Some people - OK, one guy, using two accounts, which is highly ironic considering the topic - have suggested that getting rid of the upvote/favorite counts woul

Some people - OK, one guy, using two accounts, which is highly ironic considering the topic - have suggested that getting rid of the upvote/favorite counts would help. I disagree. Such things can be useful. We even use those counts here, and for all the many faults with the specific system used here its overall effect is slightly beneficial. I think getting rid of retweet/re-share/etc. buttons is more likely to help (though still no panacea). When it's so easy to amplify someone else's message, lazy people do exactly that. Even fewer than before - and there were never enough - add their own personal thoughts. Messages that are directly targeted at their audience's ideological center get amplified far more than messages that are more neutral. The result is more conformity within groups and more polarization between them. Then bots and dedicated troll armies (I was recently targeted by one) make it even worse. As with disease, slowing the spread of harmful and hateful memes might keep them from reaching epidemic proportions.