I do suspect the degree to which the people perceives that the “PC-police” controls everything is overblown.
It really depends. If you’re, say, the owner of a small auto repair business in Montana, you can give the PC police the middle finger every day and nothing bad will happen to you. On the other hand, if you’re a school employee in a rich suburb somewhere in the Northeast… well… the situation is different :-/
Would you say my trust is poorly placed?
Yes.
This mostly has to do with using a less-than-anonymous handle. If any lurker who decided to get his jollies by being nasty to you can pierce your veil of anonymity and, say, send a carefully chosen collection of quotes from your posts to a variety of people who have authority over you—well, it could get rather unpleasant.
Such things, unfortunately, are not rare on ’net forums.
Whether “the system” won’t punish you depends on which system. If you’re in academia or paid-by-feds research (e.g. NIH), I would expect the system to punish you (not necessarily in immediately obvious ways).
Whether “the system” won’t punish you depends on which system. If you’re in academia or paid-by-feds research (e.g. NIH), I would expect the system to punish you (not necessarily in immediately obvious ways).
I guess that depends on whether you are in the humanities or the hard sciences. I’ve heard several maths professors often making politically incorrect remarks and jokes in lectures where they couldn’t have known that nobody was recording them. You wouldn’t speak out against Socialism in a similar venue in the Soviet Union. (Or are web forums held to a higher standard than university lectures?)
I guess that depends on whether you are in the humanities or the hard sciences.
That’s probably true. I suspect it also depends on whether you are a tenured professor, rather hard to dislodge, or a mere tenure-track larva terrified of not getting tenure...
It really depends. If you’re, say, the owner of a small auto repair business in Montana, you can give the PC police the middle finger every day and nothing bad will happen to you. On the other hand, if you’re a school employee in a rich suburb somewhere in the Northeast… well… the situation is different :-/
Yes.
This mostly has to do with using a less-than-anonymous handle. If any lurker who decided to get his jollies by being nasty to you can pierce your veil of anonymity and, say, send a carefully chosen collection of quotes from your posts to a variety of people who have authority over you—well, it could get rather unpleasant.
Such things, unfortunately, are not rare on ’net forums.
Whether “the system” won’t punish you depends on which system. If you’re in academia or paid-by-feds research (e.g. NIH), I would expect the system to punish you (not necessarily in immediately obvious ways).
I guess that depends on whether you are in the humanities or the hard sciences. I’ve heard several maths professors often making politically incorrect remarks and jokes in lectures where they couldn’t have known that nobody was recording them. You wouldn’t speak out against Socialism in a similar venue in the Soviet Union. (Or are web forums held to a higher standard than university lectures?)
That’s probably true. I suspect it also depends on whether you are a tenured professor, rather hard to dislodge, or a mere tenure-track larva terrified of not getting tenure...