I am not one for typical Hollywood drama: the Kardashians bore the shit out of me and that name is about the extent of what I know of Hollywood drama. I don’t watch reality shows – I kind of hate them – so I don’t know much about the Real Housewives or Bachelors or anything. I am more interested in political drama, like when Scaramucci became the press secretary for, like, 22 minutes before being fired because of that fun, expletive-laden interview he did. It was fun to watch because it was bad people feuding with bad people, and I didn’t care who came out victorious because there were really no winners in there anyway.

Now alt-right in-fighting drama? I am here for that. Because it’s literally the worst possible people dragging the worst possible people and they are all terrible and I’m just here with my popcorn. Petty? Absolutely.

Today, Paul Nehlen, a white nationalist who is running against Paul Ryan from the right doxxed one of the most obnoxious trolls on Twitter: “RickyVaughn99” aka “RapinBill” aka Douglass Mackey, which is his real life name. Christopher Cantwell, better known as the crying Nazi, corroborated the dox. Douglass Mackey (emphasis on the “ass”) is the son of a right wing staffer and lobbyist, grew up in Vermont, when to Middlebury College, then went to work as an economist or something, while living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He was fired in 2016, but it wasn’t clear why. However, that was right during the election when he was trolling and regurgitating Russian propaganda and tweeting anti-Semitic and racist bullshit, all the while directing other nazi tweeters to do the same and barrage “enemies” with vile hate-tweets. His twitter account, “Ricky Vaughn” showed up on MIT’s list of most influential media accounts in this past election, above many others. Pretty much anyone on Twitter and following any of the campaign information has seen his vitriolic shit.

For violating the rules of a supposed “total free speech” website, Nehlen got kicked off of Gab, which is pretty much the white nationalist wannabe Twitter app. The “RapinBill” Twitter account got shut down, and the RickyVaughn99 account on Gab went on private mode, which is literally the lowest of the low that you can go on social media. His pictures are out there everywhere. If you want to read more about him, here’s the link.

Like I said, I was all over the Twitter-verse reading about this drama because Nazis dragging other Nazis is a great soap opera. Some are siding with Gab for banning Nehlen, while others are arguing that Gab is losing it’s dedication to total anonymous “free speech.” Mind you, Gab is where all the white nationalists and neo-nazis went when Twitter purged them last year (appropriately so – Twitter generally does a terrible job policing its own site). So yeah, the petty drama provided great schadenfreude for me.

The whole incident did bring up something deeper, though: anonymity and its role (or lack of a role) in constructive public dialogue. I’ve always tried to stay away from this argument because I honestly can’t decide where I stand on whether or not anonymity is a positive development for public discourse. On the one hand, the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory seems like a pretty sound equation:

Generally throughout history, we haven’t had the option of anonymous discussion, so we have had to put our own name and reputation at stake when we said things that were harmful or what have you. On the internet now, many people don’t face repercussions for the racist, misogynistic, disgusting shit they say. False information is easier to spread if a person’s name isn’t connected to it. Discourse has definitely coarsened as a result.

However… sometimes anonymity improves public discourse. For example, whistleblowing activities are easier done with anonymity. Just look for example at some of the cases of sexual harassment and assault by powerful men – the backlash toward people who have come forward with their stories of being assaulted is intolerable. When women have had the ability to stay anonymous in their workplace dealings, it shields them from immense personal damage and disparagement. Whistleblowing in corporate settings and government may be easier accomplished with anonymity as well. Finally, some things that are difficult to share and very personal are, paradoxically, easier to share anonymously.

It’s a controversy I have thought about a lot, as a regular-to-heavy user of the internet and social media, and as a critical thinker about the media, and as a teacher who works with teenagers who have never known a world where they couldn’t be anonymous in some form or fashion online if they wanted to. Anonymity both protects and harms them, and the public at large.

Still… I’m not crying any tears for Douglass Mackey, nor am I worried for Paul Nehlen or Christopher Cantwell or any of the subpar human specimen fighting within the white nationalist community. I’m not sure about the ethics of anonymity or doxxing, but this is a melodrama that made my day more amusing.