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A couple of weeks back a friend of mine got into some kind of drama with some very powerful individuals on the steem blockchain and that has kind of ruined everything for her--earning wise. I do not think this is fair, and I wish something could be done about this in the future because things like malicious flagging might ruin this blockchain. However, this is what we asked for--_freedom_.

_Freedom to speak Freedom to gain Freedom to be criticized Freedom to be upvoted Freedom to be downvoted_.

Here both the good, bad and ugly have a fighting chance. This blockchain has the potential of being something good or bad--it swings both ways and that's the unique thing about freedom. And most times it leads to the said thing we are trying to avoid--control.

_freedom is an illusion_

No one is totally free. The simple fact that freedom exists inevitably means some people have the chance of losing theirs because it is free. Unless some form of control exist to ensure that everyone's freedom is respected, that's why we have laws and regulations. But still, we arrive at the same dead end because regulations restrict some people's freedom--to be bad, good, annoying, etc.

So on steem, we have people powerful enough to disrupt your growth indefinitely. Trying to sweep this under the carpet is no good. A class system exists, thus, we are not all equal. Yes, we do share some rights, which for me is the unique  selling point of steem. I'm talking about _censorship resistance_ (I think someone should write a detailed post about this because I think being _free of censorship_ and having a _strong resistance to censorship_ are two different things). No matter how many times your content is being flagged it remains on the steem blockchain, accessible to those who follow you or those who you share your links with. And if I should add most downvotes are usually attacks on the post's payout, not the post itself (I don't know if this makes sense). Your post is not being downvoted to reduce its visibility which I think was the purpose of this tool. Most people downvote so you don't earn, so the attack is not on your voice but your earnings.

Having a voice is something we might fight so hard to keep in the future because the attacks would be from an external source or sources. We are not even ready for the negative backlash. You might wake up one morning in the future and on the news _steem_ is tagged as a terrorist network; an enabling platform for all manner of heinous things. The media is owned by centralized platforms and we all know they are not willing to relinquish power--no one would honestly. So chances are that these already established centralized networks will begin to peddle fake news or amplify certain aspects of the blockchain that are unorthodox. Yes, steem has the potential to become all these things and more. We fail to highlight the negative aspect of a blockchain with high resistance to censorship like ours but that doesn't mean they do not exist--these loopholes that can be exploited. What am I driving at? Well, it is simple: _steem_ is as free as you can get. Maybe one day it might not be. I might be wrong.

For now, to a large extent, what can be controlled here is your earning prospects. But no one comes close to touching your freedom to speak, which in my own opinion many of us don't really care about. If you have a voice and you value it more than anything in the world then you will care less about downvotes. Personally, I care about my voice as much as I do my earnings. I do this fulltime. If someone messes with my earning then I'm screwed big time. And that's why having an alternative anonymous account at this point is a necessity. I have two I really don't use but chances are I will soon--very soon. I do understand that certain individuals have unrestricted power on this platform and I cannot do much about that but I won't let that affect me negatively, so building an alternative account is my best defense. And yes, it's going to be a tedious process but I am up to the task.

Another alternative would be never to post again. You cannot flag what you don't see. I can comfortably power down all my steem and invest them in steemmonster cards, get better at playing(which I am good at, but sadly I have sold most of my cards) and I will continue to earning daily via tournaments and there is nothing anyone can do about that. That's the advantage of a decentralized platform--having options. I might even decide to gamble with steem, delegate to some platforms and earn a dividend. SMTs is on its way, I can earn, buy tokens, diversify my portfolio. Really no one has that power to ruin you on steem. The problem is that most of us are limited or distracted by the power some posses and we fail to realize our own.

I certainly will suffer a great deal if someone starts flagging my post. Actually, someone does this occasionally but their downvote is worth nothing. By the way, [@paulag](https://steemit.com/@paulag) offered to help me in the past regarding the issue of malicious flags (I am just putting this out there for those who might need help now or in the future). Like I was saying earlier, I will definitely suffer if I start getting those flags, however, I feel that would just make me redirect my human capital and _steem_ elsewhere within the blockchain.

**_No one man should have all that power._**

No one man has all that power.

©nonsowrites

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