How is it any different from being required to identify yourself to get a phone or electricity account? Identifying yourself on the internet is long overdue.

Thought experiment: How do you get a phone or electricity in the most impoverished, backwards parts of the USA?

You need to identify yourself to the phone and electricity utilities so they know where to send your monthly bill. My ISP knows my name because I pay them for connectivity. I am okay with this.

If I misbehave here, dang can just ban me. There's no reason HN needs to know my real name. The only reason to mandate blanket age and identity verification is to control online speech.

You aren't required to identify yourself to get a phone. You can get a prepaid phone with no ID.

You are required to identify yourself for an electricity account because it is essentially extending you credit. You use the electricity first, and then they bill you for it later. They also only identify the person who is receiving the bill. You could have a house with a dozen people in it but the electric company only knows the name of the person responsible for the bill.

You are free to identify yourself on the internet right now. People who are intelligent and/or believe in freedom and free speech are opposed to this authoritarian power grab.

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