Comment by EvanAnderson
4 years ago
> when the us constitution was written, it wasn't written with the idea in mind that anyone in the world could anonymously participate in the local political process. that would have been crazy talk!
I thought the Federalist Papers were published anonymously.
I understand that you said "anyone in the world". I'm certainly not a scholar of American history, but surely there were European influences being exerted (and likely anonymously, too) on the Colonies around the time of the Federalist Papers.
Far-reaching anonymous political speech isn't a new thing. The speed and ease of disseminating speech is new, for sure.
> I thought the Federalist Papers were published anonymously.
They were not. They were published by three well-known political figures under a pseudonym that was widely known among their peers. Everyone knew it was one of three, and in most cases everyone who mattered in the discussion knew that Hamilton was the most likely author of most of them.
> Far-reaching anonymous political speech isn't a new thing. The speed and ease of disseminating speech is new, for sure.
yeah i suppose you're right, foreign intelligence operations designed to influence local politics have existed long before the internet. i think maybe the difference is, it can now be done at scale on a grassroots level at substantially reduced cost.
mix that with massive populations that are naive to common internet discussion traps and well, here we are.
>I thought the Federalist Papers were published anonymously.
You are probably thinking of the Anti-Federalist Papers.
I know Cato" and other Anti-Federalistis published anonymously (or pseudonymously, as the case may be) as well.
My point was that anonymous political speech in the United States has a long history.