On signing petitions and anonimity

[Human Lefts]

I would like to know if I'm being crazy.

Sometimes I see a petition online that I would like to sign, not necessarily because I think that it would bring much progress, but because I would like to add my 1 to the count of the people that agree with whatever the proposal is. Plus, I think that petitions give individuals an idea about what and how much others think about an issue. So, if there's a petition to increase wages for workers and 5 people sign it, individuals may think "no one cares; it's not an issue." But, if it has a significant amount, individuals may consider the issue or at least understand that others are for whatever. I'm sure you all know the phenomenon.

The problem I'm focusing on lies in that many places require that you provide your name and address. That's where I get pushed away because the petition turns into a list of people that stand for something.

So, let's say that I live in a small rural town and a petition against the polluting by the major company of a local water supply is started. The policy that the petition requests will harmfully affect short-term profits for the company. If I work for that company because it's the major employer in the town and the only one that would provide me with a position for my specialization, and I sign that petition, I am putting myself on not only a list that is for what every the policy is and maintaining the water supply unpolluted, but I'm also putting my name on a list that is for profits reduction of the company that provides my salary/means to survive/buys my labor and sells the shit back for more than it costs to make. My name on that list may affect my position and income. Yea, so aside from revolution/anti-reform and any tendency/theoretical one-upping type answers...

What do you think about this?

Do you feel pushed away from signing them?

For those of you that do sign, what are your reasons for breaking anonymity?

I would like to know what you think :thumbup1:

[Yazman]

Signing a petition anonymously seems to me to defeat the entire purpose of a petition. I thought the entire point of it from the start was that it's supposed to be a list of people that stand for something.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

If you believe in something / support it enough then anonymity doesn't matter; you want your name to be counted with others without shame or fear.
I think the only time it becomes a real dilemma is when the fear of reprisal is more direct and likely (I imagine signing a left-leaning petition in a fascist society is pretty terrifying).

[The Idler]

They don't achieve anything and are one of the main ways information is collected on you.

[theblackmask]

They don't achieve anything and are one of the main ways information is collected on you.

Tell that to the people who are still living in their homes because of petition signatures that we collected and presented to the authorities. Delivering hundreds of petitions to the powers that be in front of cameras can have an effect on things...not gonna change the world, but it's something.

The key is "presenting" not "giving" petitions to the authorities if you are the ones behind the petition. If you are thinking about signing a petition, just be wary of who is really in control of the petitions in the end.

[Maize]

Online petitions, particularly ones with great animosity are pretty ineffective in ways previously mentioned. Still they at least hold some sort of useful resources in conforming individual feelings or thought. The more folks who sign your petition the more feel validated in their desire.

[Human Lefts]

They don't achieve anything and are one of the main ways information is collected on you.

I know of a school that hired an African-American professor because the students got a petition together, turned it into the department office, and claimed that they will protest if an African-American professor was not hired soon. This was in a school where the last African-American professor there was chased away by the White informal leadership. I feel bad for the new professor though. I can almost guarantee he's being ostracized.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I tend not to bother signing petitions, not any more. I did go through a period.

The only ones I sometimes sign are local ones, but I don't see the point in some random one about something happening in the westminster bubble. Bores me to fuck.