Political Memes

They're mainly conservatives and trolls who are lying and pretending to make jokes.

Conservatives have been doing this for a long time, they think they're being subtle and tricking people into thinking they're serious. It's built on the classic idea they have that everyone secretly agree with them, and they use things like political compass memes to try and convince people it's okay to say it out loud. But they never seem to realize that most people don't "say it out loud" because they don't agree.

TL;DR: They're stupid people who think they're really smart. And it's sad to see them flailing around and drooling at the mouth while thinking they're Machiavelli.

I mean it's still better than just saying you're a leftist or on the right. Political beliefs are a multi-dimensional spectrum.

Can't say about the subreddit specifically, but there were groups elsewhere, such as on Facebook, that predated the Reddit sub that were definitely more left-leaning.

That's just how the alt right functions. The jokes. When they say something that makes someone feel unsafe or is way over the line and someone objects

"It's just a joke! Jeez you can't make jokes anymore?! "

And the pile on happens to the person who objected because you are the kill joy. These "jokes" keep coming and the cruelty of the jokes get defended and the people they target don't. So those people leave and those shitty things passing as jokes don't get challenged any more. The jokes get "edgier" and the cycle repeats and those things which were dismissed as humor before are just taken as normal. They aren't jokes, they are just the basic buy in of ideals for the space. Challenging them is heresy.

So the jokes get more cruel and needing the conservative mindset buy in until basically all the people who are being joked about and all the people who care for them are gone. Because who is going to inhabit a space where you get routinely told that you don't matter?