I have no business with any of the "celebrities" here. I came on my own, found completely new friends and allies, and, taking my own advice from my "Steemigration post", let the whales be whales.

Not that I'm unhappy about their votes, but I wouldn't stop posting even if all my posts remained at 4 cents or below even.

I am not taking any side in the dispute. BUT your concerns are valid; some signs seem to indicate that some, in their arrogance, think they are allowed or even destined to fill the role "moderators" played on the centralized platforms by downflagging content they disagree with or could have a negative impact on their reputation.

Who, on reddit, really took the imperative seriously to not use the vote buttons as indicators of agreement or disagreement?

And who, on Steemit, will do the same, DESPITE both buttons being in different corners of the screen instead side-by-side, having different design, different intentions, and one even issuing an alert pop-up?

How can a system that so emphasizes Social Darwinism and competition generate an atmosphere of mutuality, collaboration, consensus-finding and peaceful negotiation?

An old German proverb is beginning to reveal its meaning, I think: the tone makes the music. Let not the cacophony of the loud voices incite you to detune your own; sing your own melody, and try to find some resonance, harmony and melody with the huge, but equally "silent" choir of those who take the White Paper's promise seriously:

Steem is committed to enabling free speech and building a free society.

Steemit does not have to deliver on that promise, as @innuendo clarified to me yesterday. In kind and friendly words, I was told to fvck off and build my own interface to the blockchain if I don't like it, and [s]he is completely right.

The point is that soon interfaces will be offered with filters that don't give a flying fork for the payout and vote weight and sort by numer of upvotes instead, like reddit does, or highlights controversial posts. Or even filters out content that exceeds a certain SBD amount. Going even further and offering you total control over the filters you want to sieve the streem through. It is just a matter of time - until then, steemit.com is just a crutch. I'll follow you on steemstats as long as you make sense, if you bore me, you must hope I'll find you in some trending or created streem, if you get on my nerves, you land on my blacklist.

It can and will be that easy. Have you ever seen a sperm whales' phallus? Jerking a circle is a serious matter, so let us krill keep out of it.

You can serve severed heads all day on Steemit, you just need to put them on a silver platter.