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1. Embed this notice
   Scotsbear 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐻 (uraael@kitty.social)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Dec-2024 22:42:20 JST Scotsbear 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐻

   This will be my second Pinned Post.
   
   Someone threw my use of anonymity up at me the other day, while objecting to a comment I'd made (it happens: I don't always get it right.). The implication was clear: Anonymity is harmful.
   
   Respectfully, I disagree, and want to open this up for conversation because I think for some it's become frozen as Anonymity = Bad. General discourse around Troll behaviour seems to have cemented this idea in people's minds: "If you're not showing your whole identifiable/verifiable birth-self (#Truther) then you're doing it for nefarious reasons", backed up by cod-psychology around that mask liberating people to be their inner asshole.
   
   This emphatically does happen but it's not always the case.
   
   I've had more battles online than I can count, coming up for a quarter of a century's worth. I'm opinionated and like to set people straight - particularly if there's clear harm involved in someone's words or actions. Racism, Misogyny, TERFism...I've scars from fighting against all of them.
   
   But I'm also quite a private person. Some people I clash with are pretty much evil (or behaving that way). I feel that requires protection; I need a level of protection. Over the years I've become very comfortable with creating a shield persona that keeps me safe. My Internet Name, Uraael, is part of this. I am Birth Name online only in certain circumstances, usually where I can't avoid it.
   
   But this does not mean I change who I am, or how I deal with people. Perhaps I'm a touch bolder online? Perhaps conversations are easier to follow and interact with here instead of neuro-divergently puzzling them out in meat-space? These aren't things I have much control over, much as I might wish otherwise. But by and large I try hard to remain authentic to who I am everywhere.
   
   Extrapolating outward, there could be any number of perfectly legitimate reasons why a person might want their identity shielded. The LGBTQIA community is a perfect example. Being who they/we are can have unpleasant and even life-threatening real world implication. Providing yourself some cover therefore makes perfect sense. If you don't need that then I'd suggest you enjoy a level of privilege that many others don't (my accuser was a white cishet male...), and would ask you consider what it's like in their world for a second before passing accusative judgement.
   
   You might have to work a little harder to really truly know who I am but my heart and soul are right there every day in my posts and replies. Judge not a book by it's shiny animated cover.
   
   Peace.
   
   #Anonymity #Protection

   • Embed this notice
     Jack Deth (jacklaridian@social.horrorhub.club)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Dec-2024 22:42:01 JST Jack Deth

     in reply to

     @Uraael
     This is a really interesting topic and I think it deserves to be taken seriously, so I will forgo my usual laissez faire attitude and avoid any flippant answers.

     I was fully grown when the internet started (chat rooms, etc.) and I remember there were definitely a LOT of people who played with the idea of anonymity the way a kid makes prank calls. It was like, 'no one knows who I am, so I can be the biggest dick.' Most grow out of this. Some do not, but not all anonymity is bad.

   • Embed this notice
     Jack Deth (jacklaridian@social.horrorhub.club)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Dec-2024 23:11:12 JST Jack Deth

     in reply to

     @Uraael
     Definitely. Like when you catch a 13 year old on camera saying the N word and send the video to their parents. You just HOPE the parents aren't dicks too and if they're not, guess what? No more COD for you, young man. 😅

   • Embed this notice
     Scotsbear 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐻 (uraael@kitty.social)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Dec-2024 23:11:17 JST Scotsbear 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐻

     in reply to

     • Jack Deth

     @jacklaridian@social.horrorhub.club You can't sez faire-r than that. (Sorry 😊)
     
     You make a good point about age. For many there was clearly a rush of power to the hormone-soaked brain. I suspect the Griefers and Abusers in online gaming are predominantly that demographic: the stories of people spewing rape threats online only to be uncovered and revealed to their appalled parents is a favourite genre of mine.

   • Embed this notice
     Jack Deth (jacklaridian@social.horrorhub.club)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Dec-2024 23:42:03 JST Jack Deth

     in reply to

     @Uraael
     My daughter knows that nothing would disappoint me more than finding out she's a bully. Gets pregnant? We can deal with that together. Gets arrested? We can deal with that together. Caught being a bully? You better find a way to fuckin' atone for your behavior right fuckin' now or your dead to me. 😅

   • Embed this notice
     Scotsbear 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐻 (uraael@kitty.social)'s status on Tuesday, 03-Dec-2024 23:42:04 JST Scotsbear 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐻

     in reply to

     • Jack Deth

     @jacklaridian@social.horrorhub.club Oh, there was an awesome video some years ago where some parents took this kids games and console and drove over them in the backyard with...I want to say a grass-cutter? One of those rideable ones? Shards of plastic flying everywhere, lol. He was apoplectic. Can't even remember what he'd done, but yeah any kid of mine caught gratuitously disrespecting people would not have an easy life for a while. 😁