To be, or not to be, that is the question
- Hamlet
Do you recognize the above scene from Hamlet? It's Hamlet contemplating death, confused about whether life is worth living but unsure of whether the alternative would be any better.
To Flag, or not to Flag, that is the question
My question is more prosaic, It's regarding what should my Steemit behavior be, or for that matter how should others behave when it comes to the question of flagging.
I do not claim to be the know-it-all who can dictate people's behavior here but I do want to appeal to all trigger happy Steemians that this question is really important. Not a matter of life or death, but of reputation, of the value of hard work someone has put in, of the necessity of being open to other's ideas and opinions, of being able to accept that not all will agree to you.
My Experience
I have myself been flagged on one of my comments, it was just a passing comment I made disagreeing with something with the post's content. I was flagged just because I did not agree. I accept that I should have been more careful and could have been a little more polite, but I was pretty new here and the subject matter was an area in which I have knowledge.
When I clarified my position and provided an explanation on why I made the earlier comment (along with it I also said that I liked the post but for one very important incorrectness), I was named a troll. I did not revert, I figured it was pointless.
A recent incident
A recent incident with one of my new Steemit friends @derangedvisions made me think about flagging again. He is a war veteran and created a great documentary on another veteran from the Vietnam war and posted it on Steemit. Request you guys and support his work. Below is a link to his documentary.
Someone made a very disrespectful remark about soldiers and veterans. None of us liked it and some flagged the comment but then someone suggested @derangedvisions that the better way to go is to not flag the comment but respond to it, even upvote it to keep it at the top so that everyone could see it.
Ponderings on Censorship
I liked this approach quite a lot. You may not agree with a post or comment, but what is the meaning of flagging and hiding it? Isn't our reason for moving to decentralised platforms like Steem is to move away from a world of censorship? How is our censorship better than Google's or the governments?
This is a question which each one of us should ask each time we think of flagging someone. It's as important as Hamlet's question even if it is not someone's life at stake, but it's someone's idea or opinion. People have given have given their lives for ideas.
The question is more important for whales and orcas to ponder upon because their flags are painful to whoever is at the receiving end. It's freedom of thought and expression you are suppressing, guys. Think about it twice before you pull the trigger.
No censorship at all?
But the game is not so easy. This post is not a sermon. It's just a series of questions and ponderings.
Is there really nothing which should be flagged? Anti-censoring hardliners will say, no there isn't.
How about extreme racial or religious hate-mongering? Fanning sentiments of gullible but dangerous people and motivating them to hurt fellow human beings? Should that not be censored?
I had a long discussion with @valorforfreedom on this and his opinion is that talking and doing are not the same things. But did Hitler himself commit the genocide of Jews? Did Saddam kill the Shias himself? Was bin Laden there in those planes?
There are real cases of religious riots triggered using social media. The story of ISIS recruiting through the internet is now well known. Should these not be stopped?
Thoughts on Free Speech and Necessity of Flagging
Is free speech more important than human lives? Did the idea of free speech not rise in the first place as a way to fight autocracy and religious and social repression?
If now someone uses the cover of free speech on decentralised social media to bring back what free speech originally envisioned to defeat, should it not be stopped?
Influencers who are detrimental to society who may tomorrow create an account on Steemit and spread nefarious ideas, should they not be stopped?
These are questions which should be thought about by each one of us. If decentralization is here to stay, such moral and ethical dilemma will be faced by each one of us. How will we then respond?
End Note
How are we responding now? Is protecting general free speech and fighting what is really harmful not more important than the current Steemit cat-fights as important they may be?
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