Downvoting this! Just kidding. Seriously, while I don't think downvoting is intrinsically bad -- I think it can be a good signal -- I definitely get the impress

Downvoting this! Just kidding. Seriously, while I don't think downvoting is intrinsically bad -- I think it can be a good signal -- I definitely get the impression it's occasionally used less as a signal of quality (e.g., this comment is off-topic, incoherent, or just trolling) than as a signal of identity (e.g., this comment seems to align with ideologies I oppose). The latter tends to happen more on political topics, of course, but not exclusively so. And, "controversial vs. agreeable" is kind of at the heart of that, right? I'm pretty sure there are a small handful of people who just aggressively downvote anything that sounds too [ socialist | capitalist | libertarian | communist | ... ] because they don't find it "agreeable."