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Comment by bad_haircut72 | Hacker News Reader

I used to firmly believe in online anonymity, but not any more. If you have an opinion, have the courage to stand behind it. People going to Nazi rallies are the ones covering their faces after all. Now in thr age of LLMs having digital IDs may be the only answer to the dead internet anyway.

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Absolutely not. Thoughts should be free to exchange, and independent of who says it. The "Nobody knows you're a dog" aspect of the internet is not a joke, but a serious advantage. Having a - even multiple - self-chosen personas is a big step-up from classical societal norms. We should not revert back.

Indeed. On the other hand, it takes very little for an idiot to come to power. And it's very handy having everyone wearing the star of david in a nice parseable list isn't it?

This is a fair point.

What a weird thing to say under a pseudonym, bad_haircut72.

You can suffer negative consequences for far less. Society is very polarised, if your opinion is even slightly outside a group's Overton window, they'll try to deplatform, harass, cancel or SWAT you.

A similar tendency is also observed with governments too. (Durov, anyone?)

A fairly inconspicuous personal example: I have had people on the internet act very despicably simply due to me mentioning my age. Anonymity/pseudonymity in these times is vital.

Eh, I just don’t want my very innocent hobbies (hi-fi, games) to be associated with my main online persona

Why?

Just because it’s my deal

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