Thursday, July 05, 2007

"Michael" and Me

As some of you know, I post frequently at Think Progress, and I recently had an interesting exchange with another poster who was using the screen name "Michael". Now, it's perfectly normal to go onto a blog and post comments under an assumed name. Nothing wrong with that. Some people are shy, but feel empowered when speaking up under a new name. Some are concerned about being noticed by supervisors if they post under their real names, especially if their personal views do not match their employer's. (I'm thinking of government people wishing to speak up here, too.) And, who knows? Maybe some of them are famous people trying to drop into a famous blog anonymously to see what happens. I suppose it's possible. Probably unlikely, but still, not impossible to believe.


And then I had this exchange with "Michael". This occurred on the Think Progress thread about a Congressional Republican speaking out against Bush's commutation of Libby's prison sentence. I figure since it is out there anyway, why should they mind if I quote it? The numbers to the left are the comment numbers as of when I last saw them. Post deletions by the site moderators (all too infrequent, if you ask me) may alter the numbering. It's best to look for them based on the time.



110. Gee, michael, why do you link your name to Ann Coulter’s website? Just curious.

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider — July 4, 2007 @ 3:35 pm


113. “Gee, michael, why do you link your name to Ann Coulter’s website? Just curious.

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider — July 4, 2007″

Because I think VERY highly of her!

Comment by michael — July 4, 2007 @ 3:37 pm


116. “Gee, michael, why do you link your name to Ann Coulter’s website? Just curious.

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider — July 4, 2007″

Because I think VERY highly of her!

Comment by michael — July 4, 2007 @ 3:37 pm


Is that because you are her?

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider - July 4, 2007 @ 3:38 pm


121. “Is that because you are her?

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider — July 4, 2007″

You caught me!

Comment by michael
— July 4, 2007 @ 3:46 pm

Nah! Couldn't be her. Could it?


Epilogue: Though this poster named "michael" did not return to this particular thread, the name, and a link to Ann Coulter's website, were observed on another thread later in the day. Had I realized this, I would have gone there and continued to ask questions.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wayne, there is no way that "Michael" is Coulter if that's what you're suggesting.
Coulter, though detestable, is way smarter than that un'questionable' dope.


troll alert

Wayne A. Schneider said...

Just playing "Devil's Advocate" for fun, if it was an unusual and unique screen name, then I would agree immediately. But with a common enough single name like that, who knows? It isn't necessarily the same person who posted under that name in the past.

Anonymous said...

Heh. Interesting question, Wayne. The michael troll is WAY too stupid to be AC herself. If anyone is AC, it's "valiant venus." Yuck.

Anonymous said...

Oops, that last comment was by me -- Zooey!

Jim said...

Agreed. There's no way "Michael" is Ann Coulter. Too stupid, and not venomous enough. If she were using a pseudonym, she'd really let it rip, rather than the carefully crafted, judiciously worded rhetoric we get from her public persona.

That was a joke.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Zooey. If anyone was Anne Coulter it would have to be Might Aphrodite. Anne Coulter has supposedly gone thru surgey and it is rumoured that her real name was Arthur ColtrAne. Michael, the King of the Question mark is surely not Ann. Ann is always speaking about Godless liberals and I noticed, after I explained to her that when Jesus spoke of the 'morning star' he was speaking of Venus.Thus Mighty Aphrodite changed its name to Valiant Venus.

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