r/AmItheAsshole
Type of site
Subreddit
Available inEnglish
Created byMarc Beaulac[1]
URLwww.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole
Users12 million members (as of 30 October 2023)
LaunchedJune 8, 2013 (2013-06-08)[2]

r/AmItheAsshole, abbreviated as AITA, is a subreddit where users post about their real-world interpersonal conflicts and receive judgement from fellow redditors. The subreddit allows users to solicit and express opinions about the appropriateness of the actions of people in specific scenarios – especially the actions of the person reporting about the situation.

History

The subreddit was created in 2013 by photographer and dog rescuer Marc Beaulac to determine if he had been inappropriately mansplaining in a debate with female coworkers about the temperature of their office.[3] The subreddit gained popularity in of 2018. By July 2019, it had 1 million members, which it dubs "potential assholes". A Twitter account used to repost a curated selection of the posts, until it stopped doing so on 5 January 2023.[4][3]

r/AmItheAsshole is based around the concept of posting situations from users' personal lives for judgement. Any user (typically from a single-use account referred to as a throwaway)[1] can make a post, beginning with "AITA", asking if they're an asshole for what they did in a situation they were involved in. Other users can judge them with the ratings of YTA (you're the asshole), NTA (not the asshole), NAH (no assholes here), or ESH (everyone sucks here).[5] An example of the conundrums posted is "AITA for switching to regular milk to prove my lactose intolerant roommate keeps stealing from me?"[3] As of October 2020, the subreddit receives about 800 scenarios per day.[6]

Princeton University ethicist Eleanor Gordon-Smith said to The Guardian, "There's something almost thrilling about peeking behind the curtain into other people’s lives, hearing their weird thoughts – what they think deep down of their partners, children, friends."[6]

Some posts, such as the December 2021 thread about an orange tabby named Jorts, are shared on other social media platforms, eg Twitter.[5][7]

References

  1. 1 2 Matei, Adrienne (21 May 2020). "Can trolling ever be charming – or are 'good' trolls still a nuisance?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  2. ↑ Gordon, Ilana (9 August 2019). "How 'Am I the Asshole?' became the internet's most profound query". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Danovich, Tove K. (7 October 2020). "Can "Am I the Asshole?" Actually Help Make People Better?". The Ringer. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  4. ↑ "Am I the Asshole? (AITA_online) / Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 Walsh, Kathleen (27 July 2020). "Reading Reddit Drama Helps Some People Leave Bad Relationships". Vice. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  6. 1 2 Hunt, Elle (22 October 2020). "AITA? How a Reddit forum posed the defining question of our age". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  7. ↑ Yip, Waiyee. "How a fluffy orange cat named Jorts stole the internet's heart and became the pro-labor icon 2022 didn't know it needed". Insider. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
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