Thanks for the comments. I think given some of the responses in this post, we can see precisely the kind of behaviour that is making the notion of downvoting problematic.

I wanted to pop this is the original post, as it was in the back of my mind whilst thinking about this whole issue, and that is the episode of The Orville, "Majority Rule". This show is a Star Trek satire (although nowhere near as funny as Galaxy Quest). But this episode is at the same time a great example of how Sci-Fi holds a 'dark mirror' up to society and says, "do you see what you are?"

I'd love to see a discussion happening on the palnet forum here, so come on over...

Here's an overview, which is quite good and funny.