I'm not upset at downvotes. My comment got plenty of 'em. It's fine.

If the meaning of them is so individual and nebulous, then I'm even more mystified why anyone would hand them out. You dislike something, but so what? What's anyone supposed to do with that information? They can't be interpreted as anything apparently. Lemmy's userbase is too shallow and it's sorting algorithms too unsophisticated for anything to get buried. So it's an action without a goal, a petulant thumbs down that in most cases just leaves someone puzzled as to why it happened at all.