On Reddit I see many comments, convincingly written, that are (imo) flatly wrong. These comments are potentially very harmful because they're persuading others of a falsehood. Am I supposed to upvote or downvote? (what I actually tend to do is not visit the site)
Downvoting a good-faith comment because you disagree with it does no one any favors. It creates a sense of persecution among those who disagree with you, while not actually providing any counter-argument for the benefit of the undecided. Leave the vote counts alone, make your own convincing argument.
And this is evil being done as good men stay silent.
There might indeed be many that are not so petulant that they would downvote an otherwise non rule-breaking comment they disagree with, but few of them will find themselves upvoting something they disagree with either, and there will still be some that downvote it.
Thus, an unpopular opinion that otherwise contributes will eventually be downvoted for not receiving enough upvotes.
> falsehood
Subjectivity and truthiness are opposed.
* If the question is "who is the current world chess champion" the answer is Magnus Carlson.
* If the question is "who is the greatest chess player of all time," there are a number of contradictory opinions.
"Bobby Fischer" is a low-quality answer. "Bobby Fischer because XYZ" is a high-quality answer, even if I don't agree.
Unfortunately that's rarely the case. More often three of their last four comments contain racial slurs and misspellings of two-letter words, which doesn't instill a huge amount of confidence that they know what they're talking about.