My DU "privacy" has been lost. So serious I'm not saying "seriesly."

[UTUSN]

I've managed to build a wall of separation between DU and the local wingnut that I've sparred politically with for years. Whenever I would relay something that had appeared at DU I would carefully redact any identifying information about the site and the members' handles and call DU "at the discussion board for Dems" or something, and he HAS asked what website I go to, which I've just ignored and not answered.

He hosted a local radio talkshow for 20 yrs and has generally appeared to be even more of an internet doofus than I am, or rather like an executive who has "people" who do the menial stuff for him, sometimes asking me things he could easily find on Google.

Well, today he e-mailed saying he is subbing for his radio replacement and asked for suggestions for topics. Later on the radio, the first thing he said is that he had Googled a topic (not referring to what I said) and had discovered "this website where all these Dems go" and he named it.

Now, it's not the opposition research angle I'm worried about since obviously the website is out there for all to see. It's that this place is home for most of us, where we go far beyond general policy discussion and have all these forums where we bare our souls, are intimate, feel safe to let our hair down in various ways.

For me personally, I fully realize my spectrum in posting ranges from Coherence (believe it or not; and anybody NOT believing it, THIS is an example) to erratic Nutcase-seeming (some might quarrel with the "seeming" part).

I'm guessing that at this early stage for him he might not be navigating far beyond the "Greatest" page and not know to use Search on the website, so maybe he won't see this yet. He knows how vociferous I can be in discussing politics with him but not so much my wild'n'crazy side ---O.K., the EMBARRASINGLY wild'n'crazy side that I've felt comfortable exposing here. I can't say that this will be enough to force me to control that expression, just be that much more embarrassing.

(The irony has transpired to me that I'm not all that concerned about my embarrasing posts in front of the entire internet universe yet am bothered to have one person I know be a witness to it.)

[Xithras]

1. Are you sure you want this post to stay up?

While he may have identified the fact that you post to DU, this post will allow him to specifically identify your username and dig through your posting history. If this stays up, you may be inadvertently giving him dirt he can use against you in the future.

On Edit:

I just wanted to mention that this has always been one of my greatest fears about DU. I don't talk about it here very often, but I'm somewhat active in local politics, and I've posted a LOT of things to DU over the past decade that I wouldn't want my political foes to know about. Like you, I've also sparred with local radio hosts from time to time. If someone decided to attack the messenger instead of the message, there's plenty of ammo for them to use against me here. I've spoken about everything from the sexual abuse I suffered as a child, to the state of my marriage, to my sexuality, and to my activist activities when I was younger. Some on DU are already aware of this, but I freely admit to regularly obfuscating details about myself in my posts in order to make it harder for people to connect those posts back to me personally. I don't lie exactly, but most of the potentially personally identifying information I've posted about myself has been "fudged" very slightly. Not much, but enough that someone couldn't definitively connect it back to me.

If someone were to connect my real name to my posts. Well. That would stink.

[UTUSN]

4. Well, he's more interested in opposition research. As for "dirt" ON ME?!1

My personal dirt is confined to the times I've made a fool of myself and been FLAMED MERCILESSLY. Haha. It's more the embarrassment than any real dirt. He knows much of my behavior so it's it's not that that is really a secret. He is rock-ribbed a Wingnut so it's not that he has much respect for my ideology to lose. It just seems personally violating. He has a nanny side to him, has sometimes forgotten I'm an adult (O.K., maybe I forget, too) and he delivers a nanny lecture about how-dare-I lack respect for Shrub or guests on his show or something.

[UTUSN]

5. Posting after reading your Edit: Those are exactly my issues. I'm with you all they way. n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. About the search function:

He cannot find you unless he becomes a member, plus he must have a star.

Of course he could try to use Google search, but that's a lot more cumbersome.

I guess I wouldn't worry too much just yet...

[UTUSN]

3. Ah, good point. For now. n/t

[rurallib]

6. My current sig line is due to a local fundy repug who I have conversations with

he is a legislator and when his side won they tried to go all-Wisconsin.
At a monthly forum he purposely made a statement about 'the crazies on DemocraticUnderground" while looking straight at me. I smiled, waved and then gave him the finger.
As far as I know he still lurks, since he sent me an email objecting to something I said in here and here only.

Fuck 'em. I could care not a whit.
So once more I say Hi, Jeff. hope you fucking lose your ass next year and you have to go back to daddy's farm.

[UTUSN]

7. That's the conclusion I'm reaching. But this one's not really nosy

It's more like this place is for me and mine. I can't explain, not exactly that I'd lose respect but still a violation of my space. Besides that he'll be shooting off his mouth about us "Far Left wackos/extremists" and naming the site on the radio.

[rurallib]

8. Your inner sanctum where you can let your hair down and lite up a fatty...

[UTUSN]

9. My meatloaf recipe is *not* fatty. It's lean pork and turkey. (See what I MEAN?!1) n/t

[Chan790]

11. 1...2...3! All together now! "Hi Jeff!!" n/t

[TexasTowelie]

12. K&R "Hi Jeff!"

[Systematic Chaos]

10. Yo quiero boing boing boing?

:bounce:

[TexasTowelie]

13. I know where you are coming from with your concerns.

I had a rabid T-bagger in south Texas stalking me online because I dared to have different opinions from him. It got to the point that he was issuing threats online and running background checks on me.

While it is great to have someplace to go to express your opinion, I would not put anything on the Internet that could come back to haunt you. You might want to change your login name so that you can separate your previous posts from those in the future since you have some concerns. Afterwards, you can send your new login name to the buddies that you met on this site.

Good luck and be careful. While I know that some of those people are merely curious and not intending any harm, there are also a significant number that are creepy. It is a mistake to underestimate this person and what he might do during a fit of rage with any information collected. I know, I've been there.

[UTUSN]

14. My head-on "solution": e-mail to him. Well played or big mistake?!1

Despite our immutable political differences, I have communicated respect for you by crediting you as “decent” in the form of asking you “How can a decent person like you be a Rethug.” And you have shown something-or-other by putting up with my rudeness and sometimes erratic behavior. Plus, you have sent articles, some of which required special access, including many on "my" side.

So now I’m asking something well within the bounds of mutual respect: Please do not steer your wingnut hordes over to my Liberal/Democratic websites like Raw Story by publicizing them. I have relayed lots of articles and opinions I have seen over there to you, but it was TO YOU.

Besides, if rogue ‘Bagger troublemakers post quarrelsome things at those websites, the Moderators will soon get rid of the rogues, banning them.

Those places are my HOME, where there is the false sense of intimacy, where we can be amongst our own. I fully realize that the internet is not private. And as for your doing “opposition research” by scoping us out, I mean, the websites are out there in full view of everybody under the sun, so we are not the inner strategists of our Democratic candidates or party, just groups of like-minded.

Anyway, you wingnuts have your own comfort zone places. Please leave mine alone. I mean, you’re Free and White and have the right to go where you want, just please don’t publicize the sites by playing boy-spy. Thanks.

[UTUSN]

15. The answer is IN: I guess it was a mistake (of mine)

He said, "What did I do? Did I say something on the radio yesterday? Now you've got my curiosity piqued."

[snooper2]

16. This thread is all kinds of weird