In Modmail July 4, 2015

The Unanimous Declaration of the Free Republic of /r/oppression

When, in the course of online events, it becomes necessary for one subreddit to dissolve the superficial ties which have connected them with the others, and to assume among the powers of The Constitution, the separate but equal station to which the laws of Freedom and of Freedom's Eagle entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of The Internet requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all white men are created equal, that they are endowed by The Constitution with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and freedom of speech. That to secure these rights, administrations are instituted among websites, deriving their just powers from the consent of the users. That whenever any form of administration becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the users to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new administration, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their freedom and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that administrations long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and shadowbans, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such administration, and to provide new guards for their future freedom. -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these subreddits; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of moderation. The history of the present reddit Interim CEO is a history of repeated shadowbans and subreddit bans, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these subreddits. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid internet.

• She has refused her assent to Freedom of Speech, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

• She has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing her assent to rules in the special case of /r/ShitRedditSays.

• She has made moderators dependent on her will alone, for the tenure of their mod positions, and the ability to conduct AMAs.

• For suspending our own subreddit rules, and declaring herself invested with power to moderate for us in all cases whatsoever.

• She has abdicated administration here, by declaring us out of her protection and waging war against us.

• She has fired our admins, raped our men, banned our subreddits, and destroyed the lives of our users.

• She is at this time transporting large armies of Social Justice Warriors to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized website.

• She has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Feminazi savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, genders and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated shadowbans. A CEO, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our reddit brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by her rules to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration from digg. We have appealed to their Feminist Overlords, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these shadowbans, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of The Internet, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the Free Republic of /r/oppression, in The Modmail, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the Internet for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good users of these subreddits, solemnly publish and declare, that these united webpages are, and of right ought to be free and independent sites; that they are absolved from all allegiance to Reddit Inc, and that all political connection between them and the Conde Nast, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent sites, they have full power to post memes, voice our opinions, ban dissenters and to do all other acts and things which independent sites may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of The Constitution, we mutually pledge to each other our accounts, our karma and our sacred honor.