They were tricked from day one, when the founders pretended to be different people to make the site look busier than it really was.

They are tricked every day by bots, troll farms, spammers, astroturfers, bought-out moderators, corrupt admins, etc.

Go look at the founders page, where Aaron Swartz used to be.

Look into who maxwellhill probably was (first Redditor to a million karma and mod of some huge and deranged subs like worldnews).

Look into how certain keywords get shadowbanned.

Look into the mod and admin cabals with their private agendas.

Look into the way many national subs were taken over in quiet coups.

There are nice things about Reddit, even today, but the idea that users know what they're getting into is deeply naive.