So far, I've really only down voted chesters or abusive posts, I hadn't considered the down voting trends, you're giving me a lot to chew on haha.
I have to say that I agree that it's hard to identify when to down vote sometimes. For example, check out this gem of a conversation that I did not down vote because I believe the OP was being genuine, even though I can't stomach his line of thinking: https://steemit.com/homosexuality/@miguel12/the-cause-of-homosexuality
So I've determined how I'm going to respond to genuine OP's who's views I disagree with, but now I have to consider trending topics. This Steem addiction isn't easy