At the risk of catching backlash from the downvote club for speaking my opinion here, I am going to do it anyways.
I have only been on Steem for 2 months. I am one of those new users who is here because of the transparency and the good content. I have benefited from upvotes that are given to me because of my content. I am here for all of the reasons that I understand Steem to be in existence, and it is because of those reasons that I am here as a participant (no matter how small) in this global community/cryptocurrency creation.
I will be the first to admit I am not experienced, nor very educated, in this new digital realm.
And yet, I am already experiencing this political "shitstorm" that you speak of, Hive account@acidyo. It's not something that might happen, it's already happening. Just last week I was excited to get a decent whale vote on a post, validating my time and effort in creating my original content.
And then, the downvoting happened.
I am smart enough to chase around Steem and see who has which accounts, or who does what with their accounts. What I found was that I had been downvoted by a "blacklister" who was angry at some whales and had come and downvoted me just because a whale he didn't like had upvoted me.
A real downvote on original content might come with some constructive criticism (in case any of you downvoters want someone to improve from your actions).
I made my first political post about it, for fun of course.
(https://steempeak.com/steem/@freemotherearth/steem-politics-otherwise-known-as-more-stupid-human-tricks if you get bored and want to read it)
The reason I am posting a comment here is because I want it to be known that new users are paying attention, and one of the things we are paying attention to is how the whales and other "movers and shakers" are treating each other, and all of us. If you are going to be one of the "big guys" on Steem, please don't act like an ass! There are plenty of other platforms you can go be an asshole with. That's not why Steem exists, nor is it what people here want...
unless I just missed what Steem is about completely.
Thanks to those who are supporting real people and substantive content. Thanks to those who are working diligently and putting their money and their time into creating a global community that includes some integrity. Keep it up Hive account@ocd and Hive account@ocdb and all of you who actually give a shit about someone other than yourself.
And Hive account@acidyo, thanks for making this post.