From some downvotes they probably got from these eight [WHAT?]

I couldn't quite make out what you said there? Something warriors? lol

The dumb ass thing is that people are DOWNVOTING automatically based on the author using a bot. Like shut the fuck up downvoters who do that!

It's not even the same as following a curation trail, here is my take on why:
STEEM is about being rewarded for content. People come here to create and hopefully gain some rewards for their content as a bonus.

In order to mine STEEM, we create content.
We also earn STEEM from upvoting content.

You can earn STEEM from downvoting, through reporting at steemcleaners - however you don't even need to downvote, you are rewarded just for reporting if it's approved.

You can earn SFR tokens by reporting to steemflagrewards but I don't consider that earning because you're not earning STEEM directly. However I do use steemflagrewards whenever I DV something, and I use @steemcleaners along with them whenever it's something drastic or the person has higher SP than me (which doesn't take much)

We don't earn from downvoting alone, going on a mission to downvote strictly based on using a bid-bot is the stupidest thing. You are wanting to downvote to put some rewards back in the pool but then you aren't doing anything to earn rewards or 'mine' STEEM in the process (by mine, I mean content creation)..

Not only that but joining a curation trail is not harmful, it promotes what is at the heart of the platform - earning rewards through creation and curation. You should be responsible enough to follow a responsible curator so you are not voting on crap content automatically.

The only downvote trail that could be considered responsible to follow would be @steemcleaners

Any other downvote 'trail' does nothing but alienate and hurt the creator since I guarantee you aren't just DVing based on the content, you will be DVing based on someone else's opinion of the author and being judgemental towards the author or their actions. It is personal when you DV based on using a bid bot.

I am all for downvoting shit, I am all for downvoting because someone used a bot for their shit.

Paid a bot 2 STEEM to upvote a post with a single meme image and no thoughts or caption to go along with the image? Or worse, paid more than 1 bot for that same post? YEP, downvote for bid bot abuse.

Paid a bot 1 STEEM to earn a little profit and gain some extra attention on your usual, thought out, well formatted and original content? Or a post reviewing something, or a post bringing attention to a good cause? (like this shelter) I WILL PROBABLY GIVE YOU AN UPVOTE!

It makes NO SENSE what-so-ever to downvote just because somebody used a bot. If the content is decent quality and original, how does it NOT deserve the rewards earned from the bot vote?

Sorry - I'm in the process of drafting up a post sharing my opinion about this, so I appologise for ranting and raving on your post here - this was not directed towards you @manniman! Just venting and this video of yours unleashed more of my thoughts about this which I will be using this comment in my upcoming post - so thank you for the inspiration and sorry for the rambling!