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I gave a speech on Anonymous today, and explained what they were involved in and how they work. For those of you uninformed, here is a very well-made documentary on Anonymous.

Technically it's just a word and you become a part of Anonymous just by saying you're part of it. It's associated with hate of Scientology, anarchy, rebellion, free speech, hacking, randomness, political messages, and too much more. This is being posted in spirit of the 5th of November. What are your thoughts on Anonymous?

Maybe I've been looking at the jokes too much but personally anonymous is kind of just an unorganized hate circlejerk since after all it's just an ideology and not even a concrete one more like "do good by hacking people" which obviously can go awry very easily. Most people "in anonymous" seem to just be losers looking for an ego boost or trying to fuck with people.

I have seen some good actions from them though but it doesn't really make up for all the shit they've piled up and generally being useless. There's not much to say since they don't do much other than annoy people.

It's a stupid may may.

Anonymous is bunch of fools who don't know who Guy Fawkes actually was(or Robert Catesby for that matter), and don't realize the gunpowder had a religious motivation, not anarchy motivation.

Its reputation has been sullied by people taking themselves too seriously, and personally I don't care for it much anymore. I don't mind when it's using whatever resources and expertise it has to go after orgs like the KKK, although it's been a real clusterfuck this time round.

Unpredictable vigilantes with a mixed reputation. They may have done some good, but it also likely has done hacks against those who have likely not deserved it. I really don't have too much to say on it, honestly, beyond the aforementioned statement.

They stared into the Scientology abyss and it stared back into them.

Anonymous to me skirts the line between "Chaotic Neutral" and "Necessary Evil", but they are the inevitable product of the internet.

Living proof that there needs to be a way to enforce common laws on the 'net (prevention of cyberbullying, doxxing, DoS attacks, etc.) I don't really care if what they do is good or bad, but it certainly proves that nobody is particularly safe on the internet, which is worrying, but I suppose if I wanted to rant I could do it on another thread.
TL;DR I don't like them very much, and I think they think too highly of themselves.

Honestly they seem like a lot of talk. Sure, they hack into people's accounts for justice but at the same time, what counts as "justice" is completely up to opinion so it makes these means somewhat questionable. This isn't to mention that they're not entirely honest through their operations.

It's like the KKK leak. They said they found proof of the KKK infiltrating the government in major government positions but their actual list seems to consist of mainly private citizens, some of which were already well known KKK members anyways.

In addition, in the leak only, they admitted that the number of KKK members was around 5,000 which makes their threat almost completely meaningless. To put this in perspective, an actual recognized threat to the United States – sovereign citizens – number around 300,000 members. Most major conventions have more people attend than the total members of the KKK in the United States. This really causes me the question the legitimacy of the threat as well as anonymous's intellectual honesty. If anything they proved that the KKK really is almost borderline irrelevant except in a very few select cases where a member owns or operates a business.

But the effect of that kind of misleading premise is pretty apparent. A lot of people, including websites reporting on it, are not sorting through that list and actually confirming that claim. Who wants to read a list to confirm its legitimacy outside of the most spergy of spergs? And I'm already seeing people claim "oh there isn't a list of Black Panthers because KKK people are everywhere" which doesn't add up to the evidence. Its fueling the political agenda though and is basically putting their opinion over their actual evidence.

Now there were a few interesting, worrisome people that they located, such as an owner of a transportation service or even a single FBI informant. Unfortunately though that doesn't follow the narrative of "they've infiltrated the government and media", instead it suggests some horrible people have managed to get some important positions. This happens literally all the time. This isn't to mention that the FBI informant was already in trouble with the government for his shenanigans, according to the doc.

See, the thing is – I definitely appreciate them going after the KKK. But what I don't appreciate is them inflating what they actually found. And ultimately, I don't agree with the fundemental philosophy behind the whole incident.

While I think we all agree the KKK is a malevolent community, the premise of trying to destroy the lives of people based on their political beliefs is highly exploitable. Society already condemns the KKK in most places in the US and people who are open about their membership are immediately ostracized from most communities. Is this really needed?

I used to idolize them back when I was younger but I was pretty jaded by the whole social justice thing and as I matured a bit I realized that I didn't really agree with everything they were doing. At this time I think they're a bunch of very arrogant people who have some power to try to turn other people off essentially. This will lead to problems down the line.

I think their public image is really draining though. A few years ago a lot of people were supporting anonymous's deeds but nowadays it seems almost like a joke.

I can't edit my last post but I'm hearing from some sources that Anonymous didn't state that there were officials on the list. Oh well. If that's the case then it's just a list of really racist people. Still I don't agree with the idea of targeting people based on their political beliefs. That could really get out of control and it's pretty clear what side anonymous sides with. Groups like the KKK are unanimously hated but some of their others stances are a lot less extreme.

Direction-less group of jumped up kids who feel empowered by their ability to "attack" others via the internet. Mainly by jamming up/defacing websites for a few hours or stealing the personal information of the average joe.

I would call them arm chair activists and spineless fools but recently (and by recently I mean yesterday, the 5th) they went out into the streets of London and caused a small scale riot.

The youth of London are more than happy to kick up a fuss, especially if it means being able to escape their incredibly important journalism studies, fucking students.

That's my two cents, edgy "anarchist" "anti-capitalist" youths, full of their own self-importance.

I mean look at the signs in those pictures "One Solution: Revolution"….actually laughable

I don't really know honestly.

On one hand they seem to be a massive circlejerk about how "revolutionary" they are, while on the other hand over the years they've seemed become "toothless" devolved into a bunch of self proclaimed "hackers" always on a vague overtly "goodie two-shoes" quest.

But for certain, there is no unity whatsoever. No set mission or any kind of permanent organization; they just sort of float around occasionally banging into something; and then brag about their "victory" to the empty void.

They've lost any "mystique" of years past and devolved into a fad that anyone who wants to think that they're "special" jumps on and clings for dear life.

. . . You guys do realize that the majority of the original hacker group left "anonymous" literally years ago right and that majority of what few original members that remained were arrested right? My thoughts on the group can be summarized: have you ever watched ghost in the shell? Modern day anonymous is like laughing man copies that are acting together out of adoration for their metaphorical idol. That's why nobody can get rid of them because the very group in of itself is a meme and it's genuinely impossible to fully kill of an idea.

They're a shadow of their old selves. The last "success" I would credit to them was the July 4th, 2014 Raid on Tumblr. After that… nothing but blundering.

Meh. They have done nothing worthwhile in some time now. So I'd say they're also nothing.

Honestly, I don't know.
On the olden days, they were feared and shit or whatever.
But know, eh.