It wasn't 3 lines. The actual discussion post is at -39 right now. If Andy had just realized that he was in a hole and stopped digging, he could have walked away with most of his karma intact. Instead, he made comment after comment trying to defend his post, and the combined downvotes on all those comments is what wiped out 5 years of karma. Andy needs to talk to Professor Quirrell and ask for a lesson on how to lose.