Why do people on Reddit hurt each other?

Because social media spaces are contestable territory. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03697

Because the sad truth is that a lot of people really aren't very nice, and the anonymity of platforms like Reddit makes them feel empowered to act in ways that they would never consider doing in real life.

It would be a privacy nightmare, but if everyone was forced to sign up under there real name with robust identity verification you'd get a much less toxic community.

It's an echo chamber. People do not hurt each other in an echo chamber, they suppress dissenting voices. Reddit is the best tool ever developed to kill discussions and make people selfish dbags.

When someone asks about something people do not even upvote, thank or write a comment thanking the participating people. The single most important counter is missing: the reciprocal counter. If you post a question and do not participate, just read the answers, then you should pay the price and this must be shown. Also, bots are not filtered at all...

It's a cesspool. The sooner this mudpit gets drained, the better.

We'd knock each other down a peg in real life too if it weren't for fear of reprisal. All species evolved a put-down-others gene to attract mates.