I’m echoing other commenters somewhat, but—personally—I do not see people being down-voted simply for having different viewpoints. I’m very sympathetic to people trying to genuinely argue against “prevailing” attitudes or simply trying to foster a better general understanding. (E.g. I appreciate Matthew Barnett’s presence, even though I very much disagree with his conclusions and find him overconfident).
Now, of course, the fact that I don’t notice the kind of posts you say are being down-voted may be because they are sufficiently filtered out, which indeed would be undesirable from my perspective and good to know.
I’m echoing other commenters somewhat, but—personally—I do not see people being down-voted simply for having different viewpoints. I’m very sympathetic to people trying to genuinely argue against “prevailing” attitudes or simply trying to foster a better general understanding. (E.g. I appreciate Matthew Barnett’s presence, even though I very much disagree with his conclusions and find him overconfident). Now, of course, the fact that I don’t notice the kind of posts you say are being down-voted may be because they are sufficiently filtered out, which indeed would be undesirable from my perspective and good to know.