On sockpuppetry

So, there's a lot of talk about TNR's Lee Siegel being fired, using his praising himself with a sockpuppet in the comments as an excuse.

Ezra Klein wrote an interesting piece, which included an item highlighted at Lawyers, Guns, and Money that I ended up writing a long comment on. Figured I'd post it here as well (though I should really edit it up a bit.. ah well):

I've been hanging about in various online fora for about 15 years (not as long as some, but a long time considering my age). This sort of thing is extremely common in a host of media, anything that's decent-bandwidth many-to-many and allows pseudonymity.

Basically, those who don't have a lot of experience in a high-feedback environment think that you can be anyone, pretend to be someone else.

Not really.

Sure, you can use any name you want, change it at will, and if you're not out there as your real-life identity anywhere on the net, you can claim a different background, a different name.

But there's still only one you. Even if you remove people's real names from their comment, even if you remove their pseudonyms (and btw, I find pseudos reveal much more about a person's mind than the name their parents gave them)... posts of just words, with no names attached... it's still very possible to tell who wrote what (far easier with a limited pool of writers you alredy know, of course.) For some of us who basically live in the text fora of the net, when you read someone's writing, you can basically "hear" their "voice". (As a side note, I often find major published commentary hard to read, because the voice isn't consistent- I can "hear" an editor talking in parts, and it's jarring.)

Posting under another name doesn't change who you are, it doesn't change your voice. (Some people can change their voice and convincingly "be" two people, but it takes skill and experience.) Names are just a handy label for the voice, it's not how someone is known to their readers.

Siegel is exactly the sort of person I can see falling into the trap. To him, it's always been about his name, and he's probably used to editors reworking his content... he probably thought changing his name and claiming to be a different person IRL would make people think he was someone else, but those are just minor data attached to the voice.

We can hear you, Lee.

I'm surprised Ezra would be subject to the pull, though... but then again, I don't know him that well. Maybe he's got more writing background than high-traffic correspondence background.

CD5: Erlandson calls moderate Muslim a "Hamas supporter"

The Strib reports on the CD5 candidates' positions on pulling out of Iraq. As you'd expect in that race, they all want to, but disagree on the details.

But a little "gem" in that article is buried near the end. AHS caught it:

Erlandson also accused Ellison of appearing recently with a supporter of the Palestinian group Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization. Erlandson's aide said he was referring to Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington D.C., who attended an Ellison fundraiser last Friday in the Twin Cities sponsored by a group of Muslim businessmen.

What the hell, Mike? CAIR's pretty damn far from Hamas. They're, pardon the phrasing, extreme moderates. This will not go over well at all (and it shouldn't). Erlandson's going to have to apologize for this one at some point, unless he wants to jump on the neocon hate-the-Muslim bandwagon, and I don't see that working for him.

CD5: The Amundsen Mess

Jason Amundsen, campaign manager for 5th District "Miscellaneous Candidate #4", Paul Ostrow, is apparently an idiot, in addition to a backstabbing, disloyal slime-peddler. He sent out info on a 911 call where a mentally ill woman claimed Keith Ellison had assaulted her (which was quickly dismissed as baseless by police) to all the local media (who ignored it, since there was no "there" there), and MDE (who ran with it). Amundsen did this... wait for it... from his home computer, which comes up on reverse DNS as jason.amundsen.dsl.visi.com. Smooth, man, smooth. I bet he's never heard of caller ID, either.

Amundsen has now resigned. He'd best hurry up and start showing some contrition, apologize to Keith, and aim all his attacks at Republicans if he wants to work for a DFLer again.

Brodkorb will probably still be bringing the 911 call up in posts a year from now. The amount MDE and other local Republicans are going after Ellison is interesting. You'd think they'd save their efforts for races where they have a candidate, but for some reason, Keith Ellison really gets under their skin. It's probably typical Republican hate for a successful black Muslim, but it still seems odd.

Dan Weinand tracked the slime back to Amundsen, and has the full story.

Stem Cells, Part 1

I've got a hell of a lot to say about stem cell research. I'll probably be dead within roughly 20 years without stem cell-based therapy.

But the biggest thing about it is... the current state of affairs is such a total waste. Those cells? The ones that could be used to save my life? They aren't being saved, they aren't going to become fetuses, much less babies.

They are thrown in the trash.



The whole "debate" on the issue is whether those cells are used to save lives or whether they are thrown in the trash. It's not between using them and them beomcing people. Anyone who's among those opposing the progress of stem cell research needs to be able to answer me one question:

Why should I die so that those cells can go into the trash?