I don't know why you are getting downvoted. While I might agree or disagree with the argument, it is a clear, politely expressed view.

It is sad HN is sliding in the direction of folks being downvoted for opinions instead of the tone they use to express them :(

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nothrabannosir 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I agree with you, but:

> I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness.

- Paul Graham, 2008

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

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ptero 6 hours ago | parent [-]

That view is about 18 years old and HN was very different then.

As with any communication platform it risks turning into an echo chamber, and I am pretty sure that particular PG view has been rejected for many years (I think dang wrote on this more than once). HN works very hard to avoid becoming politicized and not discouraging minority views is a large part of that.

For example, I now seldom bother to write anything that I expect to rub the left coast folks the wrong way: I don't care about karma, but downvoted posts are effectively hidden. There is little point of writing things that few will see. It is not too bad at HN yet, but the acceptance of the downvote for disagreement is the strongest thing that pushes HN from discussions of curious individuals towards the blah-quality of "who gets more supporters" goals of the modern social media. My 2c.

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irishcoffee 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> HN works very hard to avoid becoming politicized and not discouraging minority views is a large part of that.

> For example, I now seldom bother to write anything that I expect to rub the left coast folks the wrong way: I don't care about karma, but downvoted posts are effectively hidden. There is little point of writing things that few will see.

These two statements don't seem to agree with each other.

	▲	ptero 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Why? Work hard doesn't mean fully succeed. HN policies and algorithms slow the slide, and keep it better than reddit, but the set of topics that allow one to take a minority opinion without downvoting keeps shrinking. At least compared to the time 10-15 years ago.