I did find a few good subreddits where there was a culture of intellectual virtue and quality just as you describe. Are you familiar with the badacademics subs?
I don't think so, no, but now that you've mentioned it I'll check it out. I tend to gravitate towards hobby and interest subreddits versus ones that are political, social interest, or meme-based. I've found that the narrower the focus a sub has, the more people are likely to stay on track with the topic and have a genuine desire to engage in a positive way with other commenters. This can promote groupthink, as you've touched on in your original post, but that's not inevitable. People have always made connections through mutual interests and a desire to share the things that give them joy with others.
Yeah, even though I may have unconsciously fallen victim of the Reddit system, I still can't be hostile to it, since it has opened me up to amazing things, hobbies, creative works and philosophies/ mirrors to my inner workings Eg: fountain pens, calligraphy, wicked_edge straight razor shaving, INTJ, short scary stories, LGBT subs, minimalism, atheism (I know everyone in the world hates the atheism sub, but after 23 years of being a conservative fundamentalist Seventh-day Adventist Christian, I needed an outlet for my anger and frustration) Someone mentioned that INTJ had really good spelling and grammar compared to other subs, and maybe it's because of the mainstream-ness, here's to hubski ~ may it be civil and thoughtful ever into the bright and majestic day ~~
> I know everyone in the world hates the atheism sub, but after 23 years of being a conservative fundamentalist Seventh-day Adventist Christian, I needed an outlet for my anger and frustration I can appreciate that. When someone finds themselves in any kind of situation where they see a popular or long-held belief to be in error I think many people find themselves wanting to metaphorically run through the streets yelling "the emperor's new clothes are a lie! Don't you see?!" This applies to much more than atheism, too, though it's a very predictable kind of backlash when so much of the world's day-to-day workings are influenced by some form of religion or another. On one hand, the common perception of /r/atheism is pretty spot-on. It really is kind of a circlejerk, and I'm not sure that being involved with it for a long period of time is healthy. On the other hand, I think that having a place like that to rage and commiserate with others is an important aspect of transitioning to atheism from a lifetime of religious belief. When someone feels like they've been tricked by everyone around them, it's good to have others they can go to to be reassured that they're not crazy.