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> It's a position from a place of privilege and is actively harmful The rest of this post makes sense but what is this supposed to mean? How is using real name

> It's a position from a place of privilege and is actively harmful The rest of this post makes sense but what is this supposed to mean? How is using real names "a position of privilege"? Does this just mean that some people's name is more influential than others? In which case, renaming "influence" into "a position of privilege" to attach to SJW ethos to something completely unrelated is double-plus ungood.

gyam 5y ago
I don’t know what the original commenter meant, but a simple example is that tweeting (or following) things that I believe in while using my real name could cause a lot of issues to me an my family in my home country (even if I live abroad) So, in this case it’s a privilege of living and being born in a place with decent democracy. Also, in my view, no democracy is safe, things can change in any country and I wouldn’t want a history of things that can be linked to me so easily. I am pessimistic coming from a place I did. Check marked people at least have money and connections to navigate those issues. I am sure there are more examples. I think it was a valid statement.
sgift 5y ago
It's not about influence. To take an example from a sibling thread: If you live in Turkey and write negative about Erdogan you get charged with terrorism. It's something people can only afford to do if they are reasonably sure they will not be identified and I think we can agree a real name policy makes this rather hard. So, if you ask for a real name policy you ask for a policy which not everyone can afford to adhere here to. You probably[1] can, so it's a privilege you have, others don't have. Therefore, written from a place of privilege. [1] If someone asks for a real name policy while not being able to adhere to it (without dire consequences for themselves) they don't write from a position of privilege, but imho that's a rather academic case.

gyam 5y ago

I don’t know what the original commenter meant, but a simple example is that tweeting (or following) things that I believe in while using my real name could cause a lot of issues to me an my family in my home country (even if I live abroad) So, in this case it’s a privilege of living and being born in a place with decent democracy. Also, in my view, no democracy is safe, things can change in any country and I wouldn’t want a history of things that can be linked to me so easily. I am pessimistic coming from a place I did. Check marked people at least have money and connections to navigate those issues. I am sure there are more examples. I think it was a valid statement.

sgift 5y ago

It's not about influence. To take an example from a sibling thread: If you live in Turkey and write negative about Erdogan you get charged with terrorism. It's something people can only afford to do if they are reasonably sure they will not be identified and I think we can agree a real name policy makes this rather hard. So, if you ask for a real name policy you ask for a policy which not everyone can afford to adhere here to. You probably[1] can, so it's a privilege you have, others don't have. Therefore, written from a place of privilege. [1] If someone asks for a real name policy while not being able to adhere to it (without dire consequences for themselves) they don't write from a position of privilege, but imho that's a rather academic case.