I used to do this when I was on reddit from 2011-2026.

I did it because I'm a narcissist. Like actually, I was diagnosed with NPD in 2023. People disagreeing with me physically hurts. I don't know how to explain it but when a person has a worldview disagreeing with me, it feels like an attack on me and causes this kind of ache in my chest.

Everything just gets translated to, "Oh, you think this way? God, you're fucking stupid! I HATE YOU!" We cannot just disagree because my opinions and worldviews are so intrinsically linked with me. My whole world is me looking into a mirror and seeing nothing but my face. If it reflects something else, that's frightening.

I obviously am trying to be a better person now and don't react the same anymore, but in the day that is why I would do it.

I delete comments pretty frequently. Sometimes you just realize you've said something that's gonna lead to a bunch of unpleasant interactions, and you'd rather just everyone have a pleasant day.

95% of the time if I delete a comment it's because it was either a mistake or I made the comment then I looked through the other comments and realized like half the thread already made the same joke.

@ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world Once you obtain your answer, you must fulfill the prophesy and delete this entire post yourself.

I mean Lemmy is kind of an echochamber

No. I take my down votes with pride.

when I delete its usually because I get the impression like ok I misread the room, misunderstood the situation or sometimes rereading it and I think that its not what I think

I've deleted posts when I responded to the wrong person, and one time I can think of where I completely missed the mark, but I deleted it within seconds of posting. Past that, I'll accept what other readers decide. I think there are definitely times where a post has been misunderstood due to bad phrasing, but I don't ride or die on how a post does. Sometimes when something does bad, I'll try to have some introspection on why, and if it's because my views are bad or unpopular, I'll give it some thought. It's not often that my views are particularly wrong, but like I mentioned, I just articulated them poorly. Sometimes it is just a bad take, I eat crow, and I try to use that as a learning experience and move on.

I've never deleted anything out of shame because my view was unpopular.

I think it's because we build our identity around our worldview and see conflicting views as a threat.

Because people tend to post judgemental comments / victimblaming, or just overall werent helpful (even if that wasnt the intent) when I'm already at my lowest, and I could already forsee that the post is just gonna get lots of negativity, so I dont even bother.

I see it often here too, humans are humans and no matter if its reddit, discord, or wherever. Honestly I've been learning a lot recently. Sometimes you have to self-help because you cannt expect random internet strangers to help you. Lots of people claim hat "we're just trying to help" but they never actually try, but just to kick you down while you're already down.