r/whatif Jul 31 '25

Mod post What if we got a little meta today?

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6 Upvotes

Hey kids,

I feel like I'm about to do something a touch controversial. I'm blocking names to protect the innocent. But I'm sharing examples of AEO removals b/c bots aren't human. Reddit is forgetting the human. And I guess I just wanted to be open about that. Mostly b/c one is kind of hysterical. And if I'm sharing one, I might as well share them all.

If you recognize your own comment here, please attempt an appeal. I have likely already appealed on your behalf. Especially you, Johnny Rico.


r/whatif Jul 22 '25

Mod post ⚠️What if you paid attention to this post?⚠️

5 Upvotes

First things first!

Hi all, casual meet and greet has started. Ask me almost anything.

I've already started making some adjustments to the subreddit. Just some light shaping to encourage the kind of things we want to see.

  • If you point your eyes at the rules, I've already started adjusting those, just minor tweaks, really, to hone in on what makes this community great and trying to make it even better.

  • I haven't started in on auto-mod yet. I wanted to check a few other things out before I did that. But I will be adjusting it over the next few days - if something seems to be going wrong or not working properly use modmail to let me know. I'll also be checking for lots of false positives to adjust existing filters.

  • I archived all the modmails older than about 2 days old. I did try to look at the last few days worth to see if there were any pressing issues but it all just looked like "hey my post was/wasn't [this] why was it removed?"

  • I will not be "backward" moderating. I.e., if it was removed before today, it will stay removed. If it was approved before today, it will likely stay approved, unless it had some hidden egregious issue.

  • I've added some bots to help with a few things - I like to nuke comment chains that have gone off the rails. If your content is removed, it likely is for curation more than punitive. If your removal was punitive, you'll likely receive a temporary ban. There's no need to come to modmail to apologize for content. If I think we need to have a chat, I'll reach out from modmail directly.


On to the next thing!

I'm open to suggestions, comments, concerns, etc. It doesn't mean every idea will be implemented or every suggestion considered. I just want to see if folks who have been spending a lot of time here have noticed things that could be fixed or adjusted for a better subreddit experience for everyone.

Also, I like to see users participating in their own community by reminding newcomers of the rules or spirit of the sub as well as reporting content that doesn't belong.

Also there are some custome emojis, but I know Reddit just made changes to how custome emojis can be used so - I dunno how interesting that is for all of you.

Oh - I noticed there are no user flairs - is this the preference for the community? I'm happy to add them if folks want them - feel free to share suggestions for user flairs.


r/whatif 23h ago

Politics What if the Russian 1991 presidential election resulted in a communist victory

10 Upvotes

Historically Boris yeltsin won in a landslide the communist only got ~20% of the vote but still was the second largest party in the election now what would have happened if after the fall of the Soviet Union socialism was maintained in Russia due to the success of the communist party getting elected (let’s ignore obvious American intervention in this election to make sure this does not happen and pretend it somehow did) what differences would occur especially with the ecconomy as historically the economy crashed hard and gdp flew down because of overnight forced privatization which the markets were not ready for and how would this change geo politics as well would the new government be diplomatic or maybe even more aggressive then the one we ended up with 1991 presidential election


r/whatif 1d ago

Technology What If every electronic device on Earth suddenly stopped working forever (no electricity, no internet, nothing), what would you do first and how would you survive?

16 Upvotes

No phones, no apps, no internet on any device, no smart cars, no GPS — everything "smart" is permanently dead. Old basic tech (radios, books, etc.) still works.

What’s the first thing you’d do? How would your daily life change? What skills would you learn or what would you miss most?

I’ll start: I’d stock up on paper notebooks, books, and cash. Then focus on real-life connections and creative projects without distractions. I’d miss AI tools for making videos the most.

Share your plan — the more detailed the better!


r/whatif 17h ago

Science What if all gasoline inside vehicles turned into diesel?

1 Upvotes

Obviously the big trucks wouldn’t be affected because they already have them filled up. But what about normal vehicles who’s engines can’t handle that, or slowly die?

Would there be risk of danger, like increased car accidents or even explosions?


r/whatif 13h ago

Politics What if Russia’s 2022 invasion succeeded

0 Upvotes

Would Russia hope to annex Ukraine or just the Donbas region and set up a figurehead in the new Ukrainian government? Do any sources or hints exist on which option would have been chosen?


r/whatif 1d ago

Other What if Pokémon were real?

5 Upvotes

The whole world wakes up to find out that normal organisms besides humans were replaced with Pokémon. How would it change the way we live our lives?


r/whatif 1d ago

Politics What if USA and Canada merged with the EU, what changes would you expect through majority demoratic votes?

0 Upvotes

Given the USA population is 342.6 million, Canada 41 million and EU is 450 million. There is likely to be a European majority for decisions.

To simplify the Governance:

- There is a single president.

- Proportional representation of 1m people for a Council like US Congress/European Parliament (~850)

- Proportional representation of 10m people for a Council like US Senate/European Council (~85).

-Devolution to states/national Governments exists.

The key concept would be a massive series of referendums across all voters that would create a new constitution.

Would the right to bear arms still exist?


r/whatif 3d ago

Science What if we weren’t the only extremely intelligent species on the planet?

