You know how in some of the more flamboyant cartoons/anime, such as your Dragonball Z or Naruto or Bleach (or whatever other animated entertainment that features screaming people fighting other screaming people) and they keep finding new ways to level up and one-up their opponent, thus ensuring the longevity of the show as the main characters continue to raise their game to levels heretofore unknown? It’s very energetic and exciting fun to watch. Yeah, you know the kind of show I’m talking about.
So, in the complete opposite direction of that, I’m looking at some of the activities of some of the whales that slap each other with so much aggression and pleasure in the dark depths of steemit. You know which ones I'm talking about.
They’re like dogs fighting at the bottom of a cesspool. No matter who wins, whomever emerges is still covered in poop.
Anyone that gets sucked into that vortex is sullied, maybe not forever, but for a time. They run the risk of acquiring some taint, an unnamed virus that follows them from post to post. The promise of a potential downvote. Potential revenge for support of one cause or another.
Maybe today I will downvote you to oblivion.
I want to join in, sometimes, on these semi-righteous battles for right and wrong. Arbitrary lines in the sand, random points we’re defending, allegiance changing sides. It’s like a video game, or a cartoon. I want to choose a side, because I have an opinion too.
But my opinion is worthless. My pistol has no power here. I’m cannon fodder in a great battle of nuclear bombs made of steempower. My words would be swept away in a torrent of downvotes. I can’t risk that. I’m tiny. Just a tiny fish. So I decline to participate, and watch from the sidelines.
But I look at the major players, these folks that would lead us with their massive wallets and piles of steempower that would rival any that Smaug might gather to his breast. I watch their pitiful flailings, these longterm veterans of steemit, these shining of icons of what might be, these generals in our army against mainstream social media.
And I wonder. If this is their final form? Like Dragonball Z or Bleach, where folks will eventually level up to a point where they can defeat all comers, wielding great swords of light or fists of justice. And they fight amongst themselves, dragging themselves down, dragging steemit down, taking the rest of us with them.
They can only devolve.
Their positions disintegrate into powdery platforms of spite and vengefulness. They post memes, and garbage content, and fight amongst themselves in unsubstantiated battles of right and wrong. Unfair fights over inaccurate arguments. Sometimes they win, and collect massive payouts, and sometimes they lose, and the other party collects their own payouts. Hundreds of dollars change hands based on time of day and what side they pick or what comment they read or didn’t read.
The rest of us clutch to our single dollar posts, hanging on for dear life as the tide rushes past, reward pool fragmenting to bits around us.
Is this the eventual conclusion of the steemit lifespan? To be bitter and vindictive and spiteful, and all we have left is to use our steem power for bad and arbitrary things, posting memes and downvoting dissenting opinions?
Is that a steemit user’s final form?
I hope not. But I will ready my final meme post, just in case.
Title image by @negativer using Canva
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I have to admit, I haven't paid much attention to the whale wars. They aren't in my feed and so, out of sight out of mind. Kind of like turning off cnn... probably a bad analogy. In any case, I'm enjoying my positive experience of reading useful posts and comments.
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Yea, if you start looking at it too closely, it starts to make you feel sad and dirty. Best to ignore it, I think.
No matter who wins, whomever emerges is still covered in poop. Brilliant! There posts are shit, there payout is big, but they devalue the entire platform and the entire currency with each one of them. They are trending, but they are ugly, they don't smell good and they have little or no value... Great writing!
If those posts weren't there, none of the rest of us would miss them. It's a shame, especially when you consider how much good they could be doing with all that power. It makes the rest of us wonder if we're doing things the right way, or if any of the effort is really worth it.
Thanks for reading!
Geez ... I hope not too. I used to frequent a poetry site where flames wars were aplenty. I even stepped up once when I thought someone was receiving beating from a site-titan. There was not real money exchanging hands but emotions ran high and people chose sides. I would not want to do that again ... ever. Just keep on swimming by is my advice.
'Nothing to see here, move along folks.' Probably the best possible advice. Not much to be gained, but potentially a lot to lose. Life is too short for all that stress and drama.
Yep ...:)
Very good read. I think the DB Z analogy is appropriate. It's like massive energy waves blasting the tree lines with each punch.
Thanks! I imagine it like Godzilla vs Mothra type battles. Big clumsy things rolling around breaking stuff and generally making everyone else unhappy.
Upvoted, upvote me!
Downvoted, downvote me?
Don’t be another spammer, we have enough of those already.