million, according to brokers. That is more than 80% below what the owners paid for it a decade ago

The forward outlook continues a multi-year DECLINE as companies flee Portland’s livability, homeless, and harshly anti-business taxes and laws

But Portland’s commercial real-estate market shows few signs of recovering from the fallout of the pandemic, rise in homelessness and the state’s botched experiment with drug decriminalization…. Portland’s first-quarter office vacancy rate at 35% was the highest among the 25 largest central business districts in the U.S., according to real-estate firm Colliers

Links:

• https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/a-fire-sale-of-portlands-largest-office-tower-shows-how-far-the-city-has-fallen-322e0f2d
• https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2024/03/downtown-portlands-office-vacancy-rate-is-highest-in-the-nation-report-says.html