We Enter A New Era: Who Are You?

Make yourself known to somebody. It doesn’t need to be everybody, but someone needs to know who you are in real life.

There is a large contingent of people within our overall community who believe remaining anonymous-forever will result in shielding themselves from a system which seeks to destroy them. This is a slow, painful, death. A coward’s death. Rise and gain honor.

Nobody cares about your thumbs down.

Nobody cares about your disagreeing comments.

Nobody cares about your distaste for reality.

Nobody cares about your posts on your own chan if you aren’t there to back them up.

If you are completely anon nobody cares about your opinion.

You can be the greatest shitlord that ever lived. Your memes can rock the stratosphere and disrupt political discourse for years to come. The end result will be the same: nobody cares if you aren't willing to stand behind yourself online.

You don’t even value your contributions enough to stand behind them, so therefor I don’t either; neither does the greater surrounding conversation.

You might think you're shielding yourself from doxxing. You might think you're shielding your loved ones from shame. You might think you’re doing it in self-preservation. You are wrong.

All you are doing is asking others to carry your burden for you. You want to contribute to the overall weight of the conversation without bearing any of the burden. You leave the burden on those who are willing to stand up, use their own face and voice, and stand behind what they believe in.

I see more women willing to show their faces and names online while participating openly with zeal in the overall discussion than supposed "men" who hide behind unearned callsigns, praying that greater men solve their problems for them. “Men” who spend time in the comments arguing against the point I am making…

No one will remember you. No one will remember what you have done. When you finally seek rest your momentary contributions will fade and weather with the wind. You will forever need to accept that ultimately, you didn’t want to stand with your friends: you stood behind them while they shielded you from the storm of arrows sent to decimate your ranks.

If you had half the moral rectitude as you claim, you would cast aside your cloak, pull your hood down, and show yourself to you enemy. You would show your enemy that you do not fear them. Instead you allow your fear of your enemy's actions to cripple you from even really participating. Your enemy makes you hide in broad daylight. Your enemy walks in the sun. You often hear, “Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” so why do you fear it so? It is not your enemy that fears the sun: it is you.

There may have been some value in your anonymity once while you were figuring out your identity, however all things must end, even your desire to remain hidden.

The only people who would be angry at this sentiment, and choose to no longer engage with me, are those who remain hidden. I have already decided I will no longer be weighing those voices. I am writing this substack today because it is important to let people know that hiding behind others is not good enough anymore. The times have changed once more.

We enter a new era.

Make yourself known to somebody. It doesn’t need to be everybody, but someone needs to know who you are in real life. Be careful: there are a lot of terrible people out there. It might take a bit of courage to overcome that fear, and it will take a whole lot of courage to accept bearing the burden with the rest of us.

When the wolves come, you have those of us who already bear this burden to lean on…

• ARCADE