Of all the possible responses

...to the post below, the last thing I was expecting out of Warren Kinsella was a pseudonymity slam.

I guess when you're trading on your fame, someone who wants to ensure that debate doesn't devolve into personal attacks and appeals to personal authority is anathema, huh.

Yes, it does open up the possibility of pseudonymous slander... but honestly, what good does pseudonymous slander serve? If you're engaged in real debate and discussion of ideas it isn't slander, by definition. If you are attempting to slander, you can't possibly bring anything credible to the table, because you can't assert personal knowledge without revealing your identity.

The Publius identity was important in American history because of the federalist papers, not because it was used to accuse Ben Franklin of being a closet fag. That's not what pseudonyms are for, and, honestly, they just don't work that way. The point is that the author of an argument simply isn't important...in the long run, it's the argument itself that matters.

And in the case of that post, the argument sucked.