Reddit rules my world

A few months ago I'd blogged about the travesty known as Digg 4.0 and how I was considering making the switch over to its "rival", Reddit. Well, long story short, I did, and I am glad for it. Reddit is kind of like the quiet, smart, kinda weird lookin' kid in the back who usually goes by unnoticed until you get to know him. Then your world changes and your mind is blown and you wonder what you were doing with your life before meeting this person. Reddit can be a lot like Digg in that it generates and popularizes funny, unique, or inspiring stories - it just has a reputation for being way more elitist. But I've found that under the layers of pretense is a vibrant and soft-hearted core. Redditors have banded together and done some truly amazing, amazing things for causes they support - things I honestly never thought were possible.

One of the more recent acts of giving that may or may not have made me choke up ("why is there rain on my face!!") surrounds a 7-year old girl with Huntington's Disease who had already lost her mother to HD. Her neighbors - adults, mind you - posted pictures on Facebook of Kathleen and her dead mother with the grim reaper and with a skull and crossbones to get back at her family for not inviting them to share a moonbounce at a party soon enough. Key words: soon enough. It wasn't that the invitation didn't come, just that the text arrived late. This tiny little miscommunication led a grown couple to publicly mock and harass a dying 7-year old. They even hitched a coffin in front of Kathleen's house. A coffin, for crying out loud! I think this is one of those situations that can only be summed up by, "what the fuck is wrong with those people?"

But then, it branches out! Into choose your own adventure!

"What the fuck is wrong with those people? LET'S DESTROY THEM."

or

"What the fuck is wrong with those people? LET'S GIVE KATHLEEN THE BEST DAY OF HER LIFE."

Reddit went with the second option. They raised $17,000 in donations to create a perfect day for the little girl. Kathleen rolled up in front of a Redditor-owned toy store in a limousine that read "Team Kathleen", was greeted by a cheering crowd of volunteers, and got to pick out whatever she wanted in the store. The money went onwards to either Huntington's Disease research or to toys for sick children at the local hospital. As for her awful neighbors? Well, they've apologized. But nobody really cares about them  - the focus of the story really shifted from their heinous actions to a greater, anonymous effort to show Kathleen and the rest of the world that good, caring people do exist in this world. Reddit really took the high road here.

Someone is starting to cut onions again, damnit. But in all honesty, if you haven't already checked out Reddit, you really ought to consider it - cause dreams really do come true there! *cheesy exit music*