I was on Reddit since 2010 and it has always been a shit place. I stuck around for small subs, but Reddit at large was always a refuge for racists, misogynists, and reactionaries. I was around for the fall of violentacrez; anyone remember that disgusting creep and how Reddit gave him a stupid fucking golden Snoo for running an insane number of creepy and violent subs? Until the existence of r/jailbait became a scandal and liability, so they axed him, and the majority of users from what I could see were wailing and gnashing teeth over not being able to post sexual pictures of minors? Anyone remember the r/creepshots debacle?
Idk why y'all think there was some golden age of reddit. It was always a hellsite run by creeps and Nazi sympathizers that happened to also be an okay platform for niche forums (which, in my experience, were constantly getting trolled and harassed by the knuckle-draggers who formed the site's primary demographic). The only thing that surprised me about the last month's events were how many people were surprised.
I think it has more to do with the massive reduction in the reserve labor army in the last few years due to people dying of and becoming disabled by COVID. The remaining labor force is smaller and is therefore better able to negotiate higher wages and better working conditions, while employers are left scrambling to fill empty positions, especially in industries that have historically been awful to work in like retail and food service. Forcing and coercing reproduction will lead to an increased reserve labor army, reduce the power of workers collectively and individually, and reduce the number of workers who are able to participate in disruptive organization (ie unionization) purely due to a lack of surplus time and resources. It also has the effect of oppressing those of us labeled "women" due to our bodies being the means of reproduction, which is a win for the right wing in particular both economically and ideologically.