I think that, if you want to change people's minds, you really should consider writing under your real name. I realize that many will find that crazy, especially right now, but I think you're wrong. 1/n
Now, I understand that often people who complain about anonymity on the Internet never say anything controversial among their peer group, so that's easy for them to say and it can be very annoying to hear them lecture you because you're anonymous. 2/n
However, this doesn't apply to me, so I don't really care, because let's be real I say more controversial shit than 99% of the people who complain that folks who criticize anonymity don't have anything to fear. 3/n
To be clear, I'm not saying it's *never* justified to write anonymously, I'm just asking people to seriously consider whether they really have to. I'm convinced that, in the vast majority of cases, the answer is no. 4/n
I also realize this rant will rub many people the wrong way, because they will feel like I think writing under my own name confers me some kind of moral superiority and, I'm not going to bullshit you, I absolutely think it does, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. 5/n
I think writing under your own name has many advantages. For instance, I really think that, other things being equal, people take you more seriously when you write under your own name and are more inclined to interpret you charitably. 6/n
Perhaps more importantly, I just think it's the right thing to do, because the mere fact that some views are almost exclusively expressed by people under the guise of anonymity is sufficient to cast aspersion on those views and this leads to collectively suboptimal outcomes. 7/n
I understand there is a collective action problem here, and that it's not easy, trust me I understand that very well. But nobody ever said that doing the right thing was easy. It's also not fair, because other people don't have to deal with this, but life isn't fair. 8/n
You will probably have to make some compromises, but that's okay, I think it's still preferable to anonymity in most cases. Again, I'm not saying there is *no* place for anonymity on the Internet (which is ridiculous), but I think it should be much smaller. 9/n
I've been thinking about this a lot recently and I just don't think that hiding behind pseudonyms and retreating to safe spaces will make things any better. At some point reasonable people will have to take a stand or the discourse will just keep deteriorating. 10/10
P. S. I've said my piece, so I don't plan on discussing this further, especially not to debate whether anonymity is justified in your case. Again, I'm sure it's sometimes justified, but I'm equally sure that most of the time it's not. I only hope it will make some people think.
