Why is it that any criticism of factory farming seems to get downvotes (like your comment and parent comment) on HN?

the flagged comment said something along the lines of "because meat eaters don't want to feel guilty," which seems like a reasonable take to me. it's at least part of the answer.

To make this explicit: HN users shouldn't be downvoting due to disagreement or personal feelings of embarrassment. If the comment is too short and doesn't contribute towards a deeper conversation, that could be why it gets downvoted. For instance, though I agree meat eaters may not like the above, it's also possible others simply feel the comments are low effort compared to other comments.

> HN users shouldn't be downvoting due to disagreement or personal feelings of embarrassment

FWIW, this has been debated several times recently, and generally some one ends up quoting some PG comment about how downvoting as disagreements is fine.

Well, if PG says it, we'd better all do it. Now if you downvote me due to disagreeing, you're disagreeing with the notion that you're employing. Mwahahaha. Recursive gotcha.

I mean I don’t particularly agree with it, I’ve just given up this fight personally.