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It was with sadness that I came to learn of the struggles that a prominent fellow Steemit member had both witnessed and to a degree encountered.
The culmination of these have resulted in a situation where, as of at the time of writing, 
I'd not ever heard of him before running across the above linked post today but he strikes me as being a very decent guy with interesting thoughts and interests... and I do not say this because he happens to also have a 71 in reputation. Mentioning his reputation should give you an idea of how long he has been on the platform however (10 months prior to myself).
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But what truly struck me about his post is that he admits to not feeling at liberty to express his true thoughts about certain topics.
This, again, from a user with a 71 in reputation. There are only a hundred or so Steemit users that 'could' significantly harm his reputation
For those who may not be aware, in gaming terms, a person's reputation upon Steemit may be compared to one's Attack and Defense attributes simultaneously.
Put very simply, if a user with a smaller reputation draws the ire of a user with a higher reputation, then that user is going to have a bad time. The higher reputation user's flags would shred through the lower reputation user's reputation, eroding it.
Yet there is something that a user of any reputation level remains vulnerable to when the flags start flying - and that is eroded payouts. It seems that this user has actually been quite dependent upon his Steemit-related income - which is both beautiful but also made him vulnerable to those less inclined to respect his opinions - for while the flags of most of those with reputation would bounce off ineffectively from his rep armour - the vote power and the Steem Power of those who would do so would still erode the pool of finance that he depends upon.
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I have always been puzzled as to why people use flags to express their disagreement. I have also witnessed a few flag wars (always unequal) upon various levels - and I have seen flag threats being made for the most vacuous of reasons (flagging commentators for not also up-voting his or her post?!).
I personally think that
Well this confusion has led me to writing a number of topics over these last months - and I figure that it couldn't hurt to bring them to the fore for those whom may find them beneficial, while also bringing their lessons into focus.
The World is Poorer for the Silencing of Unapproved Voices...
This may seem unrelated to the situation of a single individual feeling uncomfortable expressing himself... but did you know that we live in a World where little is thought of robbing person of either their livelihoods or, indeed, their lives over the thoughts or knowledge that they possess and share?
Of course murder and incarceration are a greater form of violence than flagging can ever be - but flagging 'is' an attack upon a user in question. Its a power that entails a responsibility and should be treated as such.
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A Cool Head Trumps the Fires of Rage
Perhaps due to an erosion in education (it does not help that the energy and time of parents is increasingly occupied by work responsibilities), up-and-coming generations have come to be less appreciative of the beauty both in them and around them.
We have seen generations of action increasingly disrespectful of those with differing views (although, to be fair, this is hardly unique to the present day) but the fuel that have inspired such disrespect has been morphing. Most notably, the tide of entitlement has resulted in a form of short-cut logic rolled into judgment that is in the process of souring the atmosphere - and that includes the atmosphere upon social media - such as Steemit.
As an aside, the posts mentioned below are 'not' necessarily reflective of the individual that I speak of throughout this post. These are reflective of my views on such matters.
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And Finally a Word on Bullying
Perhaps as a result of the sense of entitlement and lack of compassion that grips the hearts of some persons within a steel vice, we are witnessing increasing instances of bullying in all its forms.
The slight irony in this is that bullying has never more than today been on the forefront.
Bullying is harmful. Bullying is violence - regardless of whether it is physical.
Bullying is not acceptable.
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And Bullying can and does manifest itself upon Steemit.
Very fortunately such cases are rare and tend to involve the clash of egos - but it is not always the case and the tragedy is that certain bullies have both very high reputations and plenty of Steem Power. Thus they have very high fire-power.
And as mentioned before, exercising the right to flex one's power entails the responsibilities attached...
And unfortunately those in a position of might can sometimes feel that there are no consequences to assassinating Steemit users because of petty disagreements and vested interests.
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To be clear, these individuals (and they are deliberately unnamed as I object to the behavior - not the persons) are practically impervious to flags and any attempt to engage in a flag war 'will' end badly.
With that being said, there is one possible way of defending yourself from such individuals - and this is to draw the attention of their support base to their actions.
And their actions are demonstrably harmful. When an individual of the resilience and influence as the individual mentioned earlier considers the writing upon the wall and effectively decides that their best option is to censor themselves - what hope could there be for the rest of us who commit the crimes of thinking, and knowing and sharing?
In case nothing I have said today or linked to has convinced you - keep in mind that the driving of such individuals away is reflected through the driving away of many more like him at all levels of the reputation scale.
This has a knock-on effect upon the value of Steem. Why would anybody wish to invest in a poisoned fountain, after all?
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So I propose that we, and especially those among us who can see themselves as being indirectly referenced in the role of antagonists, pause to reflect upon the true gravity of our actions - and how our actions impact those around us.
We all have our degree of power and potential - and we ourselves choose whether we exercise such to the benefit or detriment of others.
And the power to express ourselves with allowance for others to disagree but not to bully us into censoring us is invariably beneficial. Regardless of the existence or otherwise of those who would deploy flags abusively (over disagreement) we should always consider that in exercising our right to free expression we are also ensuring that we are living up to the responsibilities entailed.
Such is consistency - and in consistency also one finds value.
We should never feel shame in being our true selves lest we should become a community of shadows fading into the mist.
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I would appreciate that the comments below refrain from singling out individual persons who might have engaged in flag bullying. Yes its fine for me to single out the above respected user as I'd hope that the Steemit community can show him some love.
This aside, I am looking forward to seeing the conversation flourish. Do you have any comments or feedback? Do get in on the discussion down below as I am looking forward to getting into engaging discussions with both those who support and oppose the views expressed above.
After all - it is in part through the honest exchange of ideas that we as a species evolve.
As an aside - I'd also made a suggestion on how to improve the functionality of Steemit flags. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
Also, if you found this post interesting and would like to share this with your followers and friends then a resteem is always appreciated.
Sincerely,
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