Welcome to HN!<p>Since others covered the topic of metaphors, let me give just a quick practical hint instead. <i>Ignore the downvotes</i>. That is, try and detach yourself emotionally from them.<p>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 <i>civil</i>. 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.<p>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&#x27;t perfect and people aren&#x27;t perfect either; hell, it&#x27;s easy to get downvoted by accident because up and down arrows are <i>way</i> too close to each other, especially on mobile :).