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Saturday, July 11, 2020

Anonymity in political disagreement

Having spent many years as a socialist activist in our movement (all of them as a Labour Party member) I have encountered from time to time those who do not appear to agree with the view, which I have seen attributed to Lenin, that “spitefulness in general plays the worst possible role in politics.”

 

In years as a (sometimes, I hope) troublesome left-wing critic within UNISON I was, from time to time, the target of red-baiting attacks, some of them anonymous. In the earlier years of my activity the form which such attacks took included “poison-pen” letters and email circulars, graduating for a time to a scurrilous anonymous blog.

 

I have never paid too much attention to views expressed anonymously. There may be times when whistleblowers need the shield of anonymity to expose the misdeeds of the powerful, but anonymous attacks upon those who challenge the powerful are generally worth ignoring.

 

It is with this in mind that I noticed that an anonymous Twitter account gave me a mention a little while ago. This account, to which I will not link, spends most of its time attacking Labour left-wingers in Brighton and Hove (most recently with a series of scandalous attacks upon a Labour MP).

 

The individual (or individuals) behind this regrettable demonstration of their personality disorder use anonymity only to attack those who believe in a better world, and want to do something about it. They do so very ineffectively, since in four years they have accumulated only just over 200 followers.

 

A useful rule when dealing with those whose politics have never taken them further than when they were a bully in a school playground is to disbelieve them, disregard them and disrespect them. Life is too short to take them seriously (and not only for me!)

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