berniesanders is brilliant. Not in a progressive, awesome way, but in an evil nihilistic way. It would appear that he preys upon the very people that you are working your test to prove wrong. He is collecting the masses of those who aren't doing as well as they think they should be and pinning it on ranchorelaxo and haijin, and meanwhile, like you said, he is raking in a considerable amount of money himself.

I read through a lot of his posts and he sounds like a broken record. Not just that though, his language deliberately incites the "downtrodden" to "take back their place" by flagging. He even stated in one of his more recent posts that he would "compensate" those who are flagging haijin's posts. How is that any better than what he is complaining about?

I certainly don't understand all of the nuances of this site yet, and I am just kind of ho-hum doing my own thang. I certainly don't expect to ever have a whale support, but I completely agree with you that the things that are happening now are going to be looked back on as ways to deal with happenings in the future. If those supported by whales now are seen as "rapists" of the steem pool, then they will be forever seen that way, no matter the size or importance of their contributions. I don't think people realize the severity in setting in motion these kinds of witch hunts. Hopefully it's not something they will ever have to encounter in the future if they ever make something of themselves on Steemit.