Hello, @snowflake. :) I find your post very interesting. I joined steemit in June 2016 but became active only few month ago. The problem with moderation seems complex to me.

Censorship is definitely an issue. I am a third gender individual assigned female at birth, I am an agnostic and practising occultist, a left-leaning anarchist from a non-English speaking country. In addition, I live in a different country to the one I was born in. It's hard for me to find a common ground with others most of the time. :D

I am hesitant to blog about politics because I know that my views are generally not popular. Nothing I said ever got flagged, but most of my comments on the political subjects were ignored. This discouraged me from becoming more vocal. I refrain from expressing my point of view fearing the negative response. Why sweat at the keyboard writing about politics when I can get rewards from posting about making jam! :D

I do flag people posting inflammatory comments and ones begging for votes, but I do pay notice to how powerful the person is on the platform. Part of me thinks, I should act like a whale and not care. The other side of me thinks 'why harm my chances?'

If there was a downvote consensus like you propose, perhaps I would feel less vulnerable expressing myself. That said, like @timcliff points out, the idea might be hard to implement in a meaningful way.