What's up with Reddit? in anticlimatic

I’m not very tech savvy these days, but I do have a short list of reddit “subs” that I browse for news and entertainment, and I enjoy them. I don’t typically participate in conversation. One of the subs I’m subscribed to is just named after my state, and advertises state pertinent news and media. Whose alley wouldn’t that be down? Unfortunately, the only thing posted to it seemed to be partisan politics, which I didn’t really understand. So I braved the commenting ecosystem and asked why that was. I was advised that I did not have enough “karma” to comment without the approval of a mod (I had 7 karma or so at the time I believe), but after a brief wait my comment must have been approved because my karma went from 7 to -99, which I assume is the max negative, because the amount of dislikes my post got far exceeded 99.

For a question.

What gives? No wonder each sub I subscribe to seems to exist in its own universe independent of other ones, their karma system seems to be designed around creating echo chambers.

What a wasted opportunity. Why is it that a thing’s popularity is directly proportionate to how ASS it becomes?