I originally hit upon this issue back when digg was popular. I jumped onto reddit early on and came here years later. But before all of this I was on tons of other forums all starting with MS newsgroups. I feel like I going full circle and slowly using more and more sites.
> While I certainly don’t support many of the various subreddits that have been banned, I do think they have a right to speak.
Racism, misogyny, and xenophobia doesn't belong anywhere.
It really depends a lot on what you want to see. There is simply nothing quite comparable to Reddit ATM with so many niches in on place and with such a community feeling. I've searched a lot, too (I'm a fellow ex-redditor).
Rather than focussing on a single replacement, your best bet is probably to go out to a specific niche. That's why I'm on HN, for example. But there's more. Like mechanical keyboards? Visit deskthority, where it all started. Are you a car modder? Try searching up the forum for your car model or brand!
These niche forums can be surprisingly active and they also tend to have more general off-topic discussions, so you'll get that too. And, at last, you might want to take the chance and reduce your social media consumption a bit - these smaller forums don't drag you in as much, take the time and follow your hobbies. It's worth it :)