Something is also wrong if he has to be scared of karma hits for defending "the other side".
It's no longer a joke at slashdot. The metamod system is either impotent, or itself co-opted (nobody meta-downmodding downmods of "the other side") or both.
Thus does an online, mutually-reinforcing meme community drive out any rational discussion, thus giving themselves an even falser sense of security that their received wisdom is settled.
The meme as independent entity, which nobody "really believes in", has human actors as enforcement mechanisms in itself like enzymes and protiens in cells.
"What is thy bidding, my master, I mean, my meme?"