If You Say So Morning’s Minion
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Hmmm, could it be that “leftcaths” come after them and attempt to destroy the lives of any “tradcath” that doesn’t share their opinions?
Tradcaths are Catholics. Those who call them tradcaths are not. Guy, Texas. (Hmmmm, yes, that would include heretic in papal white)
The man’s had the oddest career. He advertises himself as the holder of a research degree in economics. His name is on several working papers from the IMF, but the last actual research project so reported was completed 15 years ago. His publisher indicates he’s been employed in the PR apparat at the IMF.
It does not seem to occur to him that traditional Catholics are commonly private citizens with no interest in making a name for themselves and that others are Church employees who would be subject to retaliation by the nomenklatura.
Except for “Diogenes”, who was a composite, I’m not aware of an orthodox Catholic who writes for the periodical press or offers broadcast commentary who makes use of a pseudonym. Come to think of it, of the bloggers I’ve tracked over the years, the use of street names was modal though not universal.
Pseudonyms used by Benjamin Franklin:
Silence Dogood, Martha Careful, Busy Body,
Alice Addertongue, Polly Baker,
Richard Saunders, and Anthony Afterwit.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/benjamin-franklin-was-middle-aged-widow-named-silence-dogood-and-few-other-women-180961781/
“During the debates over the design and
ratification of the United States Constitution,
in 1787 and 1788, a large number of writers
in the popular press used pseudonyms.”
Pseudonym: Publius
Authors: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
Note: After Publius Valerius Publicola.
Under this name the three men wrote the 85 Federalist Papers.
Hamilton had already used the name in 1778.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms_used_in_the_American_Constitutional_debates
“Captain Isaiah Sellers was not of literary
turn or capacity, but he used to jot down
brief paragraphs of plain practical information
about the river, and sign them ‘MARK TWAIN’,
and give them to the New Orleans Picayune.
They related to the stage and condition of
the river, and were accurate and valuable;
… At the time that the telegraph brought
the news of his death, I was on the Pacific
coast. I was a fresh new journalist, and
needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated
the ancient mariner’s discarded one, and
have done my best to make it remain what
it was in his hands – a sign and symbol
and warrant that whatever is found in its
company may be gambled on as being the
petrified truth; how I have succeeded,
it would not be modest in me to say.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain#Pen_names
I always knew there would be a rock bottom in the theological debate, and maybe this is it, but I have a hunch things could go lower. Ten years ago if I pictured the bottom it would look like this, but the existence of Twitter leads me to think that one day, we’ll look back on this comment as a sign of our great past.
If someone complains about you using a fake name online, it is because he wants to destroy your personal life and career. True 100% of the time.
I use a pseudonym in order to give my employer plausible deniability with respect to anything I post. I even protected myself on FB, but that didn’t help. Someone hacked my account, change my password, default email & phone number, and blocked family & friends while wreaking havoc. I’ve lost years of serious writing. Anonymity is imperfect protection.
Sometimes I really hate social media.
I’m not sure who has figured out the name I use on my tax returns, though I did once run into someone on one comment thread who made a comment which indicated we’d known each other in meatspace. I began this bad hobby 17 years ago and was then employed in a place where dissenting viewpoints might come back to bite me. Everyone in the office knew I was one of three employees (of 35) who did not favor the official idea at my employer, but office politics is not civic life, so it did not have an impact on my dealings with my supervisor or any bearing on the petty disputes you get into in workplace. (There wasn’t much of an official idea at my previous employer). I was less anxious about disciplinary action than I was about awkward questions at work. I’m a rude person by nature, so when I’d get one of those company-wide spams I occasionally answered the contact person, and somehow escaped injury. (There was a news story at the time about a Kodak employee who had been canned because he’d sent an irritated request to HR to be taken off one of their e-mail lists). However, my primary reason for using a pseudonym has been that I wanted to discuss issues and not to discuss me, which, if my name had been known, I’d have had to do as I am much more vulnerable to ad hominem japes than the moderators or Paul Zummo or Dale Price. I’ve used the same handle pretty much everywhere but one site which has technical problems which require you keep changing it (the participants always seemed to recognize me immediately). I’ve been banned again and again, not sure why.
With only fleeting exceptions I have always used my name in online publications, and at times when I have used a pseudonym, it was an open secret who I was. But as the title of the post indicates, this is a bit rich coming from him.
To add to Art’s comments just above mine, when I have gone pseudonymous it was due more to concerns about running into job issues. I think Don might be the only person here who knows the story of what happened to me about a decade ago, where someone sent an email to my company’s board chair that was written in a way to get me into trouble for my political views. Fortunately my company didn’t have a problem with my writing because, while I had a clear political leaning, I wasn’t saying anything to bring my company into disrepute. But that’s why I also try to stay away from topics that are in the orbit of what I do professionally (generally anything related to electricity), or at least only contributing factual information instead of opining about policy.
I also know (knew) Tony when were both parishioners at the same Church. Believe it or not we actually got along quite well when we talked face-to-face (which shows you the perils of believing the online world is the real world). I understood his reasons for wishing to remain anonymous at the time, which makes this tweet a bit more amusing to me.
I recall at the time noting Paul that you were like the Human Torch. Everyone knew that he was Johnny Storm!