The children look like theyre being held hostage to do this , and the dad is ADHD . <| sep |> Downvoting hides comments once they get below a certain threshold . Unsure what the limit is This allows comments to be downvoted that do not contribute to discussion . If there was no downvote button , these comments would remain visible . You don ' t want to give comments that do not contribute any more attention than they already have . Allowing them to be downvoted allows them to be hidden which is a good thing . Mods have a tough enough job , they can ' t remove comments that don ' t contribute . Also , a comment can not contribute but also bot break any rules . If mods go removing comments that don ' t break rules but simply don ' t contribute , that can be a slippery slope . Allowing the users to police comments that don ' t contribute takes a little work off the mods . Downvotes are a good thing and they won ' t be disappearing any time soon .