[Tharkun]

If I can go to a bar and talk to people without revealing my full (or real) identity, then why can't I do the same online? "Real name policies" don't make any sense to me. The meatspace analogies are all flawed. The pretty server at the bakery doesn't know my name, and she doesn't need to. We can be perfectly civil to one another without crossing that boundary.

[pricechild]

You can't behave badly in meatspace and expect to maintain anonymity either.

Say for example if you cause damage? You might be arrested, ordered to provide compensation etc.?

[Tharkun]

Depends on how badly I behave. It's perfectly well within my rights to call anyone in the bar a cunt. Some might be offended. There might be an argument. I might be asked to leave. There might even be fisticuffs. But at no point during any of that will my real identity matter an iota.

[GhostVII]

But if you were able to come back into the bar in a disguise a minute later, they would want to know your real identity to prevent you from coming back.

[pricechild]

And that's the same both on and offline.

Sure you can behave badly to a point and there's nothing anybody can really do.

But there's a line you can cross after which... it's not your choice...