Remaining Anonymous
And Cute Pets to Start the Weekend!
Earlier today, an important figure in Canadian politics complimented my articles but pointed out that my credibility suffers somewhat by writing under a pseudonym. This is undoubtedly true, but I thought my subscribers and other readers should know my rationale for keeping my identity relatively quiet.
I opened a Twitter account while I was still a serving officer. Back then, I used a pseudonym to maintain my personal security while also staying within the bounds of the Canadian Armed Forces’ social media policy (as it then existed). I rarely posted and had very few followers. After my retirement was directed by medical authorities in Ottawa, I began to post more, and my follower numbers grew dramatically. Eventually, my posts on defence affairs expanded to international security issues and other topics, much like my articles here.
I describe my experience with Twitter’s slide into an extremist cesspool in my first article on Substack. A post on the situation in Ukraine would attract a torrent of abuse from trolls, as I am a rather vocal supporter of Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. Making matters worse, I, along with a group of like-minded veterans, began to counter disinformation and abuse spread by a small number of far-right veterans (see my article “We’re Better Than You” for why). The threats multiplied, and I became grateful for the anonymity my pseudonym provided. There was one serious death threat and a doxxing attempt.
I announced my move to Substack to my followers on Twitter. It was natural, therefore, to use the same identity in case they wanted to read my musings here.
I’m reluctant, therefore, to completely reveal my name and other personal information. I’m quite clear about my background and areas of expertise, clear enough that some have guessed my identity simply from my posts and bio. I may change my mind sometime, but that will depend on my experience here. So far, my time on Substack has been overwhelmingly positive, and I hope it continues to be so.
With that out of the way, the weekend is nearly upon us, and to celebrate, I’m going to start a tradition of sharing photos of my extremely cute cats and dog to lighten the mood. I’ll try to do this every Thursday night - depending on other distractions.
Without further ado, meet Kali, a rescued Shiba Inu mix; Arwen, a black smoke Maine Coon; and Jones, a lilac Ragdoll. Their personalities are dramatically different, although Arwen is madly in love with Kali. I hope you enjoy meeting them!.
I feel like in these times it's almost necessary to be anonymous. Just knowing there are eloquent voices putting legitimate content out eases my mind a bit.
I don't understand why there isn't more backlash, why there isn't enough or any push back from sane people.
In the spirit of the original post (whimsical), I think the real issue is which of those animals is most likely to be ghost writing this sub-stack.
Obviously #2, who is unafraid to look the camera head on.