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Since others covered the topic of metaphors, let me give just a quick practical hint instead. Ignore the downvotes. That is, try and detach yourself emotionally from them.

Even the most controversial opinions get a fair hearing if you take little care to keep them civil. Not politically correct, not hedged every other word, just civil. Still, even if Jesus himself were to write a HN comment that goes agaist status quo, he could catch occasional downvotes. Because people are people. But what ultimately matters here is if people engage with your argument. Catching a few downvotes is totally worth it if it leads to a constructive discussion.

And yes, you can expect that even most benign comments will occasionally catch some random downvotes. Your comment may get down to negative karma for a while, but it usually settles back to a positive score within an hour or two. Karma system isn't perfect and people aren't perfect either; hell, it's easy to get downvoted by accident because up and down arrows are way too close to each other, especially on mobile :).




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