I have been among those crusading for years for every online platform to ban anonymous comments. This, based on the self-evident truth that people would be less inclined to bully, insult, lie, harass, defame, etc. if they had to own their comments.
I disabled the comments feature on this site years ago. Far too many visitors were using it to publish comments that had nothing to do with my commentaries or hurl insults at other readers (i.e., the ignorant and juvenile snark that seems standard fare on Twitter and Facebook).
Not to mention those who commented anonymously or under fake names because they didn’t have the balls to stand by, or the brains to defend, their comments.
(“More Websites Banning Public Comments,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 23, 2014)
Incidentally, nobody has criticized Facebook more than I for, among other things, selling its users private data like hot cakes. Not to mention breaking news about a “glitch” that allowed every employee to see the passwords of nearly 600 million users … for years.
But I commend Facebook for standing virtually alone in requiring users to use real names to join … and comment. Unfortunately, this commendation is undermined by too many notorious cases where its moderators failed to prevent truly offensive postings. This was the case just last week when they allowed that white supremacist to livestream his massacre of Muslims in New Zealand.
I should also note here that requiring commenters to use real names does not prevent crime victims, corporate whistleblowers, political dissidents, et al. from using other means to sound alarms anonymously.
That said, I am encouraged that Arthur Brooks has joined this crusade. He is the president of the American Enterprise Institute – who The New York Times hails as a distinguished scholar of public policy.
On March 2, that paper published his opinion piece titled “Our Culture of Contempt.” I read it; and it was indeed redolent of scholarship.
Brooks blames social media for much of this contempt and diagnoses anonymous comments as a metastasizing cancer in this context. But that piece was only an executive summary. Because he followed up with a full report in what I can fairly laud as the bible for this age of social media.
He published it on March 12 with the appropriately biblical title Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt. As it happens, though, I felt obliged just days ago to say that I am loath to recommend books. And I am not going to do so here.
Instead, I shall suffice to share a little of how Brooks sermonized on anonymous comments during an interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show on March 18:
The two things that I recommend, two things for individuals is number one, never be anonymous on the Internet … say everything under your own name – you’ll be empowered and happier. Number two, never engage with somebody who’s anonymous, no matter how tempting it is, and no matter how much they provoke you.
The third thing is actually my piece of advice to the social media companies [because] anonymity is destroying their platforms: they need to find a way to fight against anonymity, to verify people’s identities, and they need to do it now.
The essence of his message is that social media is dehumanizing enough without people dehumanizing others (and themselves) by hiding behind anonymous comments. And all the decent people say, Amen.
Except that, President Trump has so normalized all manner of offensive comments, affixing real names might make people feel empowered …
Yet there’s no denying that Brooks is preaching the gospel. Because every social media platform is already a vast wasteland of narcissistic, depressed, insecure, contemptuous, and ironically lonely people … just like Trump.
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