And yet it would have appeared on your screen nevertheless. You, or others in your position, also wouldn't have replied to me in such an instance, if you didn't

And yet it would have appeared on your screen nevertheless. You, or others in your position, also wouldn't have replied to me in such an instance, if you didn't want to discuss the topic. I was asking for a reason why my comment was being downvoted, not why people weren't replying to it. The discussion is not only about Mastodon, but the importance and meaning and implementation of censorship on Mastodon instances. It is as much a political and social issue as it is a technical one, as any article about tech law or policy will tell you. I picked up on one particular aspect of the social issue. Your explanation, well intentioned as it may have been, failed to explain why people were downvoting, or at least from my point of view failed to rationalise the behavior of the downvoters.