Back in the day I used to see tons of posts claiming that Reddit was "the elite", in comparison to the likes of Facebook, or Twitter, or Tumblr, or Instagram, and so on. So, while your statement is technically true (the best kind!), that anti-Reddit people don't tend to say so...on Reddit, so much as here anyway (though if you look in the likes of r/ModCoord, occasionally there is a comment that makes it past the new mods and is allowed to criticize Reddit in some way) I think it's common to all social media. We (in-group) are The Best! :-P

There’s also that weird “we’re better than people on Reddit” smugness.

It’s rare, but it is a unique brand of fuckery you don’t have to deal with over there.

Isn't the Reddit equivalent something along the lines of, "We're better than people on [social media]" smugness? Social media being a catchall for say, Facebook, Twitter, or in the past few years, TikTok.

It reminds me of the classic silliness of competing forums for the same subject/topic back in the day. "We on TechFans95 are so much better than people on TechFans94" and vice versa.

The smugness can be a bit annoying but I interpret it as mostly jokes and healthy for the growth of the platform. I am enjoying myself more here than on Reddit, and when I see that others share that sentiment (smugly or not), it does embolden me to encourage my friends to give Lemmy a try.