How Steem has altered my beliefs towards freedom of speech
Despite successfully avoiding Steem drama of all kinds like plague for several months, sadly I've become privy to some recent "flagging dramas". I'm begrudgingly and regrettably jumping into the cesspit with some thoughts.
Please be warned - this will be a rant that will absolutely be controversial and possibly greatly offend a lot of people. I will not attempt to be respectful or dignified, just say whatever I think. Please don't read if you have ever been offended in your life. If that's not you, and you don't mind reading drivel, please go ahead :)
When I first got into crypto, first dabbled in Steem, I was well aware that the world was getting better all the time, in leaps and bounds. I had nothing to complain about - progress has been tremendous and unwavering in the last five hundred years. Yet, it's hard not to look at our current world and not see a great deal wrong.
Most governments around the world seem to be doing a very poor job. Though far superior than the authoritarians and colonialists of the past, it left much to be desired.
Steem posed an interesting experiment - what a very tightly controlled anarchist society would look like. You would get to see how it pans out, but no one really gets hurt.
Steem has taught me the hard way, that this fantasy is unsustainable. It won't happen without getting ugly, not for the homo sapiens species, not in this form. Extreme anarchy and libertarian views are selfishness decorated with a masquerade (and/or delusion) of social benevolence. On Steem, I have seen far too many times, time and time again, so called peace-loving anarchists rage and rave hatefully the moment their very self-obsessed cocoon is minimally threatened.
To be clear, a vast majority of Steemians seem to be sensible people with no such delusions.
I have always respected, and will continue to respect, absolute freedom of speech.
I don't believe anyone deserves or is entitled to shit, we are all equally irrelevant creatures in an infinite universe. So absolute freedom for all :)
I love that the Steem blockchain is censorship-resistant, and will continue to support this feature.
Whilst in the past, I was very accepting of every differing point of view, I'm no longer going to accept or refrain from expressing a negative opinion. My experiences on Steem, combined with overwhelming evidence throughout history, tells us all that every bit of evil, every bit of suffering, every bit of pain the world has every experienced, has been through indulgence of irrationality.
Homo sapiens are very much a species in progress, stuck between a rock and a hard place. We have "conscious" faculties of reason and rationality; yet a lot of our brain is stuck with crude pattern recognition that made our ancestors survive in the African savannahs. Unfortunately, far too often, we resort to our primal thoughts, leaving aside reason.
Politics is subjective. It need not be, there's fair scope for reason here.
Our world has improved significantly in a great number of ways - and there's overwhelming evidence to support it. It's easy to sense the progress, and where the evolution (through genetics as well as memetics) of our species is headed. I won't list out all of it, but you know what they are - beginning with compassion and a move away from selfishness. There have been ups and downs, and of course, it's still hard work.
However, every single time something bad happens, it's the primal part of someone's brain that engaged and discarded the rationale.
So here's what I'm getting at - I will no longer stand by anyone exercise thoughts or actions utterly bereft of reason. Anything that has overwhelming evidence supporting it, I shall support. Anyone expressing ideas that have overwhelming evidence against it, I shall fight. I will absolutely respect their rights to say it, but I will not stand by and nod.
Of course, I'm well aware that my protestations will fall on deaf ears. Irrationality is a far grander problem, a neurological condition without a short term solution. But I'm absolutely confident there will always be incredible progress in the coming centuries, just as there has been exponential progress in the last few centuries.
I invite you to go to your local or national government houses and sit in on some of the discussions you will find there. You will find a lot of the same stuff you're talking about here, without the anarchy and libertarianism. And it all masquerades as social benevolence, even more so in fact, but it turns out to be in someone or other's interest.
But I think in one way you're absolutely correct: this is no way to govern. And it's a good thing we're not trying to govern anything here because we'd have failed miserably. Steemit content is just banter. Some people take it very seriously, because of the money or their ideals, but it's just banter. I'm not saying banter isn't important, people die every day over verbal disagreements, but we're not making any decisions here about how we are to live.
I've been here nearly a year, pretty engaged for most of that time, and what I think the platform has really tested in people is the acceptance of economic critique, which is to say flags. A flag is a critique of someone's speech which has a value, hence is economic. Maybe there's a better term, I just coined that 😅
That is the great experiment. That potential earnings are not seen as still unsettled, but already won. I even don't agree that they are earned. They are in fact given by the blockchain, based on the votes of everyone on the system, weighted by their stake. The power to give comes from the investment of capital, hype and belief.
So far the results are that people cannot stand the idea of something being held in front of them, promised to them if the situation doesn't change, and someone comes along and disagrees, they are entitled to, and the thing is snatched away. Because while it hovered before them they believed it would be theirs.
