I believe it does. I wish we were back to an internet where none of that garbage existed. Because all that bringing voting systems and karma systems has done, is make people fret about what they say. Because it’s hard to tell sometimes if they’re saying it while focusing on the score they’ll receive after saying it, than they’re saying it and not do that.
And that even includes the ones who really have these systems go to their heads. Where, the higher karma count they’ve acquired, the more of a holier-than-thou attitude they possess.
Voting provides feedback and a way to democratically determine something’s visibility. I would call it a stretch to say something is invalidated just because it’s unpopular. The only benefit to having a popular post/comment is better visibility. The points themselves have no value beyond what you personally give them.
Some people will filter what they say to exploit this system, but no system of even modest complexity would be fully immune to that. If there is a problem, it’s the users having poor judgement, but it’s beyond the scope of a forum sorting system to save people from themselves.