Hey there, friend :)
I just wanted to mention to you directly that you are a human being and you have choices here.
First acknowledging that you do need to stay employed of course and I don’t blame you, as the worker, for helping Reddit during this moment. But there are these few moments each day at your work where you can make small, deliberate decisions on behalf of your fellow human beings over hollow corporate furtherance.
Just do a bit less each day. Forget to send an email here and there. Copy the wrong “Debbie” or “Todd” in that email that you do send - honest mistake. Forget to ban that mod you are asked to ban, or forget one in the group. If you’re feeling bold, get off of your work machine and reach out to those mods on a dummy account with a heads up.
Again, not you’re fault as an individual either inn a broken system, but you probably have small opportunities every day to help the world and hurt Reddit a bit. Embrace those opportunities.
We believe in you.
So worded a bit more harshly, mention past problems if necessary but make it look like you’ll cover for the potential employer when they fuck up, too.
Politeness is necessary for human interaction, but I will point out it doesn’t make sense.
It’s more, point out past employers’ flaws where it doesn’t look like an excuse for your own, or where you can use it to show that the reasons you left that employer totally won’t apply here because this place is better in exactly the ways you’re looking for.