FiftyFiftyOne

This is probably something a lot of people are going to be asking for, so I just want to give a quick summary of what I could gather based on all the posts. Feel free to correct me if something seems incorrect. I have no insider knowledge, and this is all stuff I found online.

u/Evolved_Fungi, the original creator of the r/50501 subreddit took some actions without consulting the rest of the national group to take control of a legal entity that was created by some external group. This soured his relation with the other mods, particularly since this was supposed to be a decentralized movement and, especially without consultation, starting to do that without consultation wasn't a great look.

Then, after some of the fallout of the first subreddit lock, he posted a long summary of what happened from his perspective that included some unnecessary NSFW details. This post is now deleted, but if you are curious, there are sites that can retrieve deleted posts by users(I'll refrain from listing them here).

After that post was deleted, some stuff happened behind the scenes(which I don't know of; I'm only going off of public information), and u/Evolved_Fungi stepped down as the top moderator.

However, people who seemed to be u/Evolved_Fungi's friends were still in control of the subreddit. u/greenasacube and u/50501California were removed as mods some number of times by the current moderators of the r/50501 subreddit. Then, a statement was put out by I believe u/50501California which gave a statement on the situation, explaining that u/Evolved_Fungi stepped down, and that the subreddit would be continuing.

The current top mods(who are friends of u/Evolved_Fungi) then proceeded to remove those posts, and then remove the other moderators. Presumably there is some internal stuff going in the background that is not public, but regardless, the end result after some readding and removal of the mods was the posts you see now on the r/50501 subreddit, with u/Evolved_Fungi's friends being the only moderators as far as I can tell.

To give some of my own commentary, this to me looks like a guy started a huge movement, got in way over his head, made some mistakes that he got push-back on, and then got extremely stressed due to all of that. Perhaps that's not true, and, as he claims, he truly was just bullied out of the movement, but personally, I don't see a great reason to trust that as it seems a lot less likely than the movement just growing way too fast beyond him. It is entirely possible that everyone has acted reasonably in this situation, and the stress just got to him way too much. I hope he and his friends end up ok, but to everyone reading this, at the end of the day, this movement has too much momentum to slow down with a simple reddit mod controversy.

I know some of us are chronically online, and this feels big and disastrous, but, really, it's only big an disastrous if we make it to be that way. The movement is much bigger than any subreddit, and we have a lot of work to do.

Originally Posted By u/purewaterruler At 2025-04-25 12:13:06 AM | Source

Originally Posted By u/itsokbirdie At 2025-04-24 11:48:12 PM | Source

Originally Posted By u/lokey_convo At 2025-04-24 09:22:24 PM | Source

I don't mean this post to shit on anyone who has devoted a significant amount of time to organizing, but I do not feel comfortable blindly trusting you given that the situation is so confusing.

I do not know any of these people IRL. The only evidence I have for EF being problematic in any way is his erratic behavior of pausing the subreddit, which by itself can be attributed to making an impulsive move while panicking. EF has also been accused of lewd behavior but again, since I have no evidence of this, I am not going to believe it because frankly, if I were a Russian troll it's obvious that one of the easiest ways to discredit a man in a leftist movement is through accusing him of a sexual violation.

I have personally witnessed a rising organizer friend be slapped with a felony by the FBI even though he did not commit any crime so I am NOT going to just accept hear-say, especially when the stakes are so high.

I am already seeing a lot of comments accepting and promoting the mental breakdown or sexual violation explanations, or comments suggesting EF is spreading conspiracies or even accusing him of being on drugs. The speed at which this is moving without any room for processing or detailed, soberly-presented explanations makes alarm bells ring in my head. At worst, this is an actual plot to weaken the movement. At best, it is clear evidence of leadership that is not equipped to handle serious problems.

Moderators posting snide comments that are clearly driven by stress/strong emotions is also a yellow flag for me (see the parent of this comment).

It is entirely possible that EF is having an actual mental break, that he did commit a sexual violation, or god knows what else, but without evidence I am not going to follow a bunch of new internet strangers. It does not align with my values for how I want a movement to be led or how I want people within the movement to be treated.

In order for me to feel good about aligning myself with the new subreddit, I would need from the mods concrete evidence of EF's transgressions as well as a commitment from ALL of the new mod team members that they are not going to demonize EF, including shutting down comments that speculate about substance abuse, a mental break, etc. If EF did cause harm to any of the moderators, please clearly explain that. Please note that I am asking for this NOT because I want anyone to relive a hurtful experience but because the stakes are high, I have no idea who you are, and unfounded accusations have been used time and time again by the government and other bad actors to undermine social movements.

Thanks for reading.

Originally Posted By u/dayvancowgirl At 2025-04-25 01:31:43 AM | Source

Reading through the accounts of what happened from both sides, I have no idea what to believe. Ultimately, what matters is that all of us continue to do what we have been doing--showing up to the protests and doing everything we can to fight the wave of fascism that is engulfing our country.

