Afraid to post on a site where you can put whatever you want in the “name” field? The problem seems to be entirely with you.

As for “allowing” people to shed identities, welcome to the internet, where I have absolutely no idea who you are.

Religions take advantage of human weakness, and masked protest groups do, too. There have been lots of both. Depending on the circumstances, either can scare the daylights out of me – as both parties of concern in this posting do.

The worst atrocities ever committed by humankind occurred because of an unfortunate concentration of power during a time when people’s desperate need for something new to believe in materialized as a new enemy to hate. If the world really has taken its first steps into a new era of instability – as our rapidly shifting economies may suggest – then we are especially vulnerable now. So what kind of box are we opening when we allow individuals to shed their identities and, therefore, all accountability for their actions? What happens when we give a newly unstable world an ideology of hatred under those circumstances?

I have never seen the Fox news special nor read the Newsweek article. I stopped in at a Scientology reading room once to see what all the fuss was about about and filed it as a notably creepy experience (my response was to not return – and I haven’t). So the following conclusion is based only on what I’ve gathered in the last half hour of reading (outrageously biased) postings from both sides and on the behavior I witnesses in the streets of Boston today. Whoever created this new group, regardless of his values or objectives, is a fool. I say that with certainty because of this evidence: this is the first time I have ever been afraid to publish my opinion in a public forum.

As far as I am aware, nobody exploited the cluelessness of these news outlets by generating phony press releases or manifestos or taped messages purportedly from “the Goths”. It is for dead certain, though, that someone could have exploited the gullibility of the news indefinitely, pretending to represent such a “shadowy international organization.” The same news outlets that credulously reported the existence of such an organization in the first place would probably never think to check whether such an organization existed; if, hypothetically, they did so, they would probably take the lack of any evidence for any such organization as evidence for how shadowy and secretive it was.

Fast forward several years. Specifically, to summer 2007. The “place”: a popular Internet bulletin board, running “imageboard” software. Imageboard software allows people to post an image, and/or a comment, in one of several “boards” distinguished by theme (cooking, video games, computers, cars, etc.) When you make such a post, you can select a name to represent you for that post; if you do not select such a name, your name will be set to some default value — most frequently, “Anonymous”.

So. Summer 2007. A 14-year-old high school student, whose real name is known but who will be called “L. Oser” here, makes a request on a popular imageboard that the occupants of the board use whatever skills they possess to harass and victimize a 14-year-old girl in his classes whom he dislikes. To help the harassment along, L. Oser posts her picture, real name, home phone number, cell phone number, IM names and home address. He specifies subjects that they should be sure to bring up to upset her, such as the divorce of her parents, and posts examples of things that she loves that they should make sure to insult so as to upset her. L. Oser expresses desire to rape the girl, to kill her, and tells the occupants of the board “I don’t destroy [her life] face-to-face with her. Instead I hire you guys.”

L. Oser has annoyed and disgusted the occupants of the board with these requests to such a degree that when a fed-up classmate of L. Oser reveals his real-life identity to the board, he becomes the target of pranks and harassment. Some might call this no more than poetic justice, since L. Oser tried so hard to get his classmate harassed. Some might think that L. Oser would learn his lesson and walk away and adopt a “live-and-let-live” philosophy.

Instead, L. Oser went to his local Fox News affiliate and told a highly distorted version of events where the occupants of the board were all hackers of super-terrifying skill, and instead of fruitlessly trying to “hire” them to pursue his vendetta for him, this 14-year-old boy told Fox News that he was one of these “hackers on steroids”, and that instead of being pranked and harassed because he’d tried to do it to someone else, L. Oser told Fox News that he was the target