The reactions to most posts are overwhelmingly negative and critical. Ironically, posts to c/unpopularopinion tend to argue that they agree with the post, and are consequently more supportive.
Unpopularopinions is where people exchange their very popular opinions for upvotes. It’s also where people go to post opinions they don’t believe for the same endorphin hit
nice showerthought
Tho they are different things I think. When the person here says a less racist country would have more of a problem with spies or I say there would be less crime with a religion sacrificing prisoners to a death god, that doesn’t mean we are supporters of those things; it means we had a thought unusual enough to share that makes sense in some way. We could want the opposite of what we are talking about. unpopularopinions implies someone has a minority stance.
I think it’s more that people like to be contrarian, more so now that a lot of Reddit has moved to Lemmy. If someone says they have an unpopular opinion, crowds of people will jump to say it’s not really unpopular; if someone posts a shower thought, it seems like you get a lot of responses contradicting the thought, or simply claiming it’s not a shower thought. TBF, there do seem to be a significant number of posts in c/showerthoughts that aren’t; like, long political posts, or whatnot.
Still, contrarian responses are becoming the norm.
