This is sad.
As for image-only posts, it seems to me that some are positive (I would include the “this” posts here, sorry @waetherman!), some are interesting, but some are simply ways of saying “you’re a jerk” or “your argument is crap”. I don’t recall if community guidelines permit the latter text posts.
I’ve occasionally posted sea lion images when someone from the “actually” crowd entered a discussion, but I decided to stop, because all it serves to do is goad the poster into doubling down, which doesn’t move the conversation forward. The most “productive” thing it might do is make the poster feel bad, but how is that a laudable goal?
