r/badpolitics

2.8K archived posts · Jan 2014 – Jun 2026

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r/badpolitics

A place to discuss the terrible application of Political Science, Political Theory, and Political History that we see every day. We point out fundamental misunderstandings of political concepts and bizarre attempts to categorize political identities.

Created May 23, 2011

16KMembers (last snapshot)

2.8KArchived posts

#Purpose

BadPolitics is a place to discuss the terrible application of Political Science, Political Theory, and Political History that we see every day. We point out the fundamental misunderstanding of political concepts and the bizarre attempts to categorize political identities.

#Moderation Policy

If you break the rules, the post or comment or post in question will be removed until it is amended to comply with the rules. (Note: Link Posts cannot be edited and must therefore be resubmitted.) Repeated or egregious violations of the rules will result in a ban.

#BadAcademics Association Member

#Rules:

Rule 1
Any post that is simply expressing a position or ideology will be removed.
There are BadPolitics in favor of and against every political position and ideology and in favor of and against every political proposal. As such, while individuals who participate may have an ideology or political stance, this sub does not. To reflect this, we take the position that no political stance is, in itself, BadPolitics. To qualify for being posted here, it needs to contain factual inaccuracy. This means misrepresenting the other side, twisting facts, making bad comparisons, and believing debates to be settled when they aren't. Remember that every ideology has some kind of theoretical basis behind it, even if those who adhere to it have trouble explaining it.
Rule 1a
People of all ideological identities are welcome to post here.
Factual inaccuracies may play a part in the ideologies of many, but for the purposes of this subreddit, no ideology is wrong in itself. We are here to mock wrong facts, not opinions we disagree with. As such, posts mocking people for their ideology or political beliefs will be removed.
Furthermore, comments that help to foster an overly partisan environment are subject to removal.

Rule 2
To discourage violations of rule 1, all posts need to come with an explanation as to why what was posted was BadPolitics.
This explanation should contain at least 250 characters which demonstrate what is factually inaccurate about the subject and explain what a correct application of academic politics would say about it. Remember, every post here is somebody's first exposure to a concept. Explanations should also not include blatant statements of opinion or denigration of any political position or ideology.

Rule 3
DO NOT VOTE IN LINKED THREADS.
That is a one way ticket to you getting shadowbanned and this sub getting banned. In order to encourage others to follow this rule, please make all links to Reddit threads non-participation links. (This is achieved by replacing the "www" in them with "np".)
Rule 3a:
In addition, submitting threads you are involved in yourself is not allowed.
Doing this will result in the removal of said thread. We are not your personal army.

Rule 4
Don't be an ass.
Be respectful while commenting. Insulting other commenters isn't acceptable. Nor is racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. It is just as unacceptable to send someone a PM that breaks this rule in response to something they said in this sub as it is to reply with a comment breaking that rule.

Rule 5
Not everything related to politics that is wrong is BadPolitics.
Factual inaccuracies about historical events belong in r/BadHistory, factual inaccuracies about science belong in r/BadScience, if it contains things specific to gender, race, etc r/BadSocialScience may be a better fit. It is fine to post things that contain bad history, bad science, or other bad things as long as it also contains incorrect statements about politics (see rule 1).

Related Subs:

BadAcademics Network
r/BadSocialScience
r/BadEconomics
r/BadHistory
r/BadAnthropology
r/BadGeography
r/BadLinguistics
r/BadLiteraryStudies
r/BadLegalAdvice
r/BadMathematics
r/BadPhilosophy
r/BadPsychology
r/BadScience
r/BadStats

Ask Academics Network
r/Ask_Politics
r/AskHistorians
r/AskSocialScience
r/AskLinguistics

Political Science and Related Studies
r/PoliticalScience
r/IRStudies
r/CredibleDefense
r/LessCredibleDefense
r/ForeignPolicyAnalysis
r/Geopolitics
r/WarCollege
r/History
r/LegalAdvice
r/WhatsMyIdeology

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