Right, so you end up with these subreddits full of people reaffirming each other's viewpoints. Nobody wants to hear anything challenging their views, but at the same time they stomp their feet and whine without a hint of irony, "why doesn't the other side just get it?" This also leads to schisms resulting in vicious infighting. It's pretty much the complete opposite of an environment conducive to intellectual development.
There is extreme group think in subreddits like /r/politics and /r/libertarian. The main problem is that the quality of content degrades extremely quickly as the community grows. It has been eternal september there since Digg v4.
Is that unexpected though? Or even a necessarily negative thing? I don't think so - especially in the case of a political ideology discussion forum like /r/libertarian, most of the people who went there to seek it out and subscribe to it, more likely than not, share those beliefs.
What is the difference between describing something as extreme group think, and describing it as a circle jerk? How does one differentiate between this being a valid description, and an unwillingness to accept that one's position is the unpopular one?
