If all my posts are garbage that could be considered dangerous or detrimental to ones sanity/task/career, wouldn't each merit a legitimate downvote? Surely it's my fault that they all suck?

Downvote them as they happen, if they're bad. Don't decide "I need to go back and downvote all of tye's nodes because they're all bad and I'd be doing a service to posterity."

Agreed. As always thanks for your input.

If one doesn't see a terrible node as it happens one is now no longer allowed to express an opinion through voting as to the node's quality?

Then why allow voting on "non-contemporary" (for whatever timeframe is "contemporary") nodes at all? Disable voting on nodes after however long giving a statute of limitations on negative node rep.

The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.