[LinuxBender]

Is it (A) in my head, (B) an inevitable stage of all maturing communities, or (C) something else like the state of the world at large?

Answer: D Maybe a little of all of the above.

I find it best to just ignore the votes. I know sometimes people will downvote or flag things I say or submit but I can say or submit those things anywhere else too. Some things will be seen here and some things will be seen elsewhere. I am not going to change the minds of the masses either way. I just share what I think others may find interesting and let them sort it out. If something is too taboo for one audience I share with a different audience. The more provocative topics may be better shared on 4chan assuming one has thick enough skin for the responses. Consequences will never be the same.

This won't help the comments that get flagged but you can ignore the votes on things somewhat with uBlock Origin and adding a custom filter. Addons -> uBlock Origin Preferences -> My Filters, then add something like:

    ## HN Block Karma View
    news.ycombinator.com##.comhead .score:style(overflow: hidden; display: inline-block; line-height: 0.1em; width: 0; margin-left: -1.9em;)
    news.ycombinator.com##.comhead:not(.sitebit):style(overflow:hidden; display: inline-block);
    news.ycombinator.com###hnmain > tbody > tr:first-of-type table td:last-of-type .pagetop:style(font-size: 0!important; color: transparent!important;)
    news.ycombinator.com###hnmain > tbody > tr:first-of-type table td:last-of-type .pagetop > *:style(font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.45em;)
    news.ycombinator.com###logout::before:style(content: "|"; padding: 0.25em;)
    news.ycombinator.com##form.profileform tbody tr:nth-child(3)
    #

For some of the flagged things one can turn on showdead as others have mentioned. Quite a few people have that enabled.