Does anonymity cheapen, rather than provoke, the debate? Wouldn’t opinions and comments on a topic like this be taken more seriously if readers knew for sure who was offering them? | ? |
The answer to both is, "yes, most likely."
But for many of us, this activity is something to be pursued in parallel with another, unrelated career (or for some of us, two or three unrelated careers).
These careers have their own contours and challenges, and would not necessarily be helped by my opinions about politics, art, transhumanism, or video games being readily available to my colleagues in those other spheres.
So, we here choose pseudonymity. Speaking for myself, this is not in any way an abdication of responsibility for what I write here. I am willing to take my lumps if (er, when) I say something stupid. And I'm certainly not protected from libel suits by my flimsy guise of "Jason" the blogger. Anybody who really, really wants to know who Jason the Blogger really is has several ways to find out (including just asking me).
But in an age without privacy, I can at least shield these sorts of writings from a casual google search. When I am next looking for work, I can hope that my employer will see my sanitized internet persona (that's what Facebook is for, right?) rather this hot mess of a blog.
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