That sort of thing sounds good when the people saying it cannot, under any circumstances, be put in a situation where they can suffer the consequences they’re urging others to suffer on behalf of their beliefs. E.g., “This security theater is outrageous! That TSA agent who told me to throw away my half-empty water bottle should resign in protest! Her not having a job and not being able to make her rent will show 'em!” The truth of the first sentence doesn’t give you moral standing to make extraordinary demands of people who you believe are more implicated than you are. Reality is a little more messy than our notions of bushido might lead us to believe.
As for one’s own complicity, my god, where do we begin or end. Do you eat food? Do you wear clothes? Are you using an electronic device to visit this website? That’s three kinds of slavery you’re complicit in–you know where those products come from, right? You might respond, “That’s a ridiculous thing to say!” and you’d be right. Just as it would be ridiculous to suggest that because you’re not blowing up federal buildings, you’re “complicit” in every single thing your government does. What’s the difference between you politely co-existing with what you see as an authoritarian regime and Reddit doing the same?
Incidentally, be careful throwing words like bushido around. It’s an interesting concept, and it sheds light on a lot of what feudal Japanese society was like. But its final incarnation was as a sort of death-religion that Japanese soldiers were indoctrinated with during WWII. Death in service to the empire was an absolute duty; nothing was pure except death in service to the (perfect) ideals of the state. This is what made conceivable not only suicide attacks (e.g., kamikaze runs by planes) but entire suicidal military campaigns. Hundreds of thousands of deaths from campaigns undertaken by a military leadership that was entirely conscious of the fact that such campaigns could not bring about victory–even when it was still possible to win by employing other strategies. Is that the model you’re looking for here?
You’re not a samurai and neither is Reddit. The difference is, Reddit did what it could.
