The Lack Of Censorship

Those in the crypto-sphere are attracted to it for different reasons. Some are anti government, some are anti FIAT (regular currency), some are anti science and some are up to just plain evil acts. In fact, in the early days of Bitcoin nearly 90% of early adopters were using it for criminal activities. Thankfully, as more and more decent people started to embrace crypto-currencies, that percentage dropped significantly (there's still a long way to go). Steem Monsters being played by innocent kids should drop it a lot more. :D

One of the draw factors to crypto is the lack of censorship, especially on Steemit and associated venues like DTube, Dsound, VIMM, etc. You can largely publish whatever you want here, free from the fear of being banned and so forth.

I came here because YouTube decided that I didn't have enough subscribers nor was my content generating enough views for me to continue to have advertising attached to my videos.
I didn't care about censorship, just the unfairness of it all. In fact, I have made more SBD on DTube in the last week than several months on YouTube.

While there is no censorship here, you are not free of consequences of your very transparent actions. No one has to read your stuff, stay followed or watch your next video. If people are following your stuff, it's because they want to be there and that's a good thing.

But there are also the dregs and wastrels that come along with it, conspiracy theorists and a whole heap of pseudoscience along the way. Some of this stuff is not only sickening, but quite dangerous too (encouraging the stalking / harassment /bombing / killing of political opponents, rape apologists). Do you want your kids to see this stuff? Thankfully, there is an up and down vote system pushing this nasty stuff to the bottom and the hopefully the good stuff to the top.
I have seen the Steemit community go after con artists and it's reassuring to see.

The Other Censorship

I often find myself silenced in wanting to speak out against the darker nature of humanity, the ignorance, hate, not because I can't speak nor is it because I cannot find the words. It's because regardless of what I say, it will be either ignored, drowned out by sheer numbers or I start losing upvotes the moment I go against the grain of the Steemit-group-think. So, I will just not bother to reply to things that I know are wrong. Some of this stuff makes me very angry and it's the stuff that unfortunately gets the most upvotes.

This is a form of self censorship and it's one that I have to work on. But I also have to pick my battles and know that people cannot be convinced against their will, and that the lack of censorship means that I can still post whatever I want here and I will continue to do so.

For now though, my intention is to just create good content and hopefully making this a better place for everyone, shifting that percentage ever closer to 'awesome'.