RE: How Steem has altered my beliefs towards freedom of speech
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.
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 :)