Actually, I don't share quite some of your opinions concerning the corona situation etc. but I completely share your point of view that HIVE should be a platform of free speech where everybody can express their opinion and ideas without the fear of getting downvoted (no matter if I personally agree or disagree).

A big part of the flags on HIVE are given due to disagreement on opinion, retaliation or 'rules' like "Comments shouldn't be upvoted with a high percentage." etc. which is completely inacceptable in my opinion, and that kind of hostile behaviour will, exactly as you analysed, drive away uncountable users from HIVE.

I appreciate your efforts to point that out, and I personally am 'hibernating' and won't become active on HIVE again, until the overall situation in this centralized oligarchy will improve significantly.