I believe if I don't like something I don't vote on it. That steers as well. I down vote on obvious plagiarism and on things that could be deemed offensive (graphic porn gifs, graphic violence gifs) without warning the person and allowing them to opt into seeing it first. Other than that I will not down vote something simply because I disagree with it. Since the FLAG is not next to the up vote. I view it more as a REPORT THIS POST than I do an actual down vote. This is of course my opinion. I don't like liberal use of the down vote as I believe it can lead to circle jerks and people voting down well made comments and posts simply because they don't like the person's thought process. This ruins many channels on reddit IMO. "Don't post in r/politics about X,Y,Z, or the moderators and people will down vote you into non-existence." I can disagree and choose not to vote, or I can disagree and choose to respond and have a civil discussion with the person. Sometimes I'll up vote people I disagree with just for being civil and having a discussion with me and making me think. YOU WON'T LEARN MUCH BY ONLY TALKING TO PEOPLE THAT ALREADY AGREE WITH YOU. You learn the most by having GOOD discussions with people who you may disagree with.