I own my words on here, but I'm anonymous, am I not?
No, you really don't 'own your words' in a meaningful sense because you're anonymous. How are you being personally held accountable by what you write here? If you go off on a string of racist rants, or whatever, so long as you remain anonymous, there is NO consequence to you. You are "tres borrachos" and can say what you want with impunity so long as your anonymity is guaranteed. Your family won't know, your employer, future voters if you run for office, etc. You can out yourself or be outed, but it won't be until your real name is associated with your posts that you face ANY actual consequences for your words.
I'm OK with that, actually, because this is or should be a fun diversion, but I am not claiming that my anonymous self is being held somehow accountable for what I write.
I own my words every day. We all should own our words. That doesn't mean we should be threatened over our words, does it? So besides the death threats, what exactly came out of their names being public?
Asked and answered - they're being held publicly accountable. Pretty simple concept, personal responsibility, all that. And I've condemned the death threats. If avoiding death threats is priority #1, then it's fine to argue that people should be able to hide behind anonymity and avoid being held publicly accountable for their words. But you're making a different argument. You can't have both - accountability
and no death threats or other unfair or unduly harsh conequences. Pick
one.
Do you believe that they should be afraid? Ostracized forever? Put in jail?
You're making up stuff, but the answer is no.
That's why I said to Zinthaniel that you are better off not saying what may hurt others. Keep your mouth shut. If you don't, you may suffer. You may get fired. You may lose your girlfriend. You may get kicked off the Little League team. But I don't believe that death threats are a good thing, and it was pretty obvious that they were going to be threatened. Were you surprised that they were? I wasn't.
If you're anonymous, nothing like that will happen because you're anonymous. You're making arguments that are contradictory on their face. If you want accountability, you can't be anonymous. If you're publicly outed, you will be held accountable and some of those ways you're held accountable may be harsh, unfair, disproportionate, etc. It's a risk we all take by speaking and taking controversial positions. If you aren't willing to accept that risk, keep your mouth shut, stay off line.
But back to the anonymity, I also think people should be able to say what they want in privacy. I said that about that basketball team owner who made those stupid comments to his gold digging girlfriend. I don't believe it's right to punish people for what is said in a private setting. Which is why the lesson to be learned is not only watch what you say - watch who you say it around.
It's a balancing act, IMO, with no easy answer as to when and where our words are private versus public. We're debating on a public forum that the entire world can view. My EXPECTATION of privacy is actually zero, although I don't use my real name or hand out my address. If I'm talking to my wife or a friend and say something offensive, I'm not sure I have a 'right' (legal or ethical) to prevent them from repeating it. It's a tough issue, with no good answer for every situation....
I 1000% agree by the way about the moderation on here. I also love to see the haters booted. But only when they become a menace to the board. I don't want to see people booted because they say something that I don't like.
Nor do I because it would be awfully boring if we all agreed.
I'm still waiting for you to show us that all organizations engage in the same type of activity. I bet you can't.
