With the rise of Redit as a social media platform for discourse, Sillimmanians have taken it by storm to express their most raw, honest, and unfiltered thoughts—becoming a space to speak up for those who feared backlash for their very valid feelings.
While others see this as a threat and a mere echo chamber filled with the latest rumors, what others don’t understand is that Redit possibly is the true parliament that Sillimman needs. Maybe not the student government nor campus paper. Neither is it the academic departments where professors often disregard our grievances. Rather, it is a site where the real set of power belongs to the students.
In a society where oppression remains rampant—whether it be losing focus on your readings in the library because of lovey-dovey couples from neighboring tables, or how your student council requires everyone to pay their overwhelmingly expensive council fees—the need for a platform where everyone is guaranteed a voice becomes nothing short of imperative.
If you need to confront a roommate for leaving molds in your shared rice cooker, why address them directly when the rest of the community, in the form of upvotes and comments, can reassure you that you’re right for being angry? Why report to your professor that your thesis groupmates are useless when you can shade them online?
To hold others accountable and being directly transparent about your grievances come at a great cost. Telling the truth often gets us bashed—or worse—ignored. But when platforms like Redit provide us with an infinite armour, shielding our truest thoughts behind an anonymous username, we are able to keep ourselves far from harm while being upfront about the issues in our head.
Problems raised through the platform, however, are not simply limited to personal grievances. It goes beyond “who said who about what” and “who did who in where,” which also includes the implementation and protection of policies. And such is the case of environmental guidelines set by the university.
In a very furious Redit post, a student shared their complaints on others’ failure to observe the “Clean As You Go” or CLAYGO rule. It included a photo of leftover garbage from one of the Nenengs’ tables behind the pharmacy building, paired with a caption stating, “Is it really that hard to throw away your trash after eating? Let’s not make it a habit to have others throw away our trash for us.”
Indeed, it may seem like that these students are only using Redit to “spill the tea.” But what we need to realize is that these students are the very essence of what makes a social democracy—wherein the power to judge others and control narratives is within the people.
Should the university learn how to maximize the platform’s capacity to hold everyone accountable, Sillimman may just be at the very precipice of becoming a standard for truth-telling. “Veritas,” as written in its motto.
While student apathy continues to loom over today’s student body, the Weekly Sillimmanian encourages the university administrators and students to fully capacitate themselves—along with the entire community—in honing Redit to its fullest potential.
Let Redit and the culture that surrounds it become a primary example of what a just and accountable society looks like. A society that Sillimman is very capable of being.
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DISCLAIMER: This is part of the Weekly Sillimanian’s lampoon issue. Any real, semi-real, or similar names, places, people, products, services, and locales are used purely for satirical purposes, and the corresponding details are purely fictional. Content published during the lampoon period is to be considered satire, parody, surrealism, and humor.
