I choose to post under my real name, it forces be to think harder and more often about saying some smartass thing (which still happens anyways because I grew up

I choose to post under my real name, it forces be to think harder and more often about saying some smartass thing (which still happens anyways because I grew up on 4chan or whatefer, slashdot I guess mostly but the internet used to have a rough sense of humor as the default), and to apologize earlier and more often if I get called out on it by someone who is right. But I’m not sure it nets out in my favor anymore: it’s just a huge handicap to be totally honest and transparent in a world that will really hold past mistakes against you in a very arbitrary way with the only consistent theme being that “important” people rarely face any consequences (some might say these days, even real scrutiny). My current solution-in-progress is a handle (b7r6) that’s a decent Unix name, has my initials in it so no secret if it matters, but kinda changes the tone to like, “I’m a real person but I kinda want to be treated like an opaque ID unless it’s damn important.” It’s a sock on the doorknob, not a lock, but I can’t think of anything better just yet.