I maintain two identities on most social sites/chatrooms/hn; one that uses my online alias, and one that uses an abbreviation of my name (bsamuels). Whenever I feel like voicing an uncomfortable or controversial opinion, I use the online alias.
Edit: Actually it depends on the community. I would not use my real name on 4chan, but here and Reddit I am happy to. I don't get involved with any communities where there is a risk of really pissing someone or law enforcement off however.
Simon Hibbs
If you doubt this just descend into the comment section of any news article to see the vile stuff people post online because they are anonymous.
But on HN, I've actually seen the exact opposite - people with handles derived from their real names seem to make more serious, well thought-out comments. I don't know about "most controversial", but certainly the most useful, which to me is more important. (I have a made-up handle, so I'm not one of these people :)
You'll see this reflected on the HN leader board as well; I assume that - like any online discussion board - made-up handles are the majority on HN, but real-name based handles figure quite prominently there. Not sure why.
My ( controversial) idea is that people often upvote persons, not their opinions. Many of HN top have curated well known internet personas with separate blogs (either by their real names or nicknames). A familiar handle (either real or famous nick) is downvoted less frequently than an anonymous handle.
One of the great things about the Internet, though, is that you are free to express a minority point of view without having to wait for some editor to approve of it. This is true regardless of whether or not you choose to post under your real name.
Here's a few arguments off the top of my head that someone might dox you for:
-Whether or not feminism is the cause of the recent emasculation of men
-Whether or not Israel is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza and against the Palestinians
-Whether or not transexual persons should be medically referred to as their original gender or new gender.
-Whether or not affirmative action should exist.
Pretty much any debate that is emotionally charged has the potential for people to try to screw with your real life over it, circumcision is not one of them.
So you are the one that will wisely choose which opinions are "vile", and blacklist them?
On Reddit(I don't know about anywhere else because I've never seen it discussed anywhere else), there seems to be alot of assumptions made about people who argue against it, specifically that they are MRA extremists who are misogynistic.