I can't exactly understand how you see attacking innocent content creators as heavenly.
Well, for one, it's not an attack, in the same way that downvoting for reddit isn't an attack.
It's little more than stating "this doesn't belong here".
Given that steemit has self-governance, it only makes sense that those with more invested will have more of a say.
And much to the contrary. There are no innocents here. Just opinions. Steem is based on the subjective evaluation of content.
If we like it, we upvote. If we don't, we downvote. Little more to it than that.
To call this a non-free market would be folly - businesses get bought out, merged, or straight destroyed all the time, and somehow nobody blinks an eye.
Some poor artist gets downvoted and loses nothing (do note that losing potential payouts is not an actual loss, and doesn't stand in court), and everyone loses their minds.
I guess it is pretty obvious that 1000 dollar self-upvotes are totally fair around here so I look forward to the future of steemit.
I've no problem with that. I wonder why people do. For one, if this guy can do it, so can I. This means it's worthwhile sticking with the platform.
Secondly, 90% of content on SteemIt (as of Jan 31 2018 for time travelers) is pretty damn bad. Not all of it is to the point where I'd downvote, but some of it? Absolutely.
This particular downvote came because he's claiming that a bs upvote ring is happening here, while he upvotes himself. I'll ignore the self upvote for now and focus on the upvote ring. Okay, he disagrees. Flag is justified. (according to you)
There are innocents here. You are wrong. Just because opinions are opinions, it doesn't make them guilty opinions. The people that have been attacked by this cat have been "collateral damage" which was stated by him! It's not that he disagreed, it's not that he felt "this doesn't belong here".
While the comparison to reddit is okay, this isn't reddit. Money is actually involved here. Also, Reddit is a cesspool of toxicity. Seems that this is what we want steemit to be.
Some poor artist sends his money to an upvote bot that he is unaware is a target of this cat. The cat proceeds to downvote this poor (or rich) artist. (Do note that losing an upvote that you paid for is an actual loss).
Now, I'm not going to get started with bidbots, because I don't particularly agree with them. (Now before you go check my wallet, yes, I paid for bidbots for 1 post, and it was merely for promotion purposes as I was welcoming a popular youtuber to the platform)
If the content is original then it shouldn't necessarily be flagged. If it is plagiarism, stolen content or abusive and/or illegal, then it should be flagged.
I am not even sure you are completely up to speed with what's going on here? He is indeed attacking posts and flagging users in the name of abuse, but not because the people he is flagging are abusing, but in an attempt to strangle the bidbots that are enabling the abuse. Instead of flagging what you say is "absolutely flaggable", he's flagging random users.
I haven't actually seen him flag real abuse. So I think we'll have to just agree to disagree.
Again, for this particular post, I kind of laughed at his reasoning for the flag. He's a bully, and since you seem to be from reddit, I assume you think bullying is okay.
If this offends you I apologize. I wish you nothing but success. Peace.