"The government likes to neutralize efficient activist, anarchist or government antagonist by ruining their reputation. This is accomplished by launching propaganda attacks on the targeted individual. The purpose is to stop the person's ability to influence others. After all, who will listen to or follow a crazy or immoral person?"

Well, to a much much smaller degree this what whales like @stellabelle
did to my reputation here on Steemit, (this is my second account).
It all started because I dared scrutinize the narrative of a user named @lauralemons who in her posts claimed that she was raped by her father, brother/boyfriend/best friend/etcetc (we lost count how many time she was supposedly raped). She also plays every vitim-card you can name,
just look at her posts and you will know what Im talking about.
Its basically fiction victim playing to get attention and votes.
You will notice that the highest rep person on the site @stellabelle
dedicates herself to posting this same kind of stories written by "secret writers", basically an outlet for herself and her circle to write fiction under the guise of "secret writer" so that nobody can prove its fiction.

So this led to me being called a psychopath, sexist, pro rape misogynist,
and you guessed it, a looser virgin fat guy that lives in his moms basement
and needs to get a life.

Result, my posts and comments are invisible unless somebody votes them
or replies to them, my posts dont even appear in the tags I post them, etc
and people dont want to vote for me because they are afraid their reputation might suffer.

In any case, the same dynamics of reputational banishment you mention
are being used here in Steemit, even with all the blablabla about
anticensorship, anarchy and whatnot.

Hope that helps you understand where Im coming from.