I'm not scared. I'm attempting to be practical. See my comment for details. I generally don't look at who votes for me and I doubt bernie does, so that line of thinking is silly in this case. Those who do (to some degree) might support me because I've stood up to Bernie before and got three months of flagging for it (scheduled to happen in the last 12 hours before payout back when that couldn't be corrected by more upvotes). I'm still here. Some respect me for that. I also have to recognize that period of time was not healthy for Steem for any investors who were following me and interested in Steem. They want nothing to do with it now because they see the system as broken with such imbalances of power.
Not everything is "self-greed" or protecting a current position. It's about protecting the value of Steem for everyone and prolonged, prominent flagging to demonstrate its current flaws is really harmful to that value. I think Bernie knows this and uses it as a shield to essentially do whatever he wants. The code, as it stands now, can't stop him without harming all of us in the process.
That's my current thinking anyway.
"I've stood up to Bernie before and got three months of flagging for it" What do you think the effect of this would be on a new user? Down voting is not even close to the same as upvoting. Every new user lives in fear of making a down vote on crap content because of a fear of retribution.
Check the post I referenced in my original post. In that post, I was calling on whales to downvote, not new users. Their small Steem Power doesn't do much unless they have larger accounts following their voting trails or somehow using their votes as indicators of what they should also be doing.
I'm not defending bernie's flagging because, IMO, it can often be inconsistent, irrational, and emotionally driven. I don't understand it, though I have tried to make sense of it many times. Either way, it is what it is. The current system can't stop large accounts from expressing their preferences with either huge upvotes (which may people absolutely love bernie for) or huge downvotes.
He’s cute, isn’t he?
Keep relying on those Steemit devs, enjoy the status quo.
I think he’s jealous he didn’t get a mention in the article I was.
Kisses babe!!
Bigot trash.