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>Anonimity is the counter to hypocrisy. Care to explain this?

by endtime 16y ago

anigbrowl 16y ago
If nobody knows or cares who you are, then you have no reputation to defend. Concealing true beliefs with nice platitudes or nasty posturing is pointless when those remarks are not associated with a persistent identity; no credit or blame will accrue to an anonymous poster for their degree of social compliance, so there's no economic reason to construct a false persona. On anon boards like 4chan you can sort of pick out individual speakers in a thread by their phrasing or from the conversational context, but following 'anons' from thread to thread is just impossible without a way to track IPs. Of course mayhem abounds in this environment, but there's a surprising degree of substantive discussion too. People are verbally much more aggressive, but psychologically less so, because it's pointless to attack the motives or consistency of an anonymous commenter. There is still a lot of trolling, naturally, but it tends to be of the sensationalistic or entertaining type rather than the sort dedicated to accumulating social capital and its use for the promotion/suppression of particular viewpoints. That makes it possible to have very frank conversations about subjects that are normally impossibly awkward, which can lead to serendipitous insights.
- endtime 16y ago
  Uh huh, but what does that have to do with hypocrisy? For that matter, what do you think hypocrisy means?
  - rjprins 16y ago
    I think hypocrisy means stating a certain position while acting out different position. The need for stating a position comes from social or political correctness (or misdirection in which case it doesn't work) which are unnecessary with anonimity. So when you are anonymous you are free to give your true position, the one you act out.
    - endtime 16y ago
      Actually, when you're anonymous, you're free to be a hypocrite without being caught...
      - rjprins 16y ago
        Yes, and if you don't realize you're being a hypocrite that isn't changed. But the benefit of being a hypocrite goes way down, while the benefit of being truthful goes up. I mean this in a personal way: People generally like to say what they think is the truth.

>Anonimity is the counter to hypocrisy. Care to explain this?

by endtime 16y ago

>Anonimity is the counter to hypocrisy. Care to explain this?

If nobody knows or cares who you are, then you have no reputation to defend. Concealing true beliefs with nice platitudes or nasty posturing is pointless when those remarks are not associated with a persistent identity; no credit or blame will accrue to an anonymous poster for their degree of social compliance, so there's no economic reason to construct a false persona. On anon boards like 4chan you can sort of pick out individual speakers in a thread by their phrasing or from the conversational context, but following 'anons' from thread to thread is just impossible without a way to track IPs. Of course mayhem abounds in this environment, but there's a surprising degree of substantive discussion too. People are verbally much more aggressive, but psychologically less so, because it's pointless to attack the motives or consistency of an anonymous commenter. There is still a lot of trolling, naturally, but it tends to be of the sensationalistic or entertaining type rather than the sort dedicated to accumulating social capital and its use for the promotion/suppression of particular viewpoints. That makes it possible to have very frank conversations about subjects that are normally impossibly awkward, which can lead to serendipitous insights.

endtime 16y ago
Uh huh, but what does that have to do with hypocrisy? For that matter, what do you think hypocrisy means?
- rjprins 16y ago
  I think hypocrisy means stating a certain position while acting out different position. The need for stating a position comes from social or political correctness (or misdirection in which case it doesn't work) which are unnecessary with anonimity. So when you are anonymous you are free to give your true position, the one you act out.
  - endtime 16y ago
    Actually, when you're anonymous, you're free to be a hypocrite without being caught...
    - rjprins 16y ago
      Yes, and if you don't realize you're being a hypocrite that isn't changed. But the benefit of being a hypocrite goes way down, while the benefit of being truthful goes up. I mean this in a personal way: People generally like to say what they think is the truth.