There are bloggers that think the only way another blogger can be authentic is to use their real name.
The fact that anyone can make up a ‘real name’ as opposed to an obvious nom de plume seems to illude these two.
Patrick Ross could be Ross Patrick. Or Patricia Ross. Or Rosa Patrick.
How does Patrick Ross really know Werner Patels isn’t Pat Werner or Patrica Werner?
All those names feel and sound ’real’ and trustworthy in our culture.
The Red Tory has been blogging for about three years.
Two neo-conservative authoritarians decided he was a bully and needed to be punished, to be made an example of, to be strong-armed and brought down. To be weakened.
So Werner Patels and Patrick Ross discovered his ‘real’ name.
They twisted themselves in knots to do so, to attempt to prove, when all they had to do was ask.
The two of them are pleased with themselves and have decided there are more bloggers using pseudonyms to uncover.
In their world a person using a pseudonym has to be concealing something nefarious.
In their world bloggers they need to punish are not their ideological double or submissive to their logic.
This is not going to end well.
The Red Tory’s ideas aren’t going to change because Ross and Patels think they were clever and did something authentic, or did anything to ’help’ make blogging authentic. These two have twinned up and will feed on their obsessiveness, because they genuinely believe they are being righteous. It is about them.
They haven’t silenced a bully because The Red Tory isn’t a bully.
bully: a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people
Believing another is a bully, I can become a bully. Anyone of us can slide down that slope.
They haven’t silenced The Red Tory, because thier ’outing’ The Red Tory wasn’t a punishment, a lessening or diminishment to him.
Pen names, nom de plumes, nom de guerres or pseudonyms have a rich history that didn’t end when the internet was invented.
The Red Tory is no less an authentic writer, thinker or person as The Red Tory than he is as Martin Rayner.
Attempting to punish, hurt and stop him (and others) is already grandious and toxic, and it’s still not good enough.
The bar has to be set higher.
Patrick Ross has pronouced Martin Rayner might be engaging in identity theft by impersonating Martin Rayner.
O. Henry
George Orwell
Lewis Carroll
Mark Twain
Voltaire
Their thoughts, ideas, creativity, personhood, writing and influence any less authentic because their real names were:
William Sydney Porter
Eric Arthur Blair
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
François - Marie Arouet
9 Responses to “The Red Tory”
- 1 Trackback on Aug 31st, 2007 at 2:45 am
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Well said.
And for Werner who suffers from multi blog personality dysfunction, to call someone out well kettle, pot, black.
Mattb
In the grand scheme of things it isn’t a big deal, to bloggers as a whole and individual bloggers this is a big deal.
I’m not sure what to compare it with, this is a small group or circle of people who interact and the tensions of various viewpoints keeps them interacting.
Then two of their own steps ( other poltiical bloggers) over an loosely defined personal line (happens in all blog circles and forums) it is personal. The affinity for one another (even a supposed adversary) is greater than the differences.
The supposed ‘need’ to ‘out’ The Red Tory is a form of cyber stalking.
And with The Red Tory setting the tone, people are laughing at them.
The desire to ‘out’ for the greater good of the whole is exposed for what it is, a personal agenda.
No different than any other social group, but public.
And there is a danger that engaging in this behavior could harm someone.
Like Warren Kinsella/Mark Bourrie. Kathy Sierra.
I think you misinterpreted my (very sarcastic) post, Bene. I wasn’t minimizing the potential harm ‘outing’ can have. I agree with everything you said in your apparent response to the straw-matttbastard of your own creation.
I have many friends (pseudonymous and otherwise) in the blogosphere (not so many here in the Great White North, however), and have been involved in some capacity or another with the political blog community since late ‘01/early ‘02 (yeah, back in the good ol’ days when the VLWC consisted of five or six bloggers, most of whom discovered muckracking online agitation via Bartcop and MediaWhores, although I didn’t graduate from constant lurker status until around ‘04. Yes, I remember when Drum was ‘CalPundit, and the comments were actually readable. Hell, I remember Kos when he was a ‘he’ and not a community). So I know and appreciate the value of pseudonymity, and the damage malicious outing and cyberstalking can present.
Hell, I’ve had online friends and acquaintances who’ve been outed (or have received threats of outing) by such ‘ethical’ Yankee conservatives as Jeff G*ldstein (king of the virtual dickslap and the one who first patented the frivolous blogsuit - just ask [the pseudonymous] Bitch, PHD) and Josh Trevino (aka TAFKA Tacitus). And don’t get me started on Michelle-f*cking-Malkin and her cyber-poo-flinging flying monkeys…(and then there’s the supposedly progressive Ann Bartow, who threatened to out both bitch|lab AND zuzu, supposedly for their own ‘protection’. But I digress)
As for the very unfortunate Kathy Sierra affair, well, here’s what I had to say at the time about Kos’ blase response to the cyberstalking she was subjected to.
In summary, the tone of my post was indeed offered purely in solidarity with Red Tory’s ‘fuck you, whatever’ tone, as you pointed out. Ultimately, what I can’t fathom is how truly pathetic those who take thrill in their revelations are, and how callous their indifference to consequence. But if you took it differently, well, I’m very sorry for apparently being unclear. Judging by your attempt to ’school’ me, apparently I need a secret decoder ring before I’m considered part of the Kewl Kanuck Kidz (thanks, but no thank).
But please, before you decide to next adopt a similar a condescending tone with me, remember that just because I’m new to the ProgBlogs community doesn’t mean that I’m some blog-n00b who needs edumacation on how these here intertoobs work.
And (if there is indeed a) next time, at least have the decency to post your objections in the comments at my own blog.
- mb
That’s certainly a reasonable request, I was dashing out the door, realized I was yacking at a trackback and made a mental note to pop over later.
I’ll pop over now. Sorry if you thought I was condesending.
I hope you’ve been warmly welcomed to the Progressive Bloggers.
What gets me is that I intended my post to supplement your (very apt) point about the ridiculousness of positing so much importance on ‘real names’ vs. pseudonyms (apparently these chuckleheads would arbitrarily discount the Federalist Papers. Publius-Smublius.) I linked to your post where I did because I thought you were bang on here:
That’s why I don’t give a toss who Red Tory publicly identifies as - because his posts are awesome, regardless. I felt that enough folks were tackling the outrage portion, and that there was no need to also join in. Again, maybe I’m jaded because I’ve seen it happen so many times.
Perhaps my intentions would have been clearer if I’d included a quote and if I’d explicitly said that I didn’t understand why it (ie, psuedonimity) was a ‘big deal’ to the outers.
Apologies if my tone was too harsh. ‘bastard’ is sometimes more than just a clever name (and, in my defence, I recently quit smoking. A lame excuse, but one I’m sticking to like that construction worker superglued to the ceiling).
Thank you for the welcome here (hah, hopefully no one is getting motion sickness jumping from blog to blog).
I really am learning the ins and outs of the Canuckosphere, especially who the analogous wingnuts are (apparently ’small dead animals’ is little green footballs north, only less ambiguous about teh racism?)
Hey, I just ran across your post while looking for something completely different (which for the moment has completely slipped my mind)…
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the comments and kind remarks. The two pathetic twats in question will get their comeuppance in the form of being ignored and regarded with much well-earned contempt.
Cheers!