identity (Re: [lbo-talk] Tony Judt on the death of liberalism in America)

Eric rayrena at realtime.net
Thu Sep 14 14:08:13 PDT 2006


I don't get this obsession over AN's anonymity. People have all sorts of reasons for remaining anonymous, not least because revealing their name can fuck with their ability to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves and/or their dependents. No one says talk-to-the-hand to Bitchy, who has remained anonymous for a very long time under a string of pseudonyms; everyone, rightly, respects his/her wishes. Why is is a problem with AN? Is it because s/he offers a viewpoint not appreciated much around here?*

More weird is this insistence on your interlocuters' having a stable identity and a proper name. I can't figure out why this is so vital in any forum, but especially in the disembodied world of the Internet. I've only ever met one person on this list in this flesh, so you're almost all hidden voices to me. And it's not like AN is just talking out his/her ass: s/he offers a very cogent take on Marxism and statist politics. I would think that someone who calls themselves an anarchist would appreciate the latter.

*Fwiw (probably not much), I appreciate AN's presence. I've been subscribed to this list since almost the beginning, and several months ago I was thinking of unsubscribing (no, no, don't cry; the disaster has been averted): the last few years of debates about which lameass party candidate to support (Kerry! no, Nader!) and which outdated political form to revive (Democrats! unions!), the endless litany of Hillary's failings, etc., made me extremely uninterested in what was being discussed here. AN's contributions (and others', eg. Tahir, Bitchy, etc.), for me, have helped make this place more interesting--even if s/he is sometimes wrong (eg, supporting Israel--wtf?)


>>Why do you feel this constant need to attribute
>>positions to people that they have never stated and
>>may not actually hold? Are you simply emulating your
>>fallen idol Christopher Hitchens?
>
>Sorry -- one response is all hidden voices get from me.



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