It feels to me as though downvoting simply to express disagreement started to increase after the point display got removed from individual posts. I think in th

It feels to me as though downvoting simply to express disagreement started to increase after the point display got removed from individual posts. I think in the past, if people saw a comment they really disagreed with, but it had only 2 or 3 points, there was a tendency to say "Of course it's got no points, nobody agrees with it." But once points went away, there's now a tendency to say, "I'd better downvote this stupid comment, just in case there are idiots out there voting it up."