The only interesting thing about this is left out. Who planted it is clear (someone told to do so) but not a single time is it questioned who they planted it for. Smells like false flag to me.
We think China does X Y and Z but we know the US does X Y Z and the rest of the alphabet. So unless something specific is leaked that shows who actually ordered this, logic would point at the US.
I find it quite amusing that you two see "reddit downvote conservative posts" and "/r/politics having a clearly left lean". I stopped using Reddit because of two things: Everything is extremely US-centric and everything is clearly right leaning. I guess it depends on your point of view. At least as a European I can't recognize the left-lean at all.