Ask HN: How openly should you discuss your opinions on the internet?

[silvat]

I regularly see comments on HN where people say they no longer wish to participate on the internet due to lack of anonymity and profiling. I can completely empathize with this. Somebody recently linked a website that profiles all HN users, associating them with topics in the form of keywords, and even classifying their amenability to discussion. Scary right?

But is the risk that we inherit through the existence of these things greater than the costs of not being able to discuss things openly?

I'm currently in a situation where I want to start a personal blog where I write about issues that interest me. This includes everything from stances on big social issues, sexual behaviors and opinions on the nature of people (intelligence etc.)

These are obviously very contentious issues and having these things publicly associated with my name will make many people raise an eyebrow when considering me for a job or the likes. But is this really as good enough reason for me not to do it? I want to talk about these things and I want to put my opinion out there to see if somebody can intelligently refute my reasoning. I think it will let me grow as a person.

I think it's terrible that we should be afraid of expressing our opinions and as far as I can tell, the most effective way of doing so is by publicly saying: This is me, this is what I think, this is why I think it, I'm open to change should you be able to convince me - have at it.