There can be an overlap between political and other motivations. I like conspiracy theories, read/listen/watch them often and follow conspiracy theory accounts on twitter. But I don't think it is particularly beneficial to Hive to reward them very heavily. For one thing, many of them have their own monetization and are multichannel/reposts and would post anyway. For another when we are overrun with them (which is sure to happen if they are overrewarded), it is a turn off to the majority of the audience who doesn't buy in or find them appealing. Our money is better used elsewhere. I can't speak for curangel who probably downvotes more than I do.

I also downvote stuff where there is no political issue at all, like photo blogs and travel blogs because I think many of them are basically reward mining (go out, take some pictures, post and earn $100). Again most of these would post anyway (as people do on no-reward social media and photo sites all day every day) and don't benefit Hive that much.

I upvote and downvote where I want to see rewards go to benefit Hive and grow my investment. Of course this is my subjective opinion, as with every other voter.