When Screen Names Were Still Pen

The claims of the unprecedented times in which we live are always a favorite target. Today, it is the terror of anonymous posting on blogs and websites. This overlooks the long history of political speech authored under pseudonyms to protect the authors.

Ranging from Publius in the Federalist Papers to X and the Long Telegram during the 1950s, many of the famous opposition positions to current lines of American political thought have been opposed by cloaked authors.

One thing you can count on -- whether the 1790s or 2010s -- the author's privacy will be revealed.

This is not to say that all great unnamed authors were working serious political issues. We're reminded today by tweet from Mental Floss that the past is just as snarky as the present.

Seems the Illinois state auditor was under attack in the newspapers by a person who signed letters simply as "Rebecca." A little work by the auditor revealed the author, and he proceeded to call him out in the papers: Abraham Lincoln. Seems the savior of the union was a sharp elbowed local pol early in his career, and the event resulted in an unusual dual -- broadswords on a plank over a large pit. Read more at Mental Floss on those details.

Yep, anonymous postings -- another piece of presentism.