I'm not going to let this speedbump turn into a road block. The power of this movement comes from the bottom up, not the top down.

Originally Posted By u/pleasureismylife At 2025-04-25 02:39:20 AM | Source

Every single post reads like it was written by a high schooler. Even though the movement is "decentralized," as moderators, you clearly have more power than regular users and should therefore hold each other to higher standards. If you guys don't know how to deescalate and resolve problems, step down. The movement is too important to be held back by this. This issue could've been publicly addressed in a general discord chat or something similar—not through a pinned post on the main subreddit. Now that the damage is done, with numerous posts spreading conflicting information, share the receipts and evidence. Instead of pausing the sub and removing mods, let the community decide for themselves which group of mods they want to support / stick with.

If it were truly decentralized, this repeated pausing shouldn’t have happened in the first place. If you guys want it to be treated that way, keep things open and as transparent as possible.

Originally Posted By u/InitiativePure787 At 2025-04-25 02:11:03 AM | Source

Just a reminder: this is a decentralized movement. No one person or group controls it. For me, the mission of 50501 is best summed up by the official website: “Join us in the fight to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach.” That’s what I’m here for.

The site’s also been really helpful for finding local protests and events. Reddit is a great tool for discussion, but it’s not the whole movement. If this space isn’t working for you—or if the way it’s being run doesn’t line up with your values—there are other ways to stay connected and involved.

I get the frustration around the recent drama. But with any big, decentralized movement, conflict is going to happen. Let’s not lose sight of the real goal: standing up for the Constitution and pushing back on executive overreach.

Get involved with your local or state 50501 groups. Make direct connections where you can. And check out other platforms like Discord, Lemmy, Bluesky, or even Facebook. The more ways we stay in touch, the harder we are to disrupt.

Stay focused. Stay resilient. We’re making a difference!

Originally Posted By u/VinctusVentis At 2025-04-25 08:27:19 AM | Source

I think people who were involved with moderation of the sub or who were well connected in the movement need to come forward and provide transparency as to what exactly went down - with receipts.

In the meantime, keep campaigning and organising as usual, perhaps it is better if the movement continues in a more decentralised way anyway.

Originally Posted By u/FourCardStraight At 2025-04-25 01:46:23 AM | Source

Thursday May 1st 5 pm 200 N Washington Ave Courthouse Square. Scranton

Originally Posted By u/Head_Appearance_522 At 2025-04-25 07:54:08 AM | Source

Originally Posted By u/NH_50501 At 2025-04-25 06:14:21 AM | Source

The following post EMERGENT is being posted over and over again in r/50501. I have nothing to do with any of the organizing formally, informally, or otherwise and have no idea what's going on other than the information that is being publicly shared.

I did want to take a moment to explain briefly why non-profits, trademarks, and PACs are important though. Non-profits as both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) provide a formal legal entity that can hold assets (like money) and conduct activity (like pay for materials or pay for legal services). 501(c)(3)s are one of the ways we organize. It's also important to remember that 501(c)(3)s are actually prohibited from being political. 501(c)(4)s are similar to 501(c)(3)s, but donations to them can not be tax deductible, however they are allowed to engage in political activities, like writing legislative proposals and lobbying elected representatives to effect change. And if you want to take in funds to run a campaign to elect certain people to office that is where a PAC would come in to play.

These are formal organizing tools that have been used in social movements consistently going all the way back to the civil rights movement. They are not bad or a determent to organizing. They are how people organize formally. It is also worth remembering that Labor Unions are a type of non-profit, as are Churches. They are a vehicle with a purpose and anyone can form one, they just have legally prescribed purposes and bounds for how they can act.

But then could just anyone form a non-profit and call themselves the same thing to confuse people and potentially tarnish the work you're doing? Maybe.. The way you legally protect your brand and your logos and keep them from being used in an unintended way is through trademark. If you have an image or insignia that is ubiquitous with your organization then you want to trademark it so that someone else doesn't use it for unauthorized purposes (like a false flag violent action).

None of these things are harmful and are tools to facilitate openness and accessibility and movement building if governed in that fashion. An example everyone should be familiar with is Open Source License, which is how and why "freeware" is free and available to distribute and change. It is licensed for that purpose and protects from someone stealing it to license for-profit.

These are tools for organizing in the light and out of the shadows. It should be transparent who is running these, who owns the trademarks (which can be found through the trademark office), and how they are being run. Bylaws for non-profits should be available for inspection as should financial records. And the bylaws would dictate how people are elected or appointed to run these organizations.

Given the times the people who are taking charge of this are taking on serious risk because this is organizing in the light. People associated with these are volunteering to become targets. I don't know the background as to how things were formed or what level of coordination occurred. But just keep in mind that those involved with these are known, they can not be anonymous. For those that organize in the shadows or on twilight's edge, these structures are not the enemy, they are a different parallel method. As long as everyone is fighting for the same goal we should all have solidarity.

Originally Posted By u/lokey_convo At 2025-04-24 11:38:15 PM | Source