What you say is never as important as how you say it. I noticed that if I came off as a self-righteous dickhead, people would disagree with me out of principle and if the person was still wrong they'd bring neutral "Sure, but" arguments to avoid the same thing happening to them.
The only time you can be a jackass is if you do it in a funny way or the person is so far gone it's the equivalent of default dancing on their grave.
What you say is never as important as how you say it.
In real life, maybe. But this does not line up with my experience at all on here or reddit. The up and down vote buttons are overwhelmingly used as agree/disagree buttons.
I try to be respectful in my disagreements, and often fail, but they usually doesn't have much of an influence how bring mercilessly down voted for disagreeing with the hive. And I've always watched people I vehemently disagree with, who have made reasonable and respectful disagreements, get down voted tons while people attacking them will get tons of upvotes.
It's nice to think that we respect different opinions if they are represented respectfully, but it does not seem to reflect the reality I've seen.