Outing: As Unacceptable in Blogging as It Is in Matters of the Heart.
June 7, 2009
I’m with Glenn, James, and Rick on this one.
I use my friends’ names with caution: I only started using a few of their last names when they began publishing books, and I figured I could promote their work a little bit.
The only two people I can recall using last names for in a negative context were (1) a former pastor of mine who is abusive toward members of his flock, and essentially runs a cult-like organization that has ruined many lives, and (2) a former friend who took what should have been a friendly argument into the realm of the personal, and derived what little moral authority he thought he had on the subject exclusively from his family ties—and has alluded directly and specifically to those same ties as part of his public persona. There was no way to refute the argument without being straightforward about what those ties were: it would be like Meghan McCain opining as a “senator’s daughter,” without disclosing which senator she was related to, or like Liz Cheney going on television as “a former vice president’s daughter,” but refusing to say which former vice president her father was.
One cannot have it both ways—particularly while jettisoning a friendship over what should be a silly political disagreement.
People who casually use outing as a tool over silly disagreements are essentially employing a form of blackmail, and a blackmailer is a low thing to be.
Posted in Around the 'Sphere
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