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It's sarcasm. Dry as dust sarcasm. I'd put an /s, but that's not my style of humor. I had a hunch when I made the step from lurker to poster that no matter what I said, and I mean what, I'd be downvoted and called a troll or a man; hence my username. My hunch was proven correct. There is a small fraction of users on here who genuinely want to debate, and the great majority else want to boo outgroup.
One has to wonder, though, if those who do the downvoting are those same users with whom you are debating. As you must realize, having been one, there are many lurkers here. I find that almost any civil reply, even if it is in extreme disagreement, is preferable to the smug dismissal, or the silent downvote.
I really did wonder that was well, and I came to this conclusion; there's downvoting because you disagree with an argument, downvoting because you believe there is a rule violation, and then downvoting because you dislike someone. I consider users who I am debating with in good faith to be in the first two camps and everyone else in the third. I'm pretty sure for a great deal of users if I typed "The sky is blue" I'd be downvoted to the negatives, that is how overwhelming my numbers are sometimes.
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They are not, in my case at least. I try to upvote people I debate with to counteract the downvote swarm, but it is a losing battle.
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