Last thing, you say that "a vast majority of Steemians seem to be sensible people with no such delusions". Why then are you bothered? There's more to this. Is this minority just vocal? Or are they the one's who actually have the majority of tokens (i.e. are the rich)? You said you're tired of irrationality, well one thing I'm tired of is #notallpeople type arguments. It must be enough people to have bothered you. So I'd like to hear more about that.
Ah, nice comment to respond to!
I haven't been to any government houses. However, I do follow the United Kingdom's PMQs on TV. Oh, how I wish Steem was like that :) Not relevant at all, so I'll move on. I have been on bulletin-board style forums since the late 90s, and on Reddit off-and-on for nearly a decade now. Must say, I have never seen the same level of butthurt anywhere before. I'm sure it's there, but I have somehow evaded it all this while. Of course, I understand well that people take money seriously, so Steem is a different ballgame. That said, when self-proclaimed anarchists who are raving about anarchy all the time have a meltdown because someone downvoted their post, I'm sure you'll see the farce in that.
Blogging has potential to be a powerful medium - a bonafide artform such as investigative journalism, literature, cinema etc. Obviously, it goes without saying that most people are here to banter, but fundamentally, blogging absolutely has the potential to change how we lead our lives. It can be very direct - e.g. theshadowbrokers can publish a Snowden-style revelation that could change things at many levels. It could also be more subtle, such as George Orwell's works influencing politics throughout Western Europe. Or going further back, about the Renaissance artists that deeply inspired the Age of Enlightenment. On that note, there are plenty of people who want to change the world with their posts. Of course, none of them will succeed :) But the potential is there.
Ha, well, it's just critique. It's like any opinion poll, really. That money is attached to it does make things complicated. But it has happened to all of us - we have an agreement on a deal, but falls through at the last moment. There's a simple rule - it's not done till all of the money is credited to my bank account. It's very much the same here. Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
There's not much more to it, really. Like I mentioned, I avoid drama, and generally I enjoy Steem. I rant about something like this maybe two or three times a year, but that's about it. It's fun finding interesting content and curating them. (Yes, there's actually a lot of good stuff on Steem now) Yes, I'm bothered by the irrational posts, of course, so I'll downvote any I find. Nothing more to report, I have mentioned everything relevant above :)
I agree with you speaking your mind and allowing others to do the same. It's necessary. I welcome it, even if I may disagree and debate any given topic.
I do want to say though that what we experience here on Steem/Steemit is quite far from anarchism/libertarianism. The culture of fluff and positivity, even in the face of actual identified problems, and the ideas of "equality" and "fairness" with rewards distribution and various protocol changes...quite frankly, it pretty much disgusts me. The sense of entitlement on this platform rivals what we see on a daily basis in the real world, which is mostly based on socialist ideals today.
I understand your points though and I hope to see you speak your mind more freely here. Honesty is the best remedy for any issues we face.
Aha, but that's kind of what I meant - I'm sure you have noticed much of the sense of entitlement and loud drama over flags and such often comes from self-proclaimed libertarians/anarchists. Some of the sleaziest and scammiest (?) people on Steem are also public anarchist propaganda figures. They are not really anarchists, just people who have confused selfishness with liberty, and that's the problem. Of course, there are plenty of sensible libertarian leaning people here as well.
bingo. well said, too!
BOOM, there it is.
I do not know much about anarchy or censorship or much of anything really but how I see it, freedom of speech comes with a reponsibility and acceptance of consequences. People seem to be under an assumption that what they say comes cost-free whereas I tend to see that there is freedom of response also.
The response however may not be what is expected or desirable as humans are complex creatures with a lot less critical thought and much more emotional reactions than most like to admit. This does not pose a threat to anarchy per se but, it may result in a lot more conflict than the idealistic would grant their view.
This means that in a perfect world, it would take a person with the maturity to understand that they must effectively self-censor in order to keep the peace, understand they will fail and be charitable to the continual failures of others attempting the same.
The other issue is of course when the freedom of speech is used to inflict harm upon others through the spread of low quality, unsubstantiated, non-emperical lies for personal gain.
Freedom of speech does not mean truth of speech, clarity of speech, ability to understand the speech or anything all high and mighty, it just means one is free to speak which in reality, already exists but, for some the consequence for speaking one's mind (true or not) is ultimate.
Perhaps as a species we are just not mature enough to manage autonomy as for the majority, authority offers a false security but a security they crave so taking a free-market approach scares the hell out of them. What if they aren't as intelligent, skilled, adaptable as they believe themselves to be? Does the market eat them?
Most will trade their freedoms for security without ever asking if security exists at all.
Apologies for the wall.
Freedom of speech is hard, and has many pitfalls, but it's the only way. Criminalising or repressing hate speech or lies is a short-sighted measure. Change can only happen through free speech, over generations. It's hard, but we'll get there.
The progress societies championing freedom of speech in the last fifty years has been incredible. There are
I am very hopeful that the level of maturity will continue to grow and not regress. Perhaps it is somewhat of a silo problem but I kind of feel a divide increasing again between various groups.
