I don't think social media marketing is cheating the system, but I find it ironic that Reddit users complain about the lack of democracy in a system they don't really benefit from if true democracy exists. Self interest is a powerful thing. I'm a marketer myself, this is just one of those things I've always thought needed an opposing view.

"However, a site that promotes itself and brags of being a completely democratic site where users determine if content is seen or not, then turns around and allows a handful of people to moderate at their own discretion and then run robots to auto remove content. Well that is hypocritical at best. "

Agree 100 percent, and I applaud your willingness to bring it to attention. It's obvious that something fishy is happening at these voting sites anytime there's an issue (especially a political one) that someone or some bot wants to get or not get attention.