SlateStar Down

The New York Times brought about the destruction of one of the great blogs.
The second reason is more prosaic: some people want to kill me or ruin my life, and I would prefer not to make it too easy. I’ve received various death threats. I had someone on an anti-psychiatry subreddit put out a bounty for any information that could take me down (the mods deleted the post quickly, which I am grateful for). I’ve had dissatisfied blog readers call my work pretending to be dissatisfied patients in order to get me fired. And I recently learned that someone on SSC got SWATted in a way that they link to using their real name on the blog. I live with ten housemates including a three-year-old and an infant, and I would prefer this not happen to me or to them. Although I realize I accept some risk of this just by writing a blog with imperfect anonymity, getting doxxed on national news would take it to another level.

When I expressed these fears to the reporter, he said that it was New York Times policy to include real names, and he couldn’t change that. After considering my options, I decided on the one you see now. If there’s no blog, there’s no story.
That is most disappointing. We are in a moment in which great works of art, and here the humanities, are destroyed by mobs (or in this case a reasonable fear of the mob). The Times should be ashamed of its role here, insofar as they are capable of shame.

5 comments:

Gringo said...

Perhaps NYT reporters should get a taste of their own medicine.

Aggie said...

After a while, one starts to get the idea that the end result was the desired effect all along.

ymarsakar said...

Shrugs. If he wanted to keep OpSec, he should use a code name or handle. Instead of his first two names. I mean come on, even a NYTimes reporter can find your name that way, with the amount of stuff you left on your blog, that your readers could find your work place...

smh

Amateur spies.

You can use a letter like Y or Q, but it's better to construct another persona entirely. Then place a history and background for that persona, and use that as an avatar. That way people who dig up your stuff, will dig up what you want them to dig up. YOu just have to keep your lives separate in your head. Actors do it all the time.

ymarsakar said...

Also, don't leave obvious clues like typing mistakes that repeat, otherwise you can be flagged down manually.

Counter: Doesn't Y do that all the time?

Y: Yes, but that's because I don't need to maintain my cover as much now. Also, what I can do, I can UNDO. Besides, this isn't something the AI can pick up, it would have to be a human.

ymarsakar said...

Also Grim, the Divine messengers have learned valuable lessons by watching humanity crucify and hunt down and persecute the Children of God.

They and we, no longer do stupid things like put a target on our heads, speak in public, or do other things that will trigger a "Satan led execution squad". Or at least, when such things happen, it is for a strategic purpose.

Every experience collected by the previous saints, apostles, prophets, and whatever else humanity put a label on, has been collected and synthesized by Divine intel agents. Life plans were reformulated as a result to create sleeper cells.

The duty and role of the "face" or front, will be taken up by others, who will tank or soak up the fire and attacks.

This is for a simple reason. When a person says something that humans don't like, humanity gets together and hunts them down. Just as they did or will do, to SlateStar.

It's not that complicated.