Pretty sure reddit uses some algorithmic stuff to push threads, no? If you jump all over a bullshit political post, for example, doesn't that help push it into 'hot' or whatever? (Honestly asking, been off reddit for years at this point).

Lemmy/piefed/etc might be less prone to it though, that's fair, though I've so far run into less outright propagandistic stuff here so far... might've just been lucky on that front.