On This Whole “Outing” Thing

Some of the latest controversy erupting in the gun blogosphere, surrounding the New Trajectory proprietor being “outed” by several people on our side. I wrote a post a while back offering my opinion on the whole “outing” thing, and when I thought it was proper to do it, and when it wasn’t. I’d hate to see the debate degenerate, and for us to allow our opponents’ childish behavior on this matter drag us all down into the sewers with them.

For whatever reason, the proprietor of New Trajectory has chosen to do his activism through a pseudonym, and I think we ought to respect that. I’ve never gotten the impression he was doing this to engage in sock puppetry, or to give himself any advantage. If anything, it puts him at a disadvantage. I have always chosen to do my real life activism under my real name, and my online activism under a pseudonym. I think people ought to be able to choose, and have that respected, and we ought to be better people about it than they are.

UPDATE: I take back what I said about Jason Kilgore. I hadn’t realized he was engaged in sock puppetry. Sorry Mary Rosh of the other side, you’re fair game.

UPDATE: More from a reader. My, my Jason… I think Baldr Odinson and Mary Rosh should go bowling. This is an object lesson for those on the other side who want to believe themselves superior. Trust me, you have your kooks and weirdos too.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. The Activists Commeth
  2. Five Days Later, Still at $20 Dollars
  3. Anti-Gun People Got Their Media On

46 thoughts on “On This Whole “Outing” Thing”

  1. Personally, I’m against breaking others’ anonymity, but I have even less patience for ridiculous legal threats, as seems to have been Mr. New Trajectory’s first reaction.

    1. No, I agree that’s completely silly. If Baldr wants to be treated respectfully, he could start by speaking out against CSGV for doing so, as I have spoken out against the practice among our people.

  2. The issue is that he chose to become a public figure but in his mind he must remain anonymous to us. I just don’t get how that could be possible or even legal.
    He has given speeches in public places, given TV interviews and even the pic is a capture of his PUBLIC Facebook page.
    He also has a regular Facebook page which is not tied to Gun Control issues and I chose not to make public even though he has not set up any privacy filters as offered by Facebook.
    For Me but not for Thee is poor legal standing.

  3. The antis have been taking stuff off FB pages of NRA directors for quite some time for their MeetTheNRA website. Jason has nothing to complain about.

    1. I don’t deny their behavior is vile… I’m just suggesting we not stoop to their level. That surrenders the moral high ground and lets them win.

      1. It was material he chose to publish on a public, social network. He *wanted* it in the public domain. He has nothing to complain about.

      2. When he posted his photo and a description of his public activities in a forum where it was publicly available. He chose to post that photo where he did. This would be like me complaining that JadeGold, Internet Superhero! posted my public Facebook profile photo to MikeB’s blog. I could argue copyright, but I couldn’t argue that he was revealing my identity. He posted as a public figure. He outed himself.

      3. The photo on Miguel’s page was from Jason Kilgore’s public page (I don’t have a facebook account and I was able to see the page) and the caption reads “Jason Kilgore: Me as Baldr Odinson presenting….”

        Seems pretty open to me.

        1. I arguably self-outed in a similar fashion. The question is, how did you find his Facebook page without knowing his name was Jason Kilgore? I’m not necessarily challenging, I’m just curious the circumstances surrounding his real name becoming known.

          1. I cannot remember exactly how I got to that Facebook page, but I was not looking for it if that is what you are asking.
            It might have been a link from CSGV or Brady or something like that.

          2. I found it when somebody left some nasty comments on my blog about him. I deleted the comments and went and had a look for myself.

            No idea who the person was, they used a fake name, fake email, and an IP proxy.

            He has some beef with Kilgore as he hit just about every blog talking about “Baldr Odinson”

            1. Oh also he wrote a number of those White House petitions under “Jason K.” and then later signed them “Baldr O.” so much for that.

              1. That’s arguably sock puppetry, though sort of weak enough I’d be willing to let it slide. Where I think you end up justified in outing sock puppetry is when you’re writing under it to give a false impression, rather than to cover true identity.

                A good example is the whole Mary Rosh nonsense on our side. Lott deservedly lost a lot of his credibility with that move.

              2. I should say, rather than to cover true identity for the purposes other than to gain an advantage in a debate. For instance, GritsJr, if he is indeed Ladd Everitt, is a sock puppet, because Ladd speaks on the issue under his real name, and is very publicly associated with the movement. He’s using sock puppetry to gain advantage in the debate.

            2. I think it comes down to whether Baldr Odinson was up front about being Jason, rather than whether Jason was up front about being Baldr Odinson. The former would be fair game. The latter, not so much. But even the former is still deserving of some heed.

              I was never very careful with my real name as Sebastian, so it’s arguably no problem to out me. But my purpose in a pseudonym was so that Google would not make the association, and thus prospective employers searching on my name would not find Sebastian or the Blog. So even though I was not very careful with it, doesn’t mean I appreciate someone plastering my real name all over the Internet, associated with the blog.

              Baldr arguably, I think, deserves the courtesy of going by his pseudonym online, even if others in his movement don’t extend the same courtesy, because they are nasty people. Now if he joins in the outing, turnabout is fair play, which is probably realized, which is why he removed the link when Weer’d pointed it out to him.

  5. So the guy actually uses a fake comic book name when being interviewed by the local news? Wow.

    Oh and he has no idea what’s about to happen. I will bet $1 that pic and his real name will be all over the internet by tomorrow.

    1. Yeah… that’s why I noted it was likely a disadvantage…. because it’s kind of weird. I’m not lending much credibility to a guy calling himself Baldr Odison.

  7. Sebastian,

    Don’t you find it a little ironic that Baldr Odinson wants to have gun owners identify themselves to the government through mandatory background checks but doesn’t want himself identified to the general public?

    That Baldr Odinson feels it is not an issue that gun owners should be registered, vetted by the local, state, federal law enforcement officers, required to have people supply character references — yet he wants to remain anonymous?

    If he wants people to respect his privacy, shouldn’t he first respect theirs?

      1. So maybe a taste of the publicity he wishes on others MIGHT (as in a Snowflakes Chance) Might make him change his mind.

        1. I doubt that Bob, If the fact that the anti-freedom agenda only makes places LESS safe, and more guns does indeed mean less crime there is NOTHING that will convince them otherwise.

          What this WILL show is how non-violent gun rights people are.

  8. Protip: People who want privacy don’t do TV interviews unless their face is blurred out. People who want attention, on the other hand…

  9. He *looks* and sounds more like “Harriet Freyasdottor”. I remain a deeply offended Scandinavian-American that such a creature calls himself the Son of Odin.

  10. On a humorous note, his Facebook page lists his interests as: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Gun Control. Ha!

  13. Jason Kilgore rings a bell. I think he was raising Hate and Discontent over amongst the Prepper part of the Blogosphere a couple of years ago. I know there was a guy named Jason who was giving Mike Creekmore a ration all the time.

    1. The bark is all a chihuahua has. It can’t be expected to back it up; that would be unfair.

  17. Pingback: SayUncle » Let’s go on an outing

Comments are closed.