I already left this as a comment on @selfhelp4trolls post The Downvote Debate : A complex issue in need of a complex solution, which I highly recommend reading, watching, or at least skimming, before moving on.
On to the reply
Thanks for making a calm, clear-headed, and big picture look at what's going on, from your perspective.
I do want to be extremely clear that I am not against any of these folks specifically. I don't know any of these down-voters in any way except seeing a small % of their activity on this chain, and there's a reason that I have said nothing about their persons, their content, their lives, etc.
Just the ways in which they are acting as the rulers of Hive.
This isn't their fault. They were raised in Babylon, they live in Babylon, and most importantly this is the way Hive is designed.
Am I calling out authoritarianism, something that is obviously a spectrum, when the level we're seeing is [arguably] on the lower end of things (no physical violence)?
Yes, absolutely.
Because it is well over the level that I find acceptable.
Which is ZERO.
I'm an anarchist, specifically because every single bit of history, observation, theory, and metaphysics clearly leads to respect for sovereignty & free will (not controlling others, as you mentioned) is key.
I bought into the mythology spun by Dan and others about this being a different kind of system, and I've invested untold hours into this place and the communities here.
Recently I have been quite fully disillusioned (which is always a good thing) to this, had to stop drinking the Steem/Hive Kool-Aid (which I have served to many people), and had to completely let go of it.
That release, that letting go of any attachment, expectation, or giving a f$@k about my blog, Hive, being a "content creator," and so on.
Which led to the most enjoyable (though manic) days of Hive interaction that I've had since at least the hardfork... but more likely since 2017.
Getting so many private messages, so many amazing comments (especially from so many people who don't agree with me, support me, or necessarily like me at all), and watching the people acting like dictators so perfectly lay out that behavior, over and over, to prove the point being made.
Rewards are the distraction - censorship is the point
The idea that this is about the rewards (for the people calling out downvotes, and the ones giving them) is ludicrous, and it would seem is being (probably unconsciously - actually believing it by most people) used mostly as a deflection from the issue of the centralization (which it highlights), and censorship.
The posts being down-voted aren't the folks consistently getting $20-30 for their work, never once appearing on trending or hot lists (regardless of quality.)
It's the posts that are going Hive Viral - that are up on the top of trending for people outside of that creator's community/followers to see.
That's when the posts are zero'd out - or close to it, in most of these situations.
Scroll through trending after one of these rounds of downvotes goes out, and you'll find that there's not a single thing "controversial" to be found there, unless someone has spent their own $HIVE to promote the post.
This isn't about over-rewarded content... Everyone involved agrees that most of trending is trash, and these folks often support it (smooth less than others for sure) - this is suppression of information that makes Hive look unappealing to statist mainstreamers, and causes cognitive dissonance for many whales.
Decentralized?
Hive blockchain may be the most decentralized chain out there
This is absolutely untrue, from a technical standpoint (top 20 witnesses have full control) and from a current/political standpoint (1 stakeholder votes with enough to decide that top 20.)
As long as there is a built-in power structure, built upon nothing besides who has the most $, well we all know how that plays out.
Alternatives?
I started designing (on paper, the logic, etc - obviously not code) a slightly tweaked version of Steem years ago when I realized that despite being some of the best tech around, the blockchain was already completely lost due to this intrinsic failure of money = governance. (Never mind the obvious issues of the Ninja Mine, StInc in general, ol' BS, plagiarism galore, scammers, etc.)
It seems that for the first time, there is actually quite a lot of energy & excitement for something like that, both from within Hive, and from various facets of the freedom movement, intentional communities, and so on.
Imagine the tech of Hive. Fast. Cheap/Free. Scaleable.
Fair launch.
P2P verification (allowing closer to PoB without KYC)
Voting power completely separated from $$, can't be bought or sold.
A very simple, shared set of values (free speech, personal responsibility)
"Down-votes" activate a notification for volunteers from people trained to resolve conflict, confirm sources, etc. depending on what area the disagreement occurs in.
Won't give away any more here, but I'll be dropping a piece on it soon. (and all my posts will be rewards declined for as long as I keep posting, since it's safe to assume that they will continue mass-downvoting my content)
This won't be competition for Hive, except to probably pull away many the journalists, activists, researchers, and others that the big stake folks don't want here anyway. Not competing for NFTs or games, not trying to get a big market cap or listed on exchanges.
Why feed the hand that beats you?
As to the idea of staying here if I "ever cared about it" - don't care one bit about a piece of technology, outside of how it can help free & heal people. Hive is proving that it is just digital feudalism, and the lords don't want my kind around, except for the value that we create for them.
Why the hell should we keep creating value for these stakeholders, who don't want us here, and do want to see us rewarded for our content (which means they are always staying ahead of the the stakeholders they disagree with by removing their curation rewards.)
I was on the phone with a friend yesterday, and after really getting into the core issues at play here and everything, he got pretty hyped on the idea of getting some of the big crypto-anarchist whales to come in and buy the stake to fight back...
If the freedom movement came in and dropped $20, 30, even 50 million dollars, it wouldn't make a dent. The big stake isn't selling stake - and the price increases as demand increases, and all we'd be doing is making money for them (and tons of others holding HIVE), without getting anywhere near their playing field.
The idea of Layer 2s being the solution has this ^^ same problem - it's just feeding them by adding activity and utility to their coin, and everyone has to buy in to use the L2. Plus, it's still on a chain where governance is extremely centralized, and we're not in the club.
Getting rid of us is good for Hive, funny enough
As I mentioned above, one of the things that we can all say is true, is that "controversial" content like calling out career pedophiles, corrupt companies & governments, eugenics, and the like is something that holds Hive/Steem back from being inviting to the mainstream masses, who only know the walled garden of Facebook or Twitter.
If they can get all of us undesirables without rewards, zero-repped, black-listed, off in L2 walled gardens, or off their platform completely - then Hive can finally get millions of users and shoot to $10, 20, or more.