if someone is drilling holes in the hull of the good ship Steemit so we will ALL sink, should that really be part of their "freedom?"

Exactly, we need to school these people on proper etiquette on Steemit or it will degenerate into a spam site. I won't let that happen if I have any say about it. So now when I see it I'll just respond with a link to this post so the can learn and if they still do it I'll mute them.