That's just hilarious. For as long as I'm saying things that conform with the majority's opinion, I will be upvoted. But when a have a different opinion, then I will be downvoted until I censor myself back into conformity. Is that how things work here, on Hacker News?
Have you by any chance heard of concepts like pluralism of opinions, freedom of expression and that sort of things? I'm not sure where you come from, but in some parts of the world people are freely able to have a civilized discussion around complex and sometimes controversial matters. You may consider going abroad, living there for a while and learning how a liberal society works. Will be a great help to you.
BTW: I did not downvote you.
I can't really crop my ideas if some parts of them are not well received. They come as packages, I either tell what's truly on my mind regarding some matter or I don't tell it at all.
If I can't say what I mean, then I can never mean what I say. And then the entire dialogue becomes meaningless.
I agree with a lot of what you say but I won't upvote a comment that compares bad practices in academia to child abuse.
For the kids that are beaten, burned, neglected, abused etc: please change that.