The reddit trap. Upvotes are supposed to be given for a good reply, even if it's against your opinion, not a reply that you happen to agree with. Same with downvotes.

Never happens, thus censorious fence sittery.

If you’re the one with the unpopular opinion, even if it is correct, then you will always find yourself being the one “shouted down”. But if you never find yourself shouted down, perhaps you are less nonconformist than you think?

You can’t be both nonconformist and also never shouted down. It’s a contradiction.

Explain. In what way?

Edit: I tried to just post that I think I understand where you’re coming from: people disagreeing but without giving actual reasons. Which is toxic. And guess what: I got “you’re posting too fast”. Thanks for enabling real discussions by nonconformists, hacker news!