Regarding politics and the thumbs up/down option?

You may or may not have noticed, a person can answer a question emphatically with all the supporting evidence to prove it's correctness; there will still be a group out there in la-la land who will thumbs down the answer. This is particularly true this time of year for the duration of 3-4 months.

Edit: told ya!

This is because no one wants themselves to be defined. And partly because the definition of a "liberal" will only fit very few people. Most people are not 100% liberal or 100% conservative, therefore it's going to be hard to find someone who will agree with the technical definition of one or the other because people will read the definition and say, "I'm a liberal and that doesn't sound like me". Basically it's because people are individuals and therefore will never able to be split into two groups based on political views.

Thumbs up/down in this section is generally indicative of how many other people that answered that question are on one side of the aisle or the other, not how well you were able to answer that question in a unbiased manner. Don't take it personally, just consider the source. It's comparable to class elections in high school. A bunch of children voting for whichever clique they belong to.

Some people don't even read the answers. If you are known as a liberal or conservative by your Avatar or profile, you will automatically get a thumbs down from the opposing opinion no matter how you answer the question.

A person who would give a thumbs-down to Merriam-Webster isn't worth the time it took me to answer this question, but I answered it anyway because I think they need to know that, and so should you.

I'm giving you a star to cheer you up. ;-)

It happens all the time.Perhaps someone thought Merriam-Webster was too "socialist"or too "conservative", or as is often the case did not think at all.

Don't confuse people on YA with the facts.

Some can't stand it. Feelings will be hurt.

The re-action.....thumbs down. (Ah, now I feel good)

Simple, some people have never opened a dictionary.

You have no way of knowing precisely why you got the thumbs down.

You will not get the correct definition of a political liberal and political conservative out of a dictionary. That is probably why you got thumbed down.