Steemit and Whales Are Under Threat of Being Fined and Persecuted Due To A Campaign By FTC Because of Someone Who Has Been Attacking @familyprotection and @informationwar Communities

in #steemit6 years ago

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I'd also rather err on the side of being nice than being a hostile jerk. Miscommunications happen. We mean one thing and end up saying another due to reasons such as typing in a haste or lack of language skills. Sometimes we define things differently and may even end up disagreeing even if both individuals were trying to say the same thing. But as time goes by you get more information you are able to form a more accurate and objective opinion. When someone outright dismiss truths, spread misinformation, never bother to learn, attack certain communities and rally people to file complaints to government agencies to destroy the main developer behind a blockchain project, you know we have some sicko whether it comes from a place of malice or ignorance.

The Beginings

context is paramount and I've written entire posts about it. I don't want to just drop some selected lines of comments and point fingers. @sunlit7 account is 271 days and it seems to be a free account made by Steemit Inc after the big crypto boom.

We had many interactions. Obviously we also had disagreements. Nothing is wrong there. But during the time some small accounts were having bandwidth issues @sunlit7 acted without any real understanding of how the blockchain operate. There were few who expressed their dissatisfaction and I explained how things worked to the best of my ability. But unlike the rest, @sunlit7 framed it as if Steemit Inc was committing fraud even though all the details were readily available in the FAQ section and many articles + some YouTube videos.

When all is well you don't see the raw essence of a person. It is during the extreme and troubled events and chaos where true nature comes out. I took a mental note and moved on. Some people just don't get it, don't do enough research and tend to be entitled. I moved on and continued to have interactions as usual.

Attacks on @familyprotection Community, Those Who Are involved and @informationwar

I'm not the most active person in these communities. But I've met some great people there. One day @sunlit7 suddenly started a defamation campaign against @familyprotection in one of my posts. She also framed a terrible picture regarding the @informationwar community. I didn't form any solid opinions because organizations and communities can still have bad actors in them. I've seen these things in all sorts of communities including Bitcoin. I tried to have a conversation with @sunlit7 and explained my positive interactions with the respective communities and said that I'm really disappointed if her words were true.

Then @canadian-coconut came and explained herself and her actions against the defamation. Personally I'm not a fan of politics and drama. So I stayed away while giving the benefit of the doubt to @familyprotection and those who were from @informationwar

The Snake Finally Bites

Although things have pretty much gone to the old functioning normal days with few extra functions like discounted account creation the switching itself was rocky and poorly executed. I made a post when Steemit Inc finally patched up Resource Credits (https://steemit.com/news/@vimukthi/your-resource-credits-are-full-old-days-are-back) and that's when the snake fully revealed itself.

If you have at least cared to learn the basics of STEEM you should be able to spot all the misinformation and outright lies spread by this account. Since STEEM is transparent for everybody I'm not going to quote everything. But I will quote and source enough to give sufficient context.

This is what got me concerned and kicked off the conversation. The person is obviously delusional regarding both law and how STEEM works. The entitlement mentality and aggression is quite evident. Yet I chose to err on the side of being nice and tried to explain things and clarify things by replying: "I didn't get that right. Did you made a formal complain to Federal Trade Commission? Why do you think there is any chance that they are able to do anything about something that isn't part of their legal jurisdiction."

Let's look at what she is going at:

  • "Ned is the owner and a US citizen" + "operating a ponzi/pyramid scheme" (this alone should prove that @sunlit7 has no credibility regarding blockchain/crypto/STEEM and also Economics)
  • Then talks about fines and prosecutions through government coercion.
  • Talks about governments having a way with persuading other governments to bring people under control (means trade wars, sanctions or even "regime changes")
  • Specifically mentions "extradition to the US to face charges"
  • "When your talking a four hundred plus million dollar operation that is well worth it in fines to pursue by the FTC." (Which is an obvious indication that @sunlit7 is out for blood and wants to see the whales fined and jailed - Sounds pretty close to what happened during China when being rich was punishable by death: http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub6/item1081.html)

I tried my to reason with facts and even refereed her to Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics as a free education resource. Somehow the response I got was: "That's half the problem on here, people talking down to people like they have no rights because they got a silver dollar stuck in their pockets and that's all they have. There's a total lack of respect for the lower tier, I've seen so many insulting remarks this past week, it's what drove me, because I know those people who really need that fifty bucks instead of being forced to put it into the pockets of the upper tiers deserve better then all the insults slung at them like their little beggers needing a dime.
The continuation of insulting and utter disregard for those who have done nothing but help feed the eco system into a viable platform is
utterly disgusting. You and those like you who sling your mightier then
thou attitudes is why there are laws protecting people,
there have been a many, many people who thought they were untouchable but found out quite the opposite.
What it all comes down to is there is no lack of individuals willing to take advantage of the most vulnerable in our society, this sir is why you will never ever see a voluntarism society."

