People posted saying they'd support the protest, so the mods locked down. Then they made a poll and the comments were almost exclusively against while the votes were split, so calls of manipulation and astroturfing were rampant because people couldn't actually believe there were people in favor of the protest.

I would agree that they didn't care either way, and tried going with the flow. The mods basically acted, ah... What's the word... Something like "pussy-whipped" but with Reddit users as the instigator? The "comments" made demands and they acquiesced every time then acted confused that there was no consistency with those comments and lots of anger then aimed at them. Which honestly, probably matches up with what they do day-to-day. I appreciate the esports match discussion and summary threads, but overall, the actual acts of moderation is extremely hands off and lenient towards things like xenophobia and whatnot. I wonder what actually happens in that subreddit's mod queue and if half those people are even around. Outside of 3 people, their presence has taken a nosedive since the days ReaverXai was around.

It was not the time to be so hands-off. It was not the time to tell people "oh just go on the pepe-emoji infested discord that not even us ourselves have used in 7 years, it'll be fine". It was the time to take a stance one way or another, the time to investigate alternatives and list them on the frontpage. The time to restrict the sub and filter comments from newer acoounts, or the time to stay open and declare you don't think the cause will work. Something. Anything.