I think this is, to put it mildly, undemonstrated.
The KKK wore hoods for a reason. Sure, there were plenty of racists willing to be open about their views. But letting people be anonymous assholes greatly increases the awfulness.
Weev's public identity is known. That didn't stop him from trolling or harassing the subject of the article.
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EDIT: also, the Penny Arcade comic you linked was from 2004, literally 2 or 3 years before the invention of youtube and long before Twitter and Facebook existed.
The opinion contained in the said comic does not, and cannot apply to the modern internet, where Anonymity is beginning to be stripped away and yet the trolling / harassing problems are clearly remaining.
Indeed, it has only gotten easier to get doxxed online and humiliated by the trolls, now that we communicate through Facebook and our names are attached to us in Google / Youtube / everything.
I'm glad we both agree that you have demonstrated no evidence for your views.
As I already said, some people will be assholes under their own names, because they're just that awful. But that proves nothing about how many people would be assholes when they can evade accountability.
True, no hard evidence either way. But real hard evidence is rather hard to come by.
I'm more worried about the people who shy away from online conversations when anonymity is stripped away. Anonymity is my _only_ protection from harassing trolls like Weev.
If I didn't feel secure in my thoughts, I wouldn't be able to talk frankly to you, and I'd leave.
I wasn't talking about opinions, I was talking about threats. If one of those racists advocates violence against a specific persons, they will get a visit (so long as someone notifies the the police) Sure, if you don't want to see opinions you need to avoid the people that have ones you don't like.
Facebook and Youtube now have open racists who push their malignant opinion upon everyone now, and are proud enough to sign their name next to it.