Bit of a catch-22, because reddit is also counting all those 3rd-party users as part of their userbase when talking about how many users they have. These 3rd party app users also generate some of the content that draws undiscerning users to open reddit and view ads on the way.

Now I can eat popcorn while watching some couple's life burn to the ground around them, but without the icky feeling (from supporting Spez's empire, that is).

Average redditor lol

Damn. Different kind of wrong than I expected! It's hard to imagine teachers getting away with that nowadays.

That's kinda true. Then again, consider the history of any right-leaning sub or sub that makes fun of the left: Admins force unwanted mods into their subs. New accounts make "threatening" posts faster than mods can stomp them out, and get screenshots to other subs as proof the whole sub is terrible. T_D banned fir a post arguably advocating for violence against police... a few weeks before BLM kicked off, and every left sub was loaded with advocations for violence towards cops. Cringeanarchy got flooded with CP posts from AgainstHateSubs alt accounts and promptly shut down. (Cite: https://youtu.be/yUV9TyfYaEQ ) All this was, overtly or covertly, supported by reddit's admins.

Now, if you're still a r/conservative mod on Reddit after ALL THAT... you're controlled opposition installed by reddit admins, or you want to a reddit mod so bad, you'll compromise your values for it.

Ok well SOME of that probably happened...

AHS was definitely doing this, and there were several examples of admins being in close communication with AHS leaders, including some leaked chat logs (which arent totally verifiable but are pretty consistent). If nothing else, the fact that reddit admins had their eyes on "bad" posts in right-leaning subs faster than mods could, and yet also would ignore similar posts in lefty or "neutral" subs like r/politics that don't allow any remotely right wing opinions, was very observable to anybody in an affected sub.