Notes from the Conservative Not-Quite-Underground – it seems Mark Steyn has
encountered far too many Canadian politicians who said, “Oh, of course, I’m behind you 100 per cent, but please don’t mention my name.” I’ve also encountered, discreetly, a bunch of Hollywood bigshots who say, “I loved America Alone. Er, but please don’t mention it to anyone.”
Congrats to the new sheriffs of Rock Ridge, who are rapidly becoming a big underground success in some unlikely circles!
In other bizarre news on the free speech front, anonymous commenters are suing anonymous commenters. Is it because today is April 1st or because there’s a serious shortage of moisturizer and fabric softener in Canada to soothe and protect all these incredibly sensitive people? And by “people,” I mostly mean Richard Warman, racist, nazi sockpuppet extraordinaire, of course.
Steyn is in favor of somewhat less anonymity. I’m not a big fan of it myself. I blog under my own name and have only taken the most basic precautions to keep my private life, private. Someone really determined to track me down wouldn’t find it much of a challenge; I’m relying on the concept that people – even people who despise me for the opinions I hold or the way I express them – will behave like grownups. (And if you’d care to visit me, come on over. The weather is always ideal here in Fool’s Paradise!)
It’s worth noting that the most vicious attacks on John Adams were anonymous lies spread by Thomas Jefferson via his henchman Callender. There’s something about that “unaccountable” feeling that allows people to spew their inner hate. How that should be handled legally is a rather large can of worms.
Steyn writes,
But at some point Canadians – and Britons, Americans, Australians, Europeans – are going to have to stand up under their own names, or they will lose their freedoms to an administrative tyranny that, in a technological age, has both the means and the urge – as Justice Kershman has demonstrated – to hunt down even the most piffling anonymities.
