I have no idea what you are saying here. A whale, in Steem - in my definition, is someone with a lot of Steem Power (which is able to be purchased with money).
It's a bit tiring to be repeatedly told what I am allegedly saying, when it is me who is saying it and thus me who actually knows what I am saying.
Lots of steem power = 50k or more, that's a whale.
I said this in response to your "ironically this is exactly what I was pointing to in the rest of the thread [equal shares], that whales have powers that others don't have" (quoted below in full)
ironically, this is exactly what I was pointing to in the rest of this thread regarding the fact that those with the most money DO have 'powers that others don't have' in that they can hide posts in a way that I and the majority of others cannot do. You are somewhat contradicting yourself in the overall context of this thread
No you weren't they don't have as much power as a whale, but they have exactly the same powers, everyone has the same tools. Clearly not contradictory at all.
I responded to your point. You weren't pointing out that they have powers that others don't, they (others don't have, them, those) don't have as much power as a whale, but they have exactly the same powers.. That is what I have been saying from the beginning, that nobody has powers that others don't. Everyone can flag posts, your problem is that some flags are worth magnitudes more than others, So what? You haven't made a coherent point, saying "effectively silences dissenting voices" is a moot one, as I was a dissenting voice, and wasn't silenced, other's who have been nuked are still not silenced and effectively there isn't any way to silence anyone on the network. So what is your point, do you think we should have equal shares, do you suppose admins could solve flag issue? So what if it's not equal shares, that's not a problem, that's a feature, that's a very important and necessary feature for the health and well being of the network, without that feature there wouldn't be a tangible worth attached to content here.
What they did was not ineffective exactly since I know many people who once used torrents who now do not because of this. VPNs can be compromised and most likely are transparent to those operating the highest spy technologies. TOR was created through a government project and is likely compromised at the very least through the running of corrupt end points.
No, I wasn't talking about The Onion Router, I was talking about torrents and how they are distributed, you supposedly knowing MANY people who don't use torrents because they have been banned by the ISP doesn't change the fact that a simple PROXY Server makes all(absolute) those government restrictions effectively meaningless.
If you accept that all systems CAN be compromised and we know that, via snowden's leaks and other sources, that the government groups are going to extreme lengths to compromise EVERYTHING - then it you should reassess your claim that any government act is null in respect to shutting down Torrents.
We don't know that all systems can be compromised. Yes, torrents still work, I use them and many still use them, there is no reason to say that torrents are compromised, they are beyond compromise by government act, the very fact of this is that they have not been compromised by government for more than a decade. My point though wasn't that, I was asking if you realize that because there isn't any central authority over the network, much like Torrents, the network cannot be compromised because of that.
In other words, do you realize that if there was a central position on the network, it would be the number one exploit, and would compromise the integrity of the network, arguably more than anything?
The pretext to that was that those who want such a compromising position would have not invested in steem because it is essentially antithetical to that.
You can say "everything can be compromised" but absolutes are usually false. You have yet to specifically and accurately demonstrate numerous points, the point that "everything can be compromised" being among them.