I like dogs and think that a lot of people who own dogs probably shouldn't. Especially when people own the completely wrong kind of dog for their life/climate.
Basically no one should own a husky unless you have a dogsled team because the only way to get energy out of them in a comfortable environment for them is to have them pull something in the snow for a while.
A lot of people have dogs with way too much energy. Or social needs that aren't being met because the dog doesn't have that much time interacting with other dogs because dog park might be far away. I feel bad for all those lonely dogs spending hours a day on their own.
Sorry, but the subreddit isn't all that bad. Dog culture can be super misanthropic. It creeps me out whenever pet owners brag completely unprompted about how they'd save their "fur baby" over a homeless person or any person at all if they had to chose. Same with people who blame toddlers and old people for getting mauled to death.
Also, r/childfree is way worse. Reddit eugenicists ruined it with their countless posts and comments actively advocating for the forcible sterilization of poor and disabled people.
People are just obsessive and think ruminating on their dislike (or abject hatred) of dogs or kids or bad drivers or fat people or Russians or whatever will make the bad thoughts go away, but actually they're just picking at the scab. We are trained by media to behave this way as it drives engagement numbers on social media platforms and keeps us coming back for more.
“Hmm, yeah, dogs can be annoying sometimes, and I’ve had plenty of run-ins with irresponsible dog owners, but it’s part of greater societal problems, like people are so alienated and lonely they can’t find meaningful companionship any other way. Maybe I’ll check out this subreddit.”
I mean, I can imagine how it happened. The forum morphed to suit a need. I'm a dog lover, but it's not that unusual for someone to hate dogs. They often don't understand boundaries, and they can be loud and smelly. But when you express it through the apocalyptic fury of the childfree identity, it becomes deranged and self-destructive.
I wouldn't go that far, because I know some people that had for example bad childhood experiences with aggressive dogs and I kinda get it for them. I assume it's the case for some users of this sub, but there are also clearly some people there that just have weird brainworms.
These people are bad but i'll take them over anti-natalists. Alot of anti-natalists will actively argue against child welfare and education spending because its public money that isn't being spent on the virtous child-free couples who are trying to go r/leanfire. At least this is partially taking the shit out of these people even if it has it's own anti-social bent to it
I have a dislike of dogs driven by fear personally, and prefer to not be in the vicinity of the ones large enough to do serious harm if I got attacked. Thus, you have a bunch of people with even stronger fixations and a misanthropic view coming together and creating a subreddit or other community.
From this, say a strong fear of walking by fences where you know dogs are, charging at you from behind the fence and barking at loud volumes, you have a self-strengthening echo-chamber with some added reddit-brand smugness to it.
"I don't like/fear dogs/other phobia commonly faced in the wild" can for example turn to "I hate people who are likely to own a dog" or whatever. Or it could not and stay as pointless and bizarre posting like this.
I recently read a BBC article about Americans paying Indonesians to torture and kill monkeys and record it, and the language they use is very similar to these child/dog free comments
Americans paying Indonesians to torture and kill monkeys and record it,
what the fuck why would you do that
yeah I'm going to stop reading that it's too distressing. Everyone involved should be in prison if only because these people seem like they might be genuinely dangerous. Never trust anyone that tortures animals for fun
What the fuck happens to a person that they do this