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 neurodivergently 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 implications. Providing yourself some harmless cover therefore makes perfect sense. If you don't need that or understand 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 to 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 its shiny animated cover.
Peace.
#Anonymity #Protection
Greg Cocks 
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