Some of that got nonsensical. Some were just straight out of the playbook of moderate SJW and the person has no idea about what proper laws really should be about. Then there are the utter lies she is spreading and I couldn't leave this on the blockchain unanswered.

I gave a long detailed explanation which can be found here. The response I got was this:

  • there is no such thing as a "Decentralized Autonomous Company", maybe in your mind
  • You, nor I get to tell the government/state/city/county that we are are own property and you can't tell me what to do (Basically we have someone who is fundamentally against the decentralization movement and is completely blind to actual achievements like Dash, DPoS blockchains, PIVX etc.)
  • All my hard work doesn't matter to her now because I'm no longer someone at the bottom. I just didn't fit her narrative of someone being exploited by the STEEM blockchain that is unable to do anything.

I replied with a 652 word reply here and I get this reply.

This Invitation Got Me Digging

It turns out that @sunlit7 is still actively harassing communities while getting people to file complaints to Federal Trade Commission

You really need to call the federal trade commission and file a complaint, I did and they didn't brush me off either.
It took all of ten minutes but everyone who complains those complaints land on various government/state enforcement agencies desk, meaning they get sent out to several agencies and someone's finally going to notice a uptick in complaints on a multi hundred million dollar operation where less then 250 out of over a million people hold the majority of wealth.

She also mentions "forced to give it back to the company" regarding STEEM which is a clear distortion of truth. This is a clear conspiracy to bring down STEEM just the way some group brought down Arise Bank. The main difference would be that this conspiracy isn't very likely to succeed. You can read a bit more about Arise Bank here.


She even went on to show off her facts with the witness @themarkymark

Then she follows the footsteps of people like Saul Alinsky and try to recruit those who have been flagged in the past into her campaign:

I also saw her spreading some FUD on a post of @tarazkp with some other misinformation while @tarazkp was one of those smart minds who were spreading the most sensible outlook on the platform looking at things in a objective and critical way.__

A Post From @snowpea On Harrassment

@snowpea has come across as a very nice and positive person with a kind heart. 12 days ago she made this post: https://steemit.com/steemandme/@snowpea/harrassment-taking-place-please-read-and-shout-out-saturday-the-steem-and-me-edition I'm not surprised about this post because following is the message @sunlit7 ws spreadin on my blog:

Some of her early attacks on @familyprotection can be seen at: https://steemit.com/familyprotection/@snowpea/they-nailed-us I will refrain from personal input on what is discussed as I lack expertise. You should make up your ow mind about what happened. What I know is that this happened 4 months ago and @snowpea made the post linked above 12 days ago. That's 4 months long persistence. Some of the conversations regarding the plagiarism accusation can be found here: https://steemit.com/informationwar/@truthforce/content-thieves-banned-from-iw-curation

A prime example of her disdain and hostility towards STEEM can be traced as far as 7 months. I wasn't expecting a campaign to get Federal Trade Commission to go after Steemit Inc and whales and you can see how people tried to educate this mad woman here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@ecoinstant/re-sunlit7-re-flurgx-re-netuoso-re-steemitblog-steemit-winter-update-2017-reflection-our-vision-statement-and-mission-and-a-look-forward-20180222t043325704z

Read And Make Up Your Own Minds

I'm still thinking it's not complete malice but ignorance infused with a bit of malice. Whichever iit is we know for sure that

  • This person has already attacked two important movements within STEEM
  • Has no idea about blockchain nor economics
  • Makes no attempt to learn anything
  • Doesn't respect meritocracy
  • Use communist/SJW tactics
  • May not exactly be a plagiarist but certainly has made a lot of Copy/Paste content
  • Trying to get government involved
  • Whats to fine and prosecute Steemit Inc and Whales
  • Spreads misinformation and FUD
  • Doesn't respect the existing communities and tries to get everyone to act the way she desire through coercion.