7 Upvotes

In this case, you could imagine another species similar to us in intelligence but maybe looking different or anything else that is possible.


r/whatif 4d ago

Science What if you took a newborn baby from 3000, 20,000, and 70,000 years ago and raised them in the current era, would there be a discernible difference between them and us?

149 Upvotes

in terms of behaviour, brain, intellect, and physically, biologically, etc.

what about neanderthals and disnovians?


r/whatif 3d ago

Science What if birds filled the dominant niches instead of mammals

2 Upvotes

I was wondering, what would the world look like today if after the dinosaurs extinction, birds came to most of the niches left vacant by dinosaurs instead of mammals. What birds would have evolved, How they look, and will the predatory birds still keep flight or become flightless like the terror birds and hunt down big bird herbivores


r/whatif 3d ago

Politics What if US Congress passes a bill that does Tricare for all and TSP for all and GI Bill for all?

0 Upvotes

Everyone keeps saying that we need Medicare/Medicaird for all or free college

Tricare is basically the US military's universal heatlh insurance that still uses private doctors and private hospitals.

TSP is a Federal Employee retirement program.

GI Bill is for military veterans for use to educate themselves after service. 36 months of full in state tuition with book stipend and monthly housing allowance based on zip code.

US Military may be a meritocracy but it has these social welfare programs.


r/whatif 3d ago

Politics What if a 3rd party have won 2024 if Biden refused to debate Trump on June 27th due to covid and Trump died on July 13th and the GOP couldn't nominate someone until after the ballot deadline and Biden didn't debate until October and blew the debate? How would a 3rd party govern?

0 Upvotes

How would a 3rd party govern in today's America? Who would they work with? Would they work with one party on some issues and another party on others? How would they work in government?


r/whatif 4d ago

History What if Malaysia Flight 370 Suddenly Re-Appeared On It’s Original Flight Path Right Now?

11 Upvotes

The whole plane and its occupants suddenly reappear right where they disappeared in 2014. The plane continues to Beijing, China, and is unaware anything even happened to them, and there is no real evidence afterwards pointing to what happened to the plane. What most realistically happens in this situation going forward? How does the world change?


r/whatif 4d ago

Other What if every human on the world was an exact replica of you(emotionally)?

4 Upvotes

Ignore the obvious biological questions and approach my question in a social manner. Like would the world be a better or a worse place?


r/whatif 5d ago

History What if hitler didnt kill himself?

1 Upvotes

What would we have done with him? Would we have killed him? Would we have taken him alive? Lets go with the latter cuz thats more interesting what do you think we would have done with him


r/whatif 5d ago

History What if the world had to pull out of China?

0 Upvotes

When the world pulled out of Russia during the recent war, they left all their inventory, stock, factories, real estate, assets, etc. These companies had their assets seized and direct losts of $167 billion.

If China did something really bad (worse than usual) and the world had to pull out of China and abandoned or had their assets seized, how much loss would that be?


r/whatif 5d ago

History What if humans actually lived in matriarchal societies?

2 Upvotes

What are some possible realities? What do you think a matriarchy would look like?


r/whatif 5d ago

Lifestyle What if the mafia came to the winner of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and demanded a share of the prize money?

5 Upvotes

Could this be a convenient and easy way for them to earn income?
See How Good You Survive This, You Pezzo Di Merda!


r/whatif 5d ago

Subreddit Meta What if stevin Spielberg made project hail Mary?

1 Upvotes

So as we know Steven Spielberg is amazing at movies and project hail Mary is a wonderful movie so combine the two and what do you have


r/whatif 6d ago

Technology What if the AI bubble pops tomorrow?

8 Upvotes

What if you wake up tomorrow and find that Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, and all the other big AI firms just declared bankruptcy?


r/whatif 6d ago

Other What if everyone stopped believing that any god is real?

7 Upvotes

What if everyone came to realization that all religions are wrong. No gods do or have ever existed. As far as we know we are alone. No one is coming to save us.


r/whatif 6d ago

History what if... Republic of Latinia (Latinia for short) was a country for some reason?

0 Upvotes

It would've been founded in 3rd March 1932 merging 4 countries of Europe: Italy, France, Spain and Portugal that later will become the subjects of this country. It would've been one of the richest and biggest countries in Europe with many people living there. It would have the Latin language brought back as the main language of the country, meanwhile spanish, italian, french and portuguese languages would've been official languages of this country. The reason of this is because people in these countries want another bigger country in Europe that has a million kilometres. The Captial would be Roma.


r/whatif 6d ago

Technology What if time travel exists but we don't know about it because they also invented invisibility

0 Upvotes

I was watching a TikTok of a girl who missed her grandma's funeral and thought well maybe she could go back in time some day and view it. And then I thought well people would have seen her there if she did. But then I thought what of it actually exists and we just can't see the people who who travel back in time because they're invisible. What if that's why we never see people time travel?


r/whatif 6d ago

History What if you were dropped in the year zero

1 Upvotes

If you had no time to proper and dropped nude in the year 1 what could you actually do with your current knowledge.

let's say your guaranteed to live to 100 if nothing kills you and you auto learn the language of the area what would you do to effect history positivengly/negatively let's also say your dropped around where jusus died