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Here's a tip which I find helpful in many forums : If I don't want to be downvoted, avoiding using an abrasive manner when criticizing many of the users is something that seems to help.

If you don't mind being downvoted, then one can, of course, disregard that, but if one does, one shouldn't complain about being downvoted afterwards.

Your account seems quite new. You're allowed to be negative on HN. But empty rants will get downvoted. You might be interested in this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9317916

I downvoted you for being ridiculously reductive. Whatever you consider to the the opposite of an ear bud is probably also being pitched by some "tech" company. Even assuming tech companies are overall bad, you're just throwing confirmation bias at the problem.