It would be great to think that with enough intelligent analysis and commentary, the various groups with various approaches to life would value and understand each other enough that they would unite enough to have harmony. While it is not impossible to hold space uniformly, in a respectful way (balanced), the reality is that Earth is wildly out of balance and heavily polarised into what amounts to 'sects' in many cases.
Having participated in online forums for decades, many of which are oriented to resolving world imbalance, it has been made abundantly clear to me that:
A) Many people are reversed away from their own heart and the associated balance that only heart presence can manifest. The result is that they will do whatever they can to exploit the denials of others and stifle even the most noble causes.
B) The degree of misunderstanding about important aspects of reality and also common failings at logical processing within the majority of people (regardless of qualifications being held) is such that there are large numbers of people with deeply held convictions about economics, life and wellbeing that are provably wrong, yet which the people involved will never allow to be examined/exposed or changed. In essence, many people are stuck in fight/flight mode due to their own unresolved traumas and anything approaching open mindedness or even an ending of stress itself, will tend to trigger their imprinting that leads them to try to recreate stress. In other words, projection and denial are epidemic - leading to most of our global problems.
C) The lazy thinking that is so present, globally, often means that people will quickly throw other people into fixed 'boxes' that define them to be 'that kind of person', even when the evidence doesn't really point that out as being a truth. This both makes life 'easy' for such people and also reinforces the idea that they are right and others are wrong. The basis for such inaccurate, dysfunctional and lazy thinking is usually a lack of self acceptance. Of course, this lack of self acceptance (self denial) is usually also heavily denied - so there is usually no way to approach this with such people until they feel it in themselves and start to notice something isn't right (they than have to take action to correct it too). I know all of this after decades of working on myself and with others to resolve exactly this problem.
D) While it would be great for everyone to be consciously engaging on a similar level, with similar intents and an aim to find balance.. We simply aren't there yet. There is nothing wrong with freedom of association and everyone is going to be going to their right place now - whether they know it yet or not. What this translates to on Hive is that we need to focus on layer 2 communities and effectively create 'internal forks' that mean everyone stays on Hive but people who wildly disagree do not usually cross paths.
I personally greatly appreciate you Kenny and your work/efforts for Hive (plus so many other areas). There are huge numbers of people who do too (or would if they understood).. There are also large numbers of people who simply have no frame of reference for the way you live, your goals and who you are - instead of knowing you, they will simply judge you. That is part of what is happening here.
Much love to all.
I just want to echo some of your sentiments. There's a lot of polarization and all kinds of labels and name calling going around especially concerning communities that I've been a part of and towards content users that I enjoy and respect.
Is it too much to ask to disagree with others without it devolving into smears, insults, harassment, and personal attacks?
Disagreements are healthy and help people learn and communities develop. You would expect a true decentralized platform to have a healthy diversity of opinion...
I remain quiet for the most part, not out of fear of retribution but we've all engaged in this circular argument multiple times without finding satisfactory solutions. Often, we're further divided than when we began.
The other reason I usually refrain from jumping in is that, like many, I prefer to concentrate my efforts on building solutions. I don't like to talk about my plans before they're ready to be released but I've been working on an L2 project with @truthforce, @ura-soul and others for close to a year. Still a lot of work to be done but we're getting there. By now I think most agree that the way forward is clearly going to be L2s and experimenting with community tokens.
Just also want to say to @kennyskitchen that I think your track record speaks for itself and you've done a lot for Hive and the previous chain in terms of on-boarding, community building and supporting a wide range of users. I've never met you but I admire your dedication and resilience on this journey and also for speaking up for those who can't defend themselves.
Cheers, you're not on trial, keep your head up.
The simple fact of this whole last few months is this.
Investors looking to buy Hive will be repulsed by the behaviour and words of a few of the top witnesses. If this was a company they would have been fired the second they started cussing people out and accusing them of being "willing to sell their mothers for money" on top of the other rampant swearing and derogatory comments.
People have left Hive and are continuing to leave due to being sworn at and belittled publicly.
And the fundamentals are still here but are eroded by bad witness outbursts publicly. We all criticized EOS when they had drama, this is no better
Then they too have an issue with free speech. It can't work both ways.
People leave every platform for various reasons. There's no one-size fits all solution. Looks to me that more are coming than leaving. New users are more likely to buy, while older users are more likely to sell.
While the inference might sound negative, it's how markets work and for Hive to succeed, we need new investers. Retention is another animal that all platforms will never tackle either.
1(b.?) Again, free speech. Swearing is common place these days. It's here to stay and plenty of people swear legitimately in common conversation. It's becoming more common, not less.
Also, those here in this thread are not representative of the top 20 as a whole. That being said, we need fresh blood in those positions. A few new 1st layer developers would be nice as well.
I don't take issue with the downvote. The problem is it only affects earnings and reputation. It needs to be added to governance as well. As is, the top 14 accounts can push their will on the platform. They don't own 51% of the stake though. All the levels below Whale could override their votes for Witnesses and Proposals if the downvote were added to them. This is what I'd like to see.
unfortunately, people do get partially stuck at certain ages of development, yes - ideally, freedom of association via layer 2 can start to resolve the problems being caused by it.
Below is an excellent discussion covering points you raise and providing high-level psychological insight into polarisation around these topical issues
upvoted for a Chris Martenson link to follow.