Joe Moore's Anonymous Flying Monkeys

Jocelyn is an excellent writer, one of the best in Chicago, and America's "fifth bloggiest" neighborhood is lucky to have her. A calm voice of reason, she is, and she writes a very thoughtful piece about the weirdest neighborhood in the city, the 49th Ward. 

Jocelyn titled her post"Back to basics." In that portion, she refers to "anons," or people who blog and/or post comments on other blogs anonymously: What is the agenda of these anons? I would really like to know. You see, I know that Craig and Toni and Tom and Thomas and myself all want to see Rogers Park improve, but some of these anons? I just don't know who they are or what they stand for. You see, there's a lack of transparency. 

Obviously, I cannot speak for all of the "anons." The other "big" bloggers in the neighborhood, and I, believe that Tom Westgard poses as an anon or comments with a fake name on occassion, but I will agree that Westgard wants the neighborhood to improve, albeit via methods that I disagree with. As for the other "anons," it becomes very clear that many of them are doing the dirty work of Alderman Joe Moore. They are Joe Moore's flying monkeys, if you will, and they post comments critical of the bloggers' criticisms of Joe Moore. 

They do not necessarily want the neighborhood to improve. They are in it for personal gain or for the adrenaline rush of the moment, or perhaps even for the wink of an eye and pat on the shoulder from Alderman Moore. They are his comrades, his fellow travelers, and they are all a part of the same school of thought that has driven the City of Detroit into the ground, where the high school dropout rate is currently 80 percent. 

Moore's political machine has these "anons" act as his mouthpieces for three main reasons: 1) Moore, naturally, wants to counter the fierce criticism he gets on the blogs; 2) Moore needs deniability, for it would look foolish and petty for him to post comments himself; 3) It creates a multi-headed hydra propaganda machine, working at a grass roots level that gives the impression that there are many Moore supporters (keep in mind that a number of pro-Moore commenters have multiple identities. One pro-Moore commenter could be posing as several "anons" or cutely named commenters. 

Ultimately, they do not work for the best interest of Rogers Park, or for Chicago, or for the country. They work for themselves and their "progressive" ideas, the same "progressive" ideas that will soon give Cook County a very regressive sales tax hike. And yes, the same "progressive" ideas that drove Detroit straight to Hell. To paraphrase writer Thomas Sowell, Joe Moore and his band of "anons" govern through self congratulation. Well, congratulations to them. They own the 49th Ward. For the time being, for the time being...