Anon-a-much

If I had a penny for the number of anon accounts that find their way into my mentions, I would be a billionaire.

On Catholic Twitter alone, there is a trend of anon accounts that display some holy image as the profile photo (e.g. saint image, the Sacred Heart, etc.), and the name associated with account might have Latin words or some religious descriptor. At best, there is a first name that is only disclosed.

Many of these anon accounts troll, harass, bully, and post hateful words. Often they are simply trying to get a rise out of people. Juxtaposed with a holy image used for the account, it denotes the bifurcated and disintegrated state the people behind the account are in.

Being anonymous gives a protective layer to do such awful online posts without transparency, accountability, and consequence. At its core, it is cowardly, immature, deceptive, and downright sinful. I will address the last point later on in this article.

Without transparency, accountability and consequence, anons are emboldened to engage in harmful activity. Not only is it harmful to those they troll, but they inflict harm on themselves. They foment toxicity not just online, but they themselves become an incubator for toxicity that has effects on their family members, friends, coworkers and faith community.

These are people who have not done enough personal and interior work to gain self-awareness and understand how they impact others. Otherwise they would recognize the destructiveness they are doing to themselves and others.

Moreover, while they might try to promote religious superiority online, their negativity and condescension speak to the opposite. These are sad, broken, wounded people who choose to hide this side by hiding their identities online rather than open up to God and to other people for help.

When challenged for not posting their real name and face, I’ve heard anons reply that they don’t want to get in trouble with their employer for their views.

However, it further speaks to their level of immaturity. They are the masked bully hiding in secret doing misdeeds for fear of being discovered. If they didn’t want to get in trouble online, then they should just not post hateful things, full stop.

Some anons state they cannot be public about their beliefs because they wouldn’t be tolerated in the workplace. Funny enough, the ones who use profile photos of martyrs don’t have the bravery to, in their terms, stand up for their faith without fear of consequence.

But these accounts are not truly rooted in faith. They might be rooted in a certain brand that ostensibly resembles Christianity, but is simply a counterfeit. If these were accounts that reflected the saints and Latin words they post, they wouldn’t desire to cause harm, and they would be willing to examine their consciences in what they say and do online.

How are what anon accounts doing considered sinful?

Deception and secrecy are the activity of the evil spirit. Cooperation with these activities is cooperating with the enemy, which in itself is sinful. Further, the imbalance in the interaction with an anon, with one account being transparent about identity and the other one not, is ripe for exploitation and being a bad actor online.

Additionally, wishing and causing harm, trolling, bullying and belittling are sinful — even if the troll might think he or she is “right” in their beliefs. One’s style and manner of communication is not absolved just because one knows Latin prayers. By their fruits, you will know them.

Sadly, anons are blind to the harm they cause to themselves and others. They might be supported by a community of fellow anons who do the same. But they are all reveling in a sinking ship that has no positive end without conversion. These are people who do not seem well, otherwise they wouldn’t be utilizing this split identity.

A good rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t be comfortable and willing to state to someone’s face what you would tweet from an anon account, then you definitely shouldn’t be tweeting it. If you can’t stand by your words with integrity, then it denotes your lack of integrity.

This reminds me of road rage: Bottled up in one’s car, if someone cuts one off the road, it can immediately escalate. When we forget that there is real flesh and blood we are engaging with, we can forget that the other person is made in God’s image and deserving of dignity and respect.

For one’s own benefit, how should one deal with anons?

As I wrote in Public Orthodoxy, responding to trolls requires discernment. Sometimes it is better to block and mute them, and other times there is some merit in engaging them.

I’ve also found helpful the model of Pope Francis’ silence amid negative statements and recommending not to dialogue with the devil, i.e. go down a path of defending an accusation, with a cycle of counter-accusations to follow.

When in doubt though, when you see no face and no name on an account, it’s best to ignore them and move on. Nothing they say or do really matters because they are not coming to the table with full transparency. When paid no attention, they lose their power and relevance.

Ignoring anon accounts’ proddings takes away their oxygen, and thereby they lose their trolling voice.