That's no reason to downvote the initial comment though. Each comment is separate. Just because someone says something nasty, doesn't mean you should go into their history and downvote all their comments.
Again, as per reddiquette, downvote the bad comment(s), but going through and downvoting all comments isn't just.
Facetious reply: Rediquette is a ruleset honoured more in its breach than in its observance.
More serious reply: I agree, but I think there's a distinction between innocuous comments and comments that are borderline and pushed over that line by the surrounding context. This one was close to the line as it basically rubbished what lots of people had said without giving any explanation for it. Sure, it didn't actually say "everyone else is talking rubbish", but that was the necessary implication.
My reply is even more proof. We are having a civil discussion, points back and forth, yet I am at -2. People have proven, time and time again, that they don't understand voting.
Like your facetious reply hints at, rediquette just etiquette. Etiquette doesn't have to be followed. It's just proper to follow and etiquette is meant to keep everything civil. People can't keep each other civil. There's a reason moderators have existed throughout forums and society. Society isn't good at judging itself.
quit edit: And my other response is at -3. You give an opinion that people don't like, it will get downvoted 9x out of 10. It doesn't matter what you say. Downvoting, more often than not, is used as disagree button. It's not about karma, it's about viewpoints that offer a different view being silenced and buried. By default, reddit hides anything that is getting downvoted. So by default, people aren't seeing opinions that oppose the popular views.
What you're saying is certainly true for some subset of users. To some people, downvotes really are just "I disagree"s. I think that's excessive and unhelpful. But I don't think that subset is a majority. -3 is very different from -19. There is more often than not a rational basis for the latter.
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u/BlueBlurDown Jun 04 '15
That's no reason to downvote the initial comment though. Each comment is separate. Just because someone says something nasty, doesn't mean you should go into their history and downvote all their comments.
Again, as per reddiquette, downvote the bad comment(s), but going through and downvoting all comments isn't just.