Ain't much better in here kid.

Are you talking about here? Or Reddit? I've definitely noticed some downvote trolling has been picking up here.

Stop talking about Reddit.

It happens here too. This place isn't exempt.

I think it happens all over and sometimes it really kind of depends on how long your argument is and the general impression people get from the first part of it. If you’re making a devil’s advocate argument in the first part, but then the twist comes later on, people are going to think your first devil’s advocate argument is the gist of it and downvote you based on that alone without getting into the nitty gritty. If people can form a knee-jerk reaction within the first few seconds of reading your post, they will, nuance gets lost.

I find it so easy to ignore the votes because all I care about is engagement. IDGAF about the arrows. Talk to me. Tell me why I suck.

It's also a lot of bots. They are here too. For example, just say China plus something negative about them, ~~in a thread about China~~. Easiest downvoted one can get. Make sure it's a fact and not whataboutism, to avoid contaminating the test.

Just ignore up and down votes. They do not matter at all. If someone or a group don't like your comment, well that's a them problem. It should have no bearing on your life what so ever.

Reddit hivemind has been a thing for the entire history of Reddit.

"…or is this actually a thing now?"

Always has been.

I'll see myself out.

Your first mistake was going to reddit.

thats so true. i once was downvoted to oblivion because i asked what the posted meme meant since it wasnt obvious

POV : you say something moderately supportive of Palestine in the worldnews subreddit

Can we get a sample of these "unpopular opinions"?

Lemmy*

there is a movement, they will soon learn....hahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahhah ahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahahah

This has always been a thing and is one on Lemmy too.

My dude, there are plenty of actual automated bots on Reddit. IIRC when Reddit cracked down hard on bot accounts recently, over half of users and participation in many subreddits also decreased. That alone says that there is artificial engagement on Reddit rather than genuine human interaction (which vindicates the dead Internet theory). It explains a lot as to why a very innocent and neutral comment somehow gets a downvote: they are just bots downvoting.

Even here in Lemmy, there are downvotes on the same benign comments and no explanation as to why someone would disagree. But even if the comment is political in nature, there are downvotes but no feedback as to why one would disagree. There is a post on c/climate on European Greens calling for Jill Stein not to run for US presidential elections because she would just siphon the votes from liberals and progressives even though she will not win. And many comments on that post are getting half or a third of downvotes, but there are no accompanying disagreeing comments to explain the disagreement. It is clear that there are bots in that post who are trying to downplay the repercussions of Stein running to US elections and democracy.