I still think @sunlit7 has a very low chance of success. But she is certainly a snake that bite the hand that fed her with a free account and opportunity to earn and grow as many of us have on this community. I don't want to see Steemit Inc going the way of Arise Bank due to some US alphabet agency and see people extradited like some drug lords because our community doesn't act out based on the whims of someone with a grand sense of entitlement and a knack of distorting reality.

Facts Have Been Organized and You Have Been Warned

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Hi @vimukthi
I'm sorry to see that you have wasted so much of your energy on sunlit7

Early on I recognized Narcissitic Personality Disorder.
Some of the key traits are feeling entitled, and having to play the victim role, and seeking lots of attention (negative or positive). I have done LOTS of research on this disorder, and ignoring them and not giving them the attention that they seek is the best thing that you can do.

I do not think that her complaints will gain any traction with authorities as she has no facts to back them up.
..
She attacked me really badly on one of my posts (a long time ago), saying horrible things about what type of a person I am. I ignored all her comments. Now this could just be the sign of a rude person. The narcissist part comes next. A few days later she wrote a post tagged with #familyprotection (the tag and community that I created) about growing up in foster care. Mark almost upvoted it, but I showed him her comments of disdain for me, and of course we both refrained from upvoting her.
From then on, she has been complaining about how I will only upvote one side of the story and how biased I am, and complaining that she can't make any money on Steemit because the one thing that she has important to write about won't get my vote!

Now that is CLEARLY not the sign of an emotionally healthy person. If she was simply a jerk or someone who disagreed with me or even someone who hated me, then she would NEVER have felt ENTITLED to my upvote and support after treating me that way.
Everything else that she has done since then has only confirmed that she is a narcissist.

I really don't like to get into this type of drama on the blockchain for all to see. But since you wrote about it and since I don't want you or others to waste anymore time worrying about her, I am laying this out here.

Funny you should say that. The first thought that came to mind after reading this post was "Narcissist". I've had enough experience dealing with a narcissist to know you are absolutely correct, the only was is to ignore / separate yourself from them. Once you do separate yourself, under no circumstances should you allow them back into your life!!!! All of my research indicates that their is NO cure for a narcissistic personality, so don't think you can help them you will only bee feeding the disorder.

Bingo! It is of no use to give a long list of facts when trying to reason with a narcissist. That is because their emotions are 100% truth to them, and the facts are irrelevant.
This article explains it well.

https://pairedlife.com/problems/Stop-Explaining-to-The-Narcissist-Do-This-Instead

.
I know that @vimukthi looks for the best in people, just as I always try to do. However once you have seen the signs that you are dealing with a narcissist it is best to just stop trying to explain yourself. As it says in this article, the best response to one of their attacks is this --
"I'm sorry that you feel that way, but you're entitled to your opinion,"
or
"I disagree with that, but you are entitled to your feelings."

It is best not to feed their chaos with any further comments.

What push me into conversation more is having misinformation written on the blockchain. When there is something utterly wrong written I just have to correct it if it's especially on one of my own posts or someone might actually get a very wrong idea about things. It's hard for me to not pick apart false claims, FUD and misinformation.

Yes, I can understand that.

Totally understandable and that is what makes it so hard to separate from them.

I'm sorry to see that you have wasted so much of your energy on sunlit7

You learn from experiences and pass them forward. So it's not much of a waste in my eyes. I haven't really met anyone with the kind of symptoms you described. I'm young and live with minimal social interactions. The only narcissists I've met were talented jerks or people who won't shut up about how awesome they are.

I'm sad to say this but we might even end up with more of the same as STEEM grow in numbers. We may end up having to use that mute button a lot. No single government can really bring down STEEM. But I don't want to see some regulators trying to throw a wrench into the development while we are still young.

Wish you and @familyprotection Best of Luck!

Ugh, I'm sorry you had to deal with that on your post- people like her make me physically ill. There's an energy they give off from thriving on negativity and the misery of others. She is most definitely a narcissist. I see a couple of her recent posts have been flagged, hopefully she'll just move on.

Don't let her get you down! There are far more fantastic people on this platform than people like her :)

Don't worry. I have very tough skin. She didn't even upset me much. I just couldn't let these things go unnoticed and without response. Despite all its flaws STEEM and Steemit Inc are like a quasi-home. It's where we interact with each other and even earn few bucks. I also have a small stake (about ~3900 SP). I have all he incentives to keep this platform safe from threats.

I'm not even talking about the FTC. Misinformation can deal more damage than simply taking a bunch of coders, stakeholders and witnesses to court.

