gila 300Name and Date, Please

by Gila Hayes

Do you take responsibility for your statements? Armed citizens’ very legitimate pursuit of robust personal security – coupled with the anonymity available through online media – results, frustratingly, in a lot of “influencers” not taking responsibility for their statements, not separating opinion from fact, and playing free and easy with the truth.

I believe we are accountable for our statements, whether whispered, bellowed or spoken, or if it is written and made public through the many online outlets of blogging, video, newsletters or even in that old fashioned relic of the latter half of the 1900s – the good old Letter to the Editor in the local newspaper. Fastforward to the year 2025 when the local “paper” probably isn’t even ink on paper any longer, since most get their news online. Concurrent with this advance has come an unprecedented opportunity for anyone with an internet connection to toss out an innuendo or two, stir up suspicions and express opinions – sometimes declared to be facts, because, you know, if I “feel” it this strongly, how could it be incorrect? – for the “benefit” of anyone who cares to read or listen.

I could be entirely wrong when I decry anonymous articles and videos! After all, pamphlets written by Thomas Paine as Common Sense influenced colonists who may have been undecided about fighting to free America from Great Britain and its dissolute monarch King George. Benjamin Rush is said to have financed its publication – also anonymously. A blog post over at https://constitutioncenter.org amusingly asserts that “Common Sense became the first viral mass communications event in America.” It only took about three months for Paine’s name to surface as author and by then our forebearers were well on the way to war.

Today, the plethora of undocumented information spread online runs rampant through all fields of study. I worry when nameless talking heads and keyboarders claim to have super-special expertise and extra in-depth knowledge on which, presumably, their fans should base life-altering decisions, including, even, the legal aftermath of the use of force in self defense. This afflicts not only the world of the armed citizen, of course. Not long ago, I ran across financial advice that, besides not being attributed, was undated and it eventually came out that the laws of a nation on an entirely different continent controlled the viability of the recommended steps. My goodness, people, do we need to make the internet like third grade? Date your work and make sure your name is on it!

My concern is not so much a matter of truthfulness as one of attribution. Can the reader, watcher or listener check the sources? To varying degrees, human communication always has the potential to be either a lie or badly incorrect. The Bible tells the story of the Serpent saying, “Take a bite of this delicious apple, lady, and it will make you smarter than God!”

Please address that vulnerability by having the courage to back up your statements with your true identity; invite people to check your work. I will happily read, listen to or watch a person with whom I vehemently disagree, because I want learn the basis of their opinions, arguments and beliefs. I’m far less willing to spend my time on material presented by a man or woman who lacks the courage to back it all up with their name.

I was doing some reading about anonymity which led me to an Oct. 2024 Psychology Today column entitled Moral Courage on Social Media. The article, penned by a PhD, opined that anonymity serves a greater good in the context of social activism on social media. The author identified “lower personal risk for engaging in actions of moral courage” as a value of anonymous expression, while later acknowledging that, “People with a high sense of moral meaningfulness may engage in actions of moral courage regardless of anonymity.” Maybe that sentence sounded good when it was published, but it led me to question why we would have varying kinds of courage. If there is moral courage, conversely is there immoral courage? I digress, but it seems to me that the idea of moral courage is a concept that a few decades ago would have been expressed as the “courage of your convictions.”

Standing up for what you believe and recommending a course of action to others, should require only putting into words that which you are willing to put your name behind. From the other side of the problem, if you read, hear or watch advice from an “influencer” who doesn’t give their name, why would you base important decisions – like who to rely on for assistance after self defense – on unattributed opinion?

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