For me personally, I would rather know what someone has to say regardless of the validity of their position as it could simply be that they have not had access to better information. If we do not know each other's positions, how can we help improve them?
Pure anarchy always seemed like a fantasy to me. If it worked well without any government, that would be lovely, but a power vacuum will always get filled.
I'm with you, steem is a great experiment for this reason. We can see what this kind of society looks like. Overall I'd say it is going pretty well even if the drama gets loud at times
Agreed, for the most part it's a pleasant experience. With Communities incoming, the general experience be on par with Reddit or other social platforms, I'm confident. It'll be really easy to evade drama then :)
Interesting. I have not seen steem as an experiment for controlled anarchy but I think you are right.
If it works out...?
I dont know atm, I was a big believer when I bought in here but got my illusions shattered rather quickly.
So far I stayed out of any drama here on steemit and I think I will go on like this for a while since my influence is limited anyway but also if I want to start downvoting more I am not sure how I would do it (so far I only downvoted spammer). Should I downvote anything I disagree on? Poorly written articles, pictures I dont like?
If I am pro vaccination everything which is contra vaccination and vice versa?
I wanted to believe it would work out, too. But who are we kidding - it has never worked throughout history, and this wasn't going to be different. I'm just glad no one was violated physically.
Yeah, best to stay out of drama. Just write what you like to, read and curate what you like to. It's a pretty great good platform :)
I feel you should downvote anything that you don't like but has been heavily rewarded. Personally, I don't downvote mediocre content, but that's more because I want to preserve my voting power to curate good content. I will, however, downvote overrewarded irrational nonsense.
Not sure what you mean?
Maybe a bad example...
Downvoting content I disagree with. If I dont like Trump downvoting Pro-Trumps articles and the other way around.
Yes, I think you should feel free to downvote content to express a negative opinion about it. Think of it as the downvote on Reddit or thumbs down on YouTube.
Then, I hope that "Flag" will be renamed to "Downvote" and moved next to the "Upvote" button. Because it's confusing for many users the way it is now.
I think this is the source of much of the strife. I've been told "Flag" used to be "Downvote" in the UI but I don't know when that changed or what the rationale was. So long as "Flag" acts like a downvote then it should be labeled as such. Then we'd have way more people downvoting, it wouldn't feel like special (bad) treatment and people would just get over it (eventually).
Exactly! And it shouldn't need a hard fork to switch to "downvote".
No it won't - just a label in the Steemit UI. I note that busy.org and the esteem mobile apps (soon to be a webapp too) use "Flag" instead of downvote.
We need more people like you.
As Steem matures, I'm sure we'll see a great diversity of people join. It's only a matter of time before entitled crypto nerds will be nothing more than a niche community. I have already seen significant progress in this year - there are plenty of great bloggers on Steem now, who are here for more than just a quick buck and validation.
I think you are spot on here about the actual happenings on Steemit, as opposed to what should have happened. I'll check back in a few days to count the "No True Scotsman" arguments in the comments 8-).
Ditto - it's so inconvenient when the dirty truth of reality gets in the way of a utopian fantasy. Biasing author rewards based on the wealth of ones "friends" or "patrons" voting for you when those rewards don't come from those users directly - well that just seems wrong to me. It just becomes a wealth circle-jerk instead of a reputation and popularity circle-jerk. I'd take the later any day since the wealthy could still promote posts directly with their own money. If you want to throw your weight around to influence the rewards pool allocation negatively or positively - well that just seems like coercion to me (not even lobbying since they don't spend any more to do it).
Fairly tame per the standards of most "rants".
Perhaps you were just getting warmed up and starting to exercise your rant muscles. I'll be back to critique rant two. Hoping for improvement in technique and execution.
LOL
Haha. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, rant is done.
I was going to say that 😉
I love your ideology and idealism. It's no surprise that when you get a bunch of folks into a room that there will be disagreements, even in a relatively simple system like steemit (simple on the surface, anyway).
The organic evolution of the social system is fun to watch in non-damaging vacuum, as you say, but some folks have invested real money and so do stand to take some bit of pain, so those who have the means to minimize what they see as damaging their investment will probably do so.
Of course, I understand why it is so. But nevertheless, inflicting your pain on to others is unacceptable. Luckily, most people here don't do that. Just a few loud, rotten apples.
Hi liberosist,
I really enjoyed this post as I've realized on my SteemIt journey that I have a lot of ideas about Freedom (including speech) but in my life I have had very little practical experience using it without an authority to keep me in check.
I think some cultures are missing the ability to "hear" each other. We have seen evidence of the wailing that happens with any negative feedback, because people are not used to it.
Most things take practice, we have lost some of the skills that go along with debate, negotiation and conflict resolution. Also the ability to let others express their own freedom.I guess Steem may help some of us practice.