I hear you. I love this platform, I've met so many beautiful souls and finally had an outlet for my stories- I can even say that the first book I published on Amazon is largely the result of the encouragement I found here. And I also have a stake in this, so I understand completely. I just wanted to cheer you up in case her corrosive energy was infecting you at all :)

Narcissitic Personality Disorder.....that's classic coming from a woman who had her kid(s) taken from her then feels compelled to spend the rest of her life trying to defend her mistakes playing the victim.

My children have never been taken from me and I've never been under investigation. I am not a victim. Life has been good to me.

I thought that you had actually read my post entitled: "My History with @familyprotection and why I am involved" before you disparaged me over and over to the people who had replied to me.

https://steemit.com/familyprotection/@canadian-coconut/my-history-with-familyprotection-and-why-i-am-involved

It's late and I will read it later I promise, I will wholeheartedly apologized for any misunderstanding on my part of something that I may have misinterpreted as you or as you saying.

I will sincerely apologize now, for whatever reason I thought you were Anna, (lol) not that that's funny, I remember reading Anna's story, somehow going back and worth with the different links I assumed incorrectly that her story was your story.
I have also noticed since our last eruption you have been more carefully wording your support and advice, these are delicate situations, you or I really don't know some of these people or what happened with them outside their side the story, most people can take and decipher something in their own minds but others just take things they see on the internet as truth and who knows if that's really helpful to them or not if they confront a caseworker with something they seen or heard on the internet. Some people aren't to bright, lucky for us Snowpea didn't listen to anyone but her heart and she came out above it all but you can tell by the way she writes she is intelligent. I guess you could even take her as an example of what I was trying to say when she got really made at CPS and her mother she came here and vented with everyone her frustration, that was a positive outlet for her and there was people here to help her through that, some people just don't have that kind of discipline and would have gone off on a caseworker. I hope moving forward you can see where I was coming from and will admit that even myself I could have handled my frustration a little better. Needless to say I will always have the view from my own personal experiences that family protection is a mix of the good, bad and the ugly.

I know this woman/man so well here on steem!, I act like i don't see her anymore. Whenever I see her comments or anything at all, I just scroll pass them.
That way I don't feed her any further, and I don't let her state of "disordered-communication" slow down my outlook of things...

Don't feed her more.
Overlooking things is fundamental, when she realizes that no one gives a damn about her propaganda, she might actually get tire and stop.
(i use a him/her because I don't know who this person really is, people can act and pose like whom they are not. This is coming from someone whose account was hacked and almost completely impersonated, lol)
Thanks for the post @vimukthi.

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Took me awhile to get through that one! I did notice the FTC comment on a post, but I did not realize the full implication until reading through this post. I do think the full understanding of the all the dynamics of a decentralized system is hard to grasp, sometimes the mind seeks out a centralized figure to blame.

And surely there is blame to go around and lessons to be learned! I have read a lot of posts recently about that line of thinking.

Can't help but think that getting the government involved is a big step in the WRONG direction....

I do think the full understanding of the all the dynamics of a decentralized system is hard to grasp

Maybe. But willingness to let go of the old is probably why it is so hard. You also have to start from the roots and foundations or will get easily confused. I'm no crypto expert. But learning the basics were super easy.

And surely there is blame to go around and lessons to be learned! I have read a lot of posts recently about that line of thinking.

The problem is that people don't understand that holding VESTS is like holding a voting stock and that they are dealing with a company that doesn't charge money but instead allocate resources based on the owned stake. People just easily succumb to Us vs Them thinking from the Lizard Brain.

This was a fantastic video! Wow wow wow.
My new favorite 'scientific conspiracy'.

Is it possible she was recruited by someone who would like to see Steemit fail?

  • Perhaps Facebook, or some other group who knows Steemit will replace it some day?
  • Or perhaps the banksters who know that crypto will replace their scam called debt-is-money?

Just thinking out loud...

I don't think so. It's just ignorance combined with unhealthy personality. @sunlit7 has been having conversations with me from time to time and it never looked like she was planning a hit on STEEM. It's basically she joined a community and when the community doesn't operate the way she want it to, she went to Federal Trade Commission. A planned hit would work much differently. But I have to say that something like FB or a Bank can rally this kind of people to join them and spread FUD and misinformation.

I think what you mean to say is that I've always been a loyal follower to you, I've never disparaged or caused you any ill will or gave you any problems, in other words I clicked on your links because I respected what you contributed, always had, that's why you had to "specifically" call in some else to do the dirty work you couldn't find in our correspondence with each other.

that's why you had to "specifically" call in some else to do the dirty work you couldn't find in our correspondence with each other.

