I wouldn’t take it as face value, it reads more like a deliberate leak to the press, than an actual email to employees.

Not that warming people not to identify themselves as Reddit employees isn’t a sensible message, emotions are high and it only takes one crazy person.

You clearly are not /u/spez

No this is something big companies do all the time to test how well it does with a subset of customers before rolling it out fully.

Beehaw didn’t seem too bad, what’s up with them?

Political? For everyone outside of America that’s just common sense.