On Pseudonymity

It never ceases to amaze me what kind of mindless nonsense the Washington Post editorial page is willing to print. This op-ed by Tom Grubisich, a former reporter and editor at the Post, is so poorly reasoned and so breathtakingly elitist and undemocratic that I scarcely know what to say.

Grubisich's basic point seems to be that pseudonymous writing on the internet--except in the case of "whistle blowers"--is a very bad thing and should be discouraged or banned by respectable websites.

These days we want "transparency" in all institutions, even private ones. There's one massive exception -- the Internet. It is, we are told, a giant town hall. Indeed, it has millions of people speaking out in millions of online forums. But most of them are wearing the equivalent of paper bags over their heads. We know them only by their Internet "handles" -- gotalife, runningwithscissors, stoptheplanet and myriad other inventive names.

To Grubisich, this is deeply troubling. Wouldn't everything be better if people just used their real names?

In a word, no. I know this is really hard for some journalists to understand, but sometimes people other than journalists actually have something worthwhile to say. One of the great things about being a journalist is that you don't have to worry about publishing things under your own byline. After all, that's what's expected of you.

But for the rest of us, publishing our opinions--particularly political opinions--under our own names is inherently problematic. For most of us, particularly at-will employees, our livelihoods are subject to the whims of our employers. Publishing controversial opinions under our own names could very well end up costing us our jobs or even derailing our careers. And we have to make a living; we have to support ourselves and our families. So for a great many people in this country, the choice is either to participate in the debate by way of a pseudonym, or simply sit out the discussion altogether.

If you cut off this mode of political participation, you will necessarily be silencing the voices of large swaths of the population, including a whole range of people with valuable perspectives--i.e. people who earn a living doing something other than writing about politics. How can someone of even moderate intelligence not see this?

Mr. Grubisich, if you happen to be reading this, do yourself a favor and spend some time perusing the archives of Hullabaloo or Obsidian Wings. I don't know of anyone currently writing about politics under his own name who consistently produces as much quality commentary as Digby or Hilzoy (who, by the way, both have excellent posts responding to your column).

And, for what it's worth, I know I wouldn't be able to do this if I wasn't allowed to do it pseudonymously. But I guess you'd prefer if I'd just close shop and leave this kind of work to the professionals, huh?