I'm not convinced down votes do much. I know I don't care a whole lot, personally. They feel like a somewhat toxic holdover from other platforms, a useless form of impersonal disapproval rather than genuine and productive discussion.

Sometimes, I genuinely produce an L take, in which case I'm more concerned about the replies pointing it out.
Sometimes it's just bad phrasing or misunderstanding, where I also try to figure out what I did wrong by how people respond.
And sometimes I find that I kicked a nest of hornets whose opinions and down votes also mean nothing to me, providing validation at best.

I tend to engage way more than I should, telling myself that someone else might read it and take something away from the arguments being made, but just downvoting is probably even less productive. Hence, if you don't wanna deal with their cuntery, blocking them is the most useful and healthy solution for your own sanity and enjoyment.

(I should also note that there are people I've gotten into arguments and disagreements with on here without blocking them. I don't want an echo chamber, and if I silence all who disagree, that's where I'll end up. That's tangential to the point, but my personal reason why I use blocking more sparingly.)

So did I, and then I moved

A person's instance can be an identity, of sorts. Not everyone going to make assumptions about you, but you are going to be exposed to a ton of unconscious bias, regardless.

If I see someone at a baseball game, it's safe to assume that the person actually likes baseball. It's so safe of a guess that many people wouldn't think twice about making that assumption.

I am simply calling out the conundrum for what it is. Stereotyping isn't the best thing in the world, but it is inevitable.