Anonymous (Mass Activism)

[.Rai]

I was reading articles on the Westboro Baptist Church today, planning to picket a Lorde concert in Kansas, this combined with me remembering the recent news that the church's founder is dying got me on a reading spree of news. This is merely pre-amble, but essentially I arrived at the massive number of counter-protests throughout the past years against the church: Anonymous, college students, and perhaps in a strange turn of events, the KKK. Well, all this and TwitchPlaysPokémon reminding me of people working as a collective to accomplish things.

Anyway, I got thinking about how what big decentralised, public groups like Anonymous are doing in the modern world.

What is your opinion of such groups, like Anonymous: their methods, their morals, their significance, if any?

[Delibirb]

I think groups like Anonymous are kind of cool, in a mysterious, yes-i-know-its-bad-but-its-for-a-good-reason kind of way. Like my avatar.

 

Their intentions are most often in the name of what is or should be right, and against things like the WBC being essentially the polar opposite of them.

 

Anon: Fight for what is Right, anonymous, occasionally illegal(ish) protests/actions

WBC: Fight against equality/decency/etc., fully open, technically legal protests

 

I can't say I support groups like Anonymous, because well, they do do things that are against the law on occasion. But if I saw a member/rally/gathering, I wouldn't be calling the police on them.

[Tentacruel]

I don't like the WBC, but rallying against them is not activism, it's a circlejerk.  Nobody likes them.  The most backwater conservative religious groups don't like them.   "Protesting" against them is a bit of a stretch. 

 

A good majority of the people "protesting" have not been effected by the WBC in any form.  If I knew anyone who's funeral they picketed, or was even close to someone who had died during military service, I might feel pretty vindictive.  But I feel that a lot of people are just looking to get in on the fun because "lawl they so dumb."

 

That being said, I like Anonymous.  They can do real good, I just feel that there is nothing to be done in this particular situation. 

[Suibon]

Well, someone had to do it. Might spark up resentment against Guy Fawkes in particular and puns in general, but hey, they're Anonymous.

[Cin]

I'm not a fan of people like the EDL (English Defence League) mainly because whenever they protest and someone does against them it can become violent and people end up arrested , happened a couple of years back in my town (11 in 2010 and they're back on Sat), I can get behind them being against Muslim Extremism, just not how far they go.

[Lt. Colonel Remo]

During my freshman year Westboro just decided to one day protest near our school because there's a fairly high volume of LGBT students. Plenty of students were at the counter-protest just across the street, despite the principal's warning not to go. Of course there were plenty of Guy Fawkes masks there and the whole situation kinda got a bit tense.

 

Overall I don't really like to participate either way. Just let them say words and move on. Plus Anonymous is just filled with edgy teenagers itching to be 1337 hax0rs nowadays and isn't what it used to be.

[Goose]

Just on the topic of people counter-protesting the WBC, YCM legend Matt Enloe organized a large counter-protest: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/cody-james-patterson_n_4164391.html

 

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJwSjor4hM