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comment by ccc
ccc  ·  3377 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are you scared to post?

This sounds nice, and I would love to believe it works this way, but I have a bad feeling that this is basically the same argument as, regarding privacy, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." The problem is that what I think is a reasonable thing to argue or advocate may seemingly unreasonably piss someone else off, and then they may go on to have an unreasonable reaction to it. Just as you can't really know the minutiae of all the laws and what seemingly innocent thing could get you into legal trouble, you can't know what statements will put you in someone's crosshairs, even if it's nothing hateful or criminal or disgusting.

I try to avoid being a dick online, but I can't say the idea of public accountability in this way really appeals to me. It's not that I'm trying to escape accountability -- I just don't trust myself to the judgment and mercy of the internet. They can judge my words and leave my self alone.