[cronjobber]

If humans had parasites that would encourage them to be altruists against their interest and for the sole benefit of their parasites—which is of course implausible and hypothetical and absolutely not even possible—would they make us downvote and flag comments on HN discussing the possibility of parasites manipulating humans to be altruists against their interest?

[ianai]

The popularity of cats on the internet is at odds with your premise. They've clearly infected many humans with thought changing microbes and yet ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H...what were we talking about?

[Poodlemastah]

Uhm, just saying, you guys ever heard of toxoplasmosis?

[crimsonalucard]

Anybody who down votes you is probably infected.