Mike Brock is just beside himself with glee. He has “outed” the blogger who publishes “Centre of Canada”. With the “help” of Kate McMillan, Mike has published the real name and employer of a writer who chose to write anonymously. Mike did this because (to quote Mike) the blogger was posting “rude, inappropriate comments, and insulting people (like me) whom he disagrees with.”
One of Mike’s readers took and ran with Mike’s revelation, and boasts:
“I just sent an e-mail to [the blogger’s employer] wishing them well on having such an outstanding employee.”
Got that? Mike has just proudly enabled one of his readers to attack a man’s livelihood, because Mike doesn’t like the tone of that man’s comments. And Mike thinks that’s just fine.
I won’t provide a link to this, because I think Mike has behaved contemptibly.
This seems to have become a bit of a fetish of late in a certain quarter of the moronosphere. Richard Evans, a fairly vile specimen, is offering a $750 “bounty” for the identity of an anonymous blogger who habitually mocks him with more wit than Richard can muster. I’ve frequently been threated with “exposure” by one of the stupider conservative bloggers who, of course, publishes under a pseudonym himself. And right here at Stageleft, when Mike runs out of argument, he’s occasionally challenged me to identify myself - as though the strength of a fact or an argument was somehow dependent on his having access to my “real” name.
What crap. Many of my favourite bloggers, both “progressive” and “conservative”, choose to publish under a pseud. I don’t really care why. It doesn’t matter. I read them for their ideas and their wit…not for their names.
I publish under a pseudonym because I like to. I choose to write in a persona not quite my own. I enjoy balbulican, this character I’ve created. He’s sort of like me, the guy who actually writes this stuff. Except the balb character is a bit more curmudgeonly and snottily superior than I am. I think I have the same relationship with balb as Robertson Davies had with Samuel Marchbanks, an exaggerated version of Davies he created principally for his own amusement.
On the other hand, I don’t go to great pains to conceal my real identify. Several folks have figured it out. I’ve released CDs of traditional music, three DVDs on scuba diving, and a book on
Aboriginal authors in Canada, and I’ve promoted them all right here on this website, with links to the sites that sell them under my “real” name. And I’ve hooked up with quite a few of the better conservative bloggers under my own name, because they seem like smart folks that I want to know.
My weak anonymity hasn’t stopped some of our stupider readers from getting it hilariously wrong (yes, CS, I know you think you’ve figured out who I am. You’re mistaken.) But you know what? I don’t care very much. And that’s because I’ve never said anything on this blog that I wouldn’t say under my own name. Never. Period.
Now, I suspect that will be incomprehensible to Mike, whose blog is largely about ego. The notion of writing anonymously, for the pleasure of writing, would be quite strange to him. And to Canadian Sentinel, whose hatemongering would no doubt be of great interest to any employer. I can understand why he think the “threat” of “exposure” is something to fear.
Well, I experienced that “exposure” once. Two years ago, a seriously disturbed blogger called “Anonalogue” took exception to my comments. He published my name and workplace on his blog - just as Mike just did. Because he thought I was “arrogant”. And then he went further. He called my staff, shouted at them, demanded to speak to one of my co-owners, and basically scared the shit out of my office manager, who thought she was dealing with a lunatic. He threatened to track me down and administer “correction”. It was horrible. Not for me - I recognize a coward blowhard when I hear them. But for my staff and my wife, it was pretty awful.
And now Mike is bragging about enabling his “fans” to harass another real person in the real world, because Mike doesn’t like the way that the writer mocked him.
Good job, Mike. Hope you’re really proud of yourself. It’s nice that you’ve chosen to publish under your own name. That’s your choice. And clearly you believe that choice gives the right to judge others who have a different view, and to expose them to harassment that may jeopardize their livelihood.
Good stuff, Mike.
So you don’t think this blog comment directed at blogger Mike Brock is at least hopelessly rude and pathetically cheapens any debate? “Bill’s” comment………
“‘One wonders how Brock can bear to seperate {Stephen}Harper’s dick from his mouth long enough to eat?’ ”
And shouldn’t one expect more class in writings from a Liberal Party of Manitoba Vice President, who also is the treasurer of the Manitoba Better Business Bureau? Just askin’