The stuff that gets downvoted on Hacker News

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

In recent months (with some worry that I might be wasting my time) I started to become active participating in conversations on Hacker News. I guess the hope is that these conversations might be more intelligent than what happens in most other open forums on the web. More recently my view has swung round to what I initially feared: this might be a waste of time. Comments can be upvoted or downvoted, and recently people have become aggressive about downvoting any comment they dislike. An example:

Someone wrote:

I don’t disagree with the spirit of what you’re saying, but people and businesses are naturally inclined to game whatever rules and regulations are in place if it means maximizing revenue. While jail time may not be the answer, I do think a stick might be more effective than a carrot.

To which I replied:

I am curious how far you want to go with the idea that a stick is more effective than a carrot. Do you feel that economies where the bulk of economic activity is organized via free actors engage in voluntary exchange tend to be more dynamic than economies where the government plays the major role in organizing economic activity? If not, on what basis would you justify allowing the existence of non-governmental economic activity?

My comment got downvoted. But is it the kind of post that can be described as spam, or trolling?

Life is short. I already know that most people disagree with me about most things, I do not need another forum to remind me of this. And Codewi.se needs my time. I think wisdom suggests that I re-focus my energies away from Hacker News.