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"Jon Swift," a political blogger writing under an assumed name, was booted off of Facebook for using a pseudonym. But a little melodrama goes a long way in the blogosphere, far enough to rally a small angry mob outside the walls of Facebook.
Swift, who according to his stated news preferences fights bias with bias (just a poke, don't get mad), raised enough Cain to get his profile reinstated. Dig through the charged rhetoric on his Blogspot blog (there's a lot of poking and bleeding going on) and you find a good point:
Would Bob Dylan be banned if he didn't sign up as Robert Zimmerman? Would someone searching for their friend Carlos the Jackal have to know that his "real name" is Ilich Ramírez Sánchez? Would Malcolm X have had to sign up under his slave name if he were still alive? Would Eric Arthur Blair have been banned from joining Facebook under the name George Orwell if he weren't dead, too. Or is Orwell actually alive and well and running Facebook?
But Facebook wouldn't budge. Jon Swift is not his real name and rules are rules. But then Scoble and others got involved, the term "Orwellian" got thrown around (at ZDNet, no less!), and many pointed out that even Jesus has a dozen or so profiles still active on Facebook.
Jesus Christ, not Jesus Martinez.
Facebook eventually relented. "Upon further review," Facebook decided Swift wasn't impersonating anyone but himself and enough people on his friends list knew him by this political alter ego to give him his profile back.
And while you might disagree with Swift's politics or his melodramatic approach, he does raise important issues. Pseudonyms are an important, often essential, element in free speech, and if you're going to give a large group of people the platform with which to speak their minds, you probably shouldn't lord over them to closely, else you find yourself declaring war when you didn't mean to.
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Jon (not all that) Swift
We judge people by what they say about themselves as often as not and Swift ,in my brother and my opinions, deserves whatever critique he gets like our post listed at our homepage:
http://libertyandfreedomforall.wordpress.com/ as
NEOCONS NEOCONS EVERYWHERE AND NOT A BRAINCELL BETWEEN THEM
and here is our no holds barred Swift post in its entirety:
Found on what can only be called the weblog dork site::
Jon Swift
I am a reasonable conservative who likes to write about politics and culture. Since the media is biased I get all my news from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Jay Leno monologues.
Donate to Jon Swift
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
This guy gets all his news from the institutions of mental defect Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Jay Leno monologues? Now that’s the perfect method and solution for being spoon fed totally biased propaganda and staying dumb as dirt.
For one thing Jay Leno is a long time self declared Democrat. For another, due to the fact he hasn’t had an original thought cross his mind, everything that comes out of dopehead lush limpballs mouth is spoon fed to him straight out of the radical neocon propaganda pipeline.
AND FINALLY Fauxfox news? NOWHERE ELSE CAN ANYONE FIND A MORE COMPLETELY BIASED no news just tripe tiny festering blister on the butt of anything that resembles news media. FAUXFOX is about as credible in news reporting and actual news reporters as the Klansman newspaper published by the Klu Klux Klan; with the exception of Fox being even further to the mad dog right than the Klan is.
However if one wishes to have doses of spoon fed Nazi-like propaganda on a round the clock minute by minute basis Foxnews and limbaugh’ garbage heap excuse for a radio talk show are two of the places to get it. Pavlov’s dogs wouldn’t drool or even heist their legs on those two crapola feeding places.
All this Jon Swift(boat) character really needs to complete his picture for “woe is me, I’m a poor little neocon” is a tin cup full of pencils to hold the “Donate to Jon Swift” alms he begs for, an Old Testament Bible to display, and a seat at curb side at a busy street intersection.
Jon Swift gets this months grand prize for having the most utter gall in a public venue.
Signed,
Freedom and Liberty