Short attention span?

Maybe someone was carpet bombing and didn't realize what he was uprating. Or someone just agrees and/or thought it was funny.

Maybe they SUCK THE BIG ONE just as much as the first person?

I'm not sure, maybe posi-trolling at random!

I have a couple of guesses: First, that bigoted people tend to think alike and perhaps someone found the rare occasion to support an idea similar to his/her own. The second, well, I sometimes wonder if there are some members who just love to support the controversial questions/answers because they are addicted to the drama and excitement of stirring the pot. The third, and I wish this weren't true, but I believe that people will uprate their friends even if they don't believe what the person is saying. I doubt if they even bother reading the questions/answers. Sad, huh?

I don't understand why anyone would. Anything that is insulting to others, etc... should not be uprated. That is just not right.

I would not even know why but if i seen it i would flag it as i do not think this place needs such answers.

I think the level of acceptance and sensitivity to what you call "bigotry", "discrimination" and "derogatory descriptions" is different from one person to another. Lets not forget that some truly offensive and useless material might find an audience, whether it's on answerbag or tv/movies/music! You are a sensitive and positive person and therefore you do find offense in such words/actions. I do too. Others could have a higher tolerance level and some are so desensitized to violence they actually like it and encourage it. Just as an example, being gay myself, I am surrounded by those discriminatory words like "tranny", "faggot", "cocksucker" etc... all the time! ... I used to take offense in those before, but now, they're just part of my world to the point I don't see offense at all! If I was offended every single time I heard those, how miserable my life would be! It is just another way to describe us, a way that, yes, is a little more rude, but I just call it "clumsy", "misinformed" or simply "childish"! By reacting strongly to those terms, you will just seal shut the mind of the other person. If you just let it go and show how truly a good person you are instead, they'll realize on their own their spirit is on a wrong track and make the changes themselves. I sometimes call myself by those words around those people to show how well I am with it and how much I don't really care for that. Acceptance STARTS with acceptance. Beat the fire with fire. Maybe it's a form of desensitization for me, but I think it was necessary at one point. Not that I think those words are "forgivable" in a context of an informative internet site such as ABag, just that I think the offense starts within the offended, not the offender, and that it's all a question of perception.

Presumably because the person doing the up-rating shares the bigoted, discriminatory or derogatory views of the person who made the original posting and is demonstrating his support, ill-advised though others may think it is.

Maybe because downrating a person for expressing their opinions is as cheap, shallow, and juvenile as people using unnecessary slurs is. Just because you dislike someone's language or disagree with their viewpoints or beliefs is no reason to hurt their standing in the community. If I thought it was, I'd be smacking people right and left with downrates for some of the idiotic things I've seen here. I don't agree with a lot of what I see -- in fact, I agree with damn little of it -- but I maintain the utmost respect for a person's rights to believe what they do and express it. I think too many thin-skinned, oversensitive sissies make these types of venues unbearable and unattractive for people that are just speaking their minds nand not concerning themselves with being "politically correct." Personally, I'd like to see the format changed so that every time someone uprates you or downrates you, it puts their name there so others can see who's doing the damage. Make people accountable for their behavior and they'll stop doing it. I hate cowards that snipe points off of people and don't have the backbone to say why.

I'm not sure, hun. Maybe because their answer would have been just as bigoted, but they were too frightened to answer the question themselves?

The trolling of good answers has created a sense that any downrating is bad. I see alot of uprates after a down rate. I think some folks downrate just to place their own answers in a higher ranking in the question.

I would say it's probably a troll who shares the same ignorant, juvenile, bigoted opinions as the person they are rating. the same trolls DR anyone with whom they do not agree. seems to follow, they would uprate someone who is equally as hateful.

I have not clue...I myself have uprated when a friend has been down rated and their answer had merit. I would think "why was this down rated"....who can figure it out.