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Originally Posted by thenewguy
If I'm not comfortable telling someone else about what I'm doing, shouldn't that be a sign that I might want to stop doing it? Shame is a healthy response to an unhealthy behavior - or at least a behavior that disagrees with my moral compass.
So I'd have to say that the anonymity that does/doesn't exist in the TFP isn't as important as my level of comfort with myself and my actions. If I don't want to type it, I might want to look at why I'm doing it...
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We do have different takes on this.
What you're talking about is, what I think is referred to as, the
moral majority. Something is moral, or "right," because the majority thinks it is. I disagree with this notion or, rather, most people will agree that their own notion is what is "right."
In any case, what you're saying is that if others will mistreat you for saying something about yourself then that something about yourself must be "wrong" (in some sense. Morally, for example). I believe this to be patently false.
For example, suppose I have AIDS. This illness has a severe stigma attached to it and for no good reason. The people around me are perfectly safe from me yet they may not feel or act this way. Can you see how I might not want to bring this up in real life? Can you see the value in my talking about my condition? I would be able to do so if I were anonymous, somewhere...
For something pertaining to choice of behaviour, I am a staunch defender of homosexual rights (among other human rights). While I am perfectly comfortable mentioning this on the TFP, I
might not be so comfortable mentioning this in real life. Does that mean I shouldn't care about their rights?
Use your imagination and it can get much worse. What if I wanted to defend the rights of a particularly vilified person or group of people? This isn't necessarily wrong but it can have very bad repercussions for me in real life. Even the TFP may not be anonymous enough for such discussions. As is the subject of this thread, I have a reputation to uphold here and if people think too ill of me, I won't be taken seriously...