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> and the downvotes are because.... The downvotes are because they disagree with your politics. The tough part is all your statements hold truth. We must face

> and the downvotes are because.... The downvotes are because they disagree with your politics. The tough part is all your statements hold truth. We must face that if we want to find real answers. Down voting is supposed to be used to indicate a comment has no relevance to the conversation. Conversely, each of your statements must be part of the conversation. [ upvoted ] ( instantly downvoted )

eloff 5y ago
It's odd because I'm all over the place on the political spectrum, and I didn't even take a side here other than to discuss how it makes me feel thinking about the place of my birth, which will suffer, and expressing my uncertainty in whether this is a good or bad thing overall - which is more honest than what any of those politicians have done. Maybe people don't like nuance and prefer to see the world in black and white where it agrees or disagrees with their views. I don't like to believe that's true, but it probably is in general.
- happytoexplain 5y ago
  It seems unfair and unnecessarily hostile to speculate about a subset of people you just addressed ("Maybe people don't like nuance and prefer to see the world in black and white") when the only thing you know about them is that they disagreed with you for some reason. It is of course natural to be annoyed by downvotes, but the urge to start painting yourself as a victim and the anonymous mass as unthinking tends to create a really bad atmosphere for discussion. Now, if you wanted to criticize the downvote mechanism in general, maybe it would be considered off topic by HN rules, but it certainly wouldn't be unreasonable. Edit: Also, perhaps some of your downvotes are due to your commenting on your own downvotes. Personally, I always downvote those kinds of comments (including the self-fulfilling-prophecy version: "I'll be downvoted/flagged for this, but..."), even if I find the rest of the post interesting, or completely agree with them. But I have no idea if other people do that.
  - eloff 5y ago
    Other reasons I might speculate about are just as uncharitable. Such as, they have no understanding of microeconomics as applied to a good with inelastic demand. Or they just read the first sentence and down voted and moved on. At best I think one could argue I phrased things such that it rubbed people the wrong way. Possibly the last comment about politicians.
rcurry 5y ago
I agree - it’s a well reasoned post and I enjoyed reading it.
WalterGR 5y ago
Down voting is supposed to be used to indicate a comment has no relevance to the conversation. Conversely, each of your statements must be part of the conversation. [ upvoted ] ( instantly downvoted ) This site's guidelines: "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
useragent86 5y ago
> Down voting is supposed to be used to indicate a comment has no relevance to the conversation. Actually, it's not. It should be, but it's not. In fact, on HN, downvoting purely to signal disagreement, without offering any rebuttal or substance, is working-as-intended. pg and dang have said so themselves. It's one of the reasons HN is not actually the place to go for those who are intellectually curious, despite that being the site's claimed purpose.

eloff 5y ago

It's odd because I'm all over the place on the political spectrum, and I didn't even take a side here other than to discuss how it makes me feel thinking about the place of my birth, which will suffer, and expressing my uncertainty in whether this is a good or bad thing overall - which is more honest than what any of those politicians have done. Maybe people don't like nuance and prefer to see the world in black and white where it agrees or disagrees with their views. I don't like to believe that's true, but it probably is in general.

happytoexplain 5y ago
It seems unfair and unnecessarily hostile to speculate about a subset of people you just addressed ("Maybe people don't like nuance and prefer to see the world in black and white") when the only thing you know about them is that they disagreed with you for some reason. It is of course natural to be annoyed by downvotes, but the urge to start painting yourself as a victim and the anonymous mass as unthinking tends to create a really bad atmosphere for discussion. Now, if you wanted to criticize the downvote mechanism in general, maybe it would be considered off topic by HN rules, but it certainly wouldn't be unreasonable. Edit: Also, perhaps some of your downvotes are due to your commenting on your own downvotes. Personally, I always downvote those kinds of comments (including the self-fulfilling-prophecy version: "I'll be downvoted/flagged for this, but..."), even if I find the rest of the post interesting, or completely agree with them. But I have no idea if other people do that.
- eloff 5y ago
  Other reasons I might speculate about are just as uncharitable. Such as, they have no understanding of microeconomics as applied to a good with inelastic demand. Or they just read the first sentence and down voted and moved on. At best I think one could argue I phrased things such that it rubbed people the wrong way. Possibly the last comment about politicians.

rcurry 5y ago

I agree - it’s a well reasoned post and I enjoyed reading it.

WalterGR 5y ago

Down voting is supposed to be used to indicate a comment has no relevance to the conversation. Conversely, each of your statements must be part of the conversation. [ upvoted ] ( instantly downvoted ) This site's guidelines: "Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

useragent86 5y ago

> Down voting is supposed to be used to indicate a comment has no relevance to the conversation. Actually, it's not. It should be, but it's not. In fact, on HN, downvoting purely to signal disagreement, without offering any rebuttal or substance, is working-as-intended. pg and dang have said so themselves. It's one of the reasons HN is not actually the place to go for those who are intellectually curious, despite that being the site's claimed purpose.