OMG, Anonymous pwned Oprah! These loosely confederated Internets boys and girl have brought us such wonderful things as rickrolling (via duckroll), LOLCats, and pedobear, and the world is slowly becoming aware of their existence.
After all, they’re more than internet meme machines. Earlier this week someone broke into Sarah Palin’s email box and posted some of the conent online. And they busted this pervert, which is quite ironic considering what the prankster posted on Oprah’s message boards:
“It does not forgive, it does not forget, the group has over 9,000 penises, and they’re all r*ping children.”
Shudder. Incredibly rude and horribly offensive, that’s Anonymous for you. Who the heck is screening Oprah’s material? She should have verified what she was repeating, someone with that much power should be especially careful!
We can easily determine this is an Anon posting through some amateur “higher criticism”:
- Anonymous’ infamous “Message to Scientology” video, which ended with this:
Knowledge is free.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
Expect us. - The phrase “over 9,000” is an old intenet meme (something to do with DragonBall Z), and this caused at least one “news” organization to report that Anonymous have over 9,000 members in their “Internet Hate Machine” broadcast.
- The offensiveness of this statement is pure 4chan style; they always seek to shock even the most jaded. These guys are direct decendents of those who created shock sites like goatse and tubgirl.
While of course I don’t condone this type of griefing, I can’t help but be amazed at their subversive abilities and their extensive impact on popular culture. You might not even realize it, but I estimate that more popular internet memes have been spread by Anonymous than anyone else.
And to also be clear to all those news reporters out there: ANONYMOUS IS COMPLETELY DECENTRALIZED. There is no “leader” of Anonymous. There is no membership. There is no formal ideology, and no website or spokesperson. There is anon culture, but there is no centralized authority AT ALL.
Anyone who contacts you claiming to speak for Anonymous is LYING. Anyone can claim to be anonymous, and the average Anon griefer can’t identify a single other member (or “hacker” as those woefully misguided “news” organizations keep insisting), except maybe a few friends.
If you truly wish to know about Anon you must “LURK MOAR, newfag!”
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PS: NO, I am NOT a member of Anonymous, just someone who’s interested. I don’t post anywhere they do, and I don’t participate in their Invasions in any way. I like them, but I also find them completely offensive. Fascinatingly offensive….
And as you can see, I use my real name instead of an alias, despite the very real chance of retaliation from those who I might offend (I’m Soorrry! :) All I do is lurk sometimes, and write about it in my silly blog. It’s like how I’m interested in Christian history and theology, so I write about it. But I’m not a Christian, see? Who knows, maybe I’ll write a book about Anon some day..
Filed under: Anon, Emergence, Internet, Memes, Presidential Primaries, Scientology |
Stranger in a Strange Land 
It’s interesting to see someone finally get what Anonymous is. I do not like the massive amounts of media attention Anon is receiving, but I do find it interesting how inaccurate almost all the articles and stories are. It’s very disturbing, not just as an Anon, but to anyone who cares at all about society. People like Bill O’Reilly with his “far-left internet hate group” and Oprah with her “known pedophile network” apparently think it’s okay to make things up. These people are supposed to be a type of journalist, they are supposed to be accurate. Instead, they do not even try to understand what they are talking about. This is unacceptable.
The failures of the media have also been highlighted by the Sarah Palin email thing. The fact that they keep calling it a hack and don’t bother to explain that all that happened was a security question was guessed it disturbing enough. What’s worse is that they simply do not mention that Anonymous uncovered proof that Palin was using a private email account for government business in an attempt to skirt FOIA laws. That is a much bigger story than the “hack itself.
The over 9000 penises thing, the raids and /i/nvasions of various forums and message boards are funny and not too significant, but whenever Anonymous, 4chan or /b/ receives any mainstream media coverage, it always highlights things that should be very very disturbing to everyone, even those who barely know how to turn a computer on.
You have an excellent point; the hypocrisy Anon exposes has far wider implications than the attention-getting tactics that give them a bad name.
There is no comparison between someone illegally accessing an email vs. someone dodging FOIA requirements using that same email. the former is a matter of personal privacy invasion, the later is a violation of a very important government safeguard.
Besides, If you want to look at the worse invaders of privacy, it’s the Bush Regime anyway, NOT Anon. And don’t get me started on mainstream news.
Thanks for commenting…
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