Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingKnight
Really... I don't know what to think about this. On one hand, "Anonymous" strikes me as a bunch of 13-year old script kiddies posting lolcats on *chans; on the other, Scientology really, really pisses me off, in many ways... so I won't have an opinion on this until more time passes. If more attacks to Scientology on the net do happen on a constant basis, I'll give "Anonymous" credit as an organization of sorts... if the whole thing dies out in a week, I'll keep my picture of them as a bunch of 13-year old script kiddies posting lolcats on *chans (note that I'm not condoning the attacking of websites).
If anything, this is interesting as a social phenomenon the internet has brought about.
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I think it's a bit frightening. The whole "anonymous" phenomenon is basically people acting out of swarm behavior - I don't recall the official term for it, but people tend to lose their individuality and resort to some more primal behaviors. This happens with people in large groups - this is part of the reason why it's so difficult for peaceful protests to remain peaceful. There's always someone who's a bit too edgy (or if you're a conspiracy theorist, someone hired by the opposing side) who sets off what becomes a chain of violence or otherwise poor behavior.
On the internet, this is just bad and also hypocritical. If you claim that information wants to be free, but then knock someone's website offline, you're preventing others from accessing that information. All the same, if the "anonymous army" realizes their full potential, what's to prevent them from going after other websites that they decide they don't like, or just want to toy with? We have no real ways of preventing it and it could be extremely disruptive. As the saying goes, "sit down - you're rocking the boat." It's bad enough that we have botnets doing this sort of thing.
In real life, this could become very dangerous. All it takes is one overly zealous participant in the "anonymous army" to deface or damage Church of Scientology structures or even people. While I disagree with the Church of Scientology and despise their methods of badgering news reporters who try to expose them for the scam that they are, trying to harass members or deface their property are crimes under our society and rightly so. I find that aspect the most worrisome - that someone might, under the influence of the swarm, do something a bit too extreme and take it just a bit too far.
Other than those worries, I can't say that I feel bad for the Church of Scientology. It'll be interesting to see what happens either way, but I will certainly not participate and would try to discourage anyone from doing any of those sorts of actions, regardless who it's targeted against.
P.S. I sort of disagree with combining this with the News Stories thread... but if it garners enough replies, I'd imagine it'll become its own thread once more.