Why I’m pseudonymous (relatively)
So in the course of discussing how I find it appalling that the Prime Minister of our country interacts with – and provides copy to – Cameron Slater given his “hilarious” revelling in the death of children with ethnic names, a few people called me out on my pseudonym.
First off, I can be behind a pseudonym if I want. It’s my call. So bite me.
Secondly, having a pseudonym is not actually my preference. I’d love it if I could write under my own name, then I could add it to my portfolio or whatever and become a world famous writer *cough*. However I cannot. And that could be for any number of reasons.
I may be a celebrity (pseudo or otherwise) who doesn’t want the attention heaped on my “second” career, it may be because my line of work doesn’t allow for it, it may be that I just don’t want people knowing who I am. The point is, there are a variety of reasons why people choose to have pseudonyms online. Provided that reason isn’t “so I can be a fuckwit without recourse” then there should not be a problem with it. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m disgusted by the complete lack of empathy that Cameron often displays. And it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t think the leaders of our society should talk/work with him. That goes for anyone from the opposition too.
I’ve no problem with politicians ‘leaking’ information to other bloggers. There are plenty of blogs out there who work closely with politicians. I think that’s great. I just think that in this one instance it’s poor form.
Anyway, I just wanted to make that announcement. Righto, as you were.
I fully understand and support your reasoning. I keep a fairly loose association with my sport satire site for a similar reason, though it’s far less likely to land me in hot water than the politically topical subjects discussed here.
I also run several parody Twitter accounts… by several I mean around six or so at last count. While someone who wanted to figure out which ones could relatively easily, I typically don’t promote the connection to give me the freedom to express opinions that I normally wouldn’t be comfortable doing so under my own name due to the potential ramifications in could hold in my professional life – mainly through someone actually targeting me at my workplace.
As for Slater, the very close relationship with the Prime Minister’s office does creep me out. Sure, Slater occasionally breaks some worthy news – e.g. the Len Brown affair, despite its needlessly raunchy details, did demonstrate some terrible lapses of judgement and character flaws in our country’s most powerful Mayor – however those very rare moments aren’t worth the sheer volume of nastiness coming out of his blog.