I don't give a shit about karma, I do intensely dislike the idea of "piling on" downvotes, for myself or others, as I have expressed many times in the past with regards to others' postings.
It's a great way of discouraging the expression of dissenting ideas. You're correct that I have the 'reserves' to express any number of actual crockpot ideas, but not everyone does.
I guess arguing against the groupthink (replete with reddit style mob downvoting) is an even bigger waste of time, though.