I get downvoted fairly frequently and I don't mind. Sometimes it helps make my point, typically around censorship. It will be bad for another year or two but the Overton window is sliding back towards the middle and hopefully we can get back to people having opinions that differ from the mainstream not being reflexabily punished on sight. I vote in favor of downvotes.

More oft than not, downvotes reflect the biases (read: blindness) of those downvoting.

What is the point then of having a downvote option that is exclusively available to "seasoned users" if they are going to act like children again

i dont mind the downvoting itself, but the fact that it is used as an emotional release. that s contrary to the dynamics of the site here, which generally promotes frank discussion and not quick dismissals

If the term were "Disagree" rather than "Downvote", the atmosphere would be more civil. Also, this would encourage more temperate minded folks to express themselves, and I think that would be more informative. As it is, "Downvote" tends to smear both sides of an issue rather than open a discussion attempting to understand and moderate the issue.

There's a down vote? I'm only aware of the up arrow and the minus sign.

Yes. You just don't see it because you don't have enough karma for it yet.