You brought up lies and misinformation in our conversation and your mention of FTC was what led to the long list of responses and half the post is from the conversations between you and me. after you asked me to go look at your comments and I did and saw that you have started out a campaign against the devs and the large investors of the platform.

You became a threat to the entire future of this platform and I had to make a detailed and well researched post based on your activities on STEEM Blockchain.

Showing that you have already attacked @informationwar and @familyprotection is just additional evidence of what you have done to this platform.

In the other comment you also mentioned said " I truly do want to thank you though for bringing the FTC point out front in focus, I am sure you managed to reach way more people than I would have done if I had wanted to go that route. "

But even the people who criticism this platform still want to improve it. Not destroy it. I'm pretty sure I didn't made anyone else run to the FTC or some other government agency by making this post.

If we are going to go on character assassinations I will state that I obviously stand on more moral ground then some woman who had her kid(s) removed. Like someone else said to me what can you expect from a woman that would put being a coconut as part of her avatar.

You do realize that your Ad hominem are not on the same ground as using intellectual fact based arguments to shred someone's lies and misinformation regarding a topic.

You've been hovering around level 5 and 6. Don't go to the bottom level by dragging some coconut and a women who faced separation with her kids. Following your logic you should have a more moral ground than some Jew that got gassed by the government. I just beg to differ.

You do realize that your Ad hominem are not on the same ground as using intellectual fact based arguments to shred someone's lies and misinformation regarding a topic.

I seen what she labeled me, she's no less guilt then I.

I highly recommend you stop at this point, you are not helping Steemit by attacking someone and bringing in attack dogs on someone who has filed a official complaint.

you are not helping Steemit by attacking someone and bringing in attack dogs on someone who has filed a official complaint.

This is either really confusing or really ironic.
You went straight back into getting more people to file complaints against Steemit Inc after replying to me. Then you say that I'm not helping steemit by raising my voice against your malicious actions.

attacking someone and bringing in attack dogs on someone who has filed a official complaint.

What does this even mean? Do you have some immunity because you filed a complaint? Should everyone fear you because you filed a complaint to FTC. Seriously?

As for @canadian-coconut she explained why she called you a narcissist and even provided links to detailed psychology post regarding the point to strengthen her case. Many other people seem to think the same about you and you have shown many of the qualities described in the provided article and several related sources on narcissism.

Your argument was some "coconut" and the fact that a women had her kids stolen by the government. You did't even bother to provide context. You honest don't think through your statements, do you? Maybe you do realize the errors but still go through with them. Either way I don't know your thought streams. I just know what you put on the blockchain.

I had Already Wrapped This Up

Then you show up and start making ore false claims and attack people Ad hominem style. If you wanted to stop, you could have just opt out of this platform. You are not even powering down which should mean that you intend to have enough RC for comments.

"I'm Sorry I Give Up. I'm Really Going To Stop Right Now"

Is that what you need to hear; me backing up which will allow you to walk out as some victor since you made me shut up?

I don't know if that what's going in your mind. I don't have that superpower. ut it sounds like a lot from:
https://pairedlife.com/problems/Stop-Explaining-to-The-Narcissist-Do-This-Instead
It's like Ca-Co nailed it.

You have 32 comments remaining to recruit people to complain to FTC. You set the dogs on our platform. You haven't even been flagged because of me. @themarkymark flagged you for going after him with insults.

Then you say that I'm not helping steemit by raising my voice against your malicious actions.

Just for your information if a investigation is found warranted and moved forward burden of proof falls on the shoulders of those complaining, this is particularly true if you are trying to show you have been damaged by the actions of the platform. I understand you are not from this country but I also understand that you feel you are untouchable. Whose the narcissist in that scenario?...definitely isn't me.

Should everyone fear you because you filed a complaint to FTC. Seriously?

I never said that nor would I ever say that, I am not like you on here trying to intimidate people into a set pattern of behavior by means of calling someone a little bitch, chastising or making a entire post to encourage a open public flogging of myself.

Markymark is okay in my book, that's between him and I, you just speculate I insulted him, maybe he flagged it to protect me, he's saved my ass before, I am sure he knows there's people out here whose power goes through their heads like yours. I don't mind he flagged it nor does it make me what to walk around on tip toes around him. Some people just have that special gift to take people with a chip off the ol' block.

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