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I'd point to those topics as perfect examples of why pseudonymous debate is valuable. In the modern US, most subcultures have a standard perspective on race and

I'd point to those topics as perfect examples of why pseudonymous debate is valuable. In the modern US, most subcultures have a standard perspective on race and gender and ostracize people who don't agree with it. So if everyone has to fear that their opinions might be promoted to the national spotlight, there's a huge range of thought that the public will never get to see at all. Consider affirmative action for a concrete example. It consistently loses at the ballot box in even the most left-leaning states, but it's incredibly rare to hear a left-wing case for why we might not want it, because in the Internet age, anyone who presents such a case is putting their career and social circle in significant jeopardy. This kind of mismatch between what people think and what they can say is deeply unhealthy for our political environment, and I think pseudonymous blogging is a very important outlet to alleviate that.

wpietri 6y ago
If something is written pseudonymously, we can't possibly know whether it is a "left-wing case". It's just an argument. If you want that argument to be situated, given context and weight, then you at best need mediated anonymity, where a trusted source like a newspaper verifies pertinent context without exposing an actual identity. But there's good reason that's quite rare. So we end up pretty quickly back at people needing to own their words when they try to influence the public. That's especially true on a topic like race in America. The most prominent people who wanted to intercede on race anonymously were the KKK. And they make especially clear why there's no broad moral obligation to preserve the anonymity of people trying to act publicly while concealing their identity.