RE: Steemfest - A skeptics' view - The dangers of GROUPTHINK etc
Thank you for this honest review. I had an absolute wonderful time at Steemfest, and honestly I don't judge how much money Ned has in his account and what he uses it for. I do think however, you raised lots of valid questions, and I'm always open for a new perspective and take my rose colored glassed off.
The thing that disturbs me most is that conversation with Sneak about the vaccinations. That story actually reached me before I read it here in your post. It's highly upsetting to learn that team members of the actual Steemit crew will downvote content in which people express their beliefs.
I think downvoting should only be used in very rare cases when someone actually harms others with their content. But if we start judging people for expressing their beliefs, then how is this platform any improvement to what we're seeing in the world out there??
I would have thought the Steemit crew created this platform so that people could express their views freely and be themselves, without any censorship. This incident makes me wonder if this was only Dan's vision, though.
Hm. I hope it was just a one-off, maybe even a misunderstanding, and Sneaks attitude doesn't represent the one of the rest of the team.
The thing with the vaccination issue is that spreading stories about vaccinations causing autism puts childrens' lives at risk. The science is clear on this. So it's not really right to portray that as "[downvoting] content in which people express their beliefs". It's nowhere near that trivial.
The science is clear on this sounds religious. There are scientists who disagree with That.
Sure, but science works by consensus. That some disagree doesn't invalidate the broader consensus. And sciences is in no way religious. It's the antithesis of religion.
In my opinion for some science has become the new religion. And it has its heretics. I like the heretics. Like Rupert sheldrake and Tom Campbell.
I am a huge fan of Sheldrake, and been following his heretical stuff on morphogenetics for years. When he wrote about the delusion of scientists, I realised he was absolutely correct....science has become the new inquisition. My little girl has never had any vaccinations at all, and I will always defend our right to choose. When someone takes that away, telling me its heretical I want to come out fighting.
Honest answer is, I don't know whether I'm right or wrong on this issue, but I'd rather trust natures plan than one made in a laboratory for profit. So from that point of view it's right for ME and my (now separated) wife.
Danny, your ballsy approach is refreshing. It's been great to connect with you via the promo-steem group we are both part of. I've been talking a lot with some of our mutual friends recently about the problems with the Steemit platform, and I for one feel that the way to deal with it is to shout out our truth. Not everyones truth is the same. And we're in the wild west. I don't particularly want to get shot down for saying it. This platform should be able to deal with dissent, because that's how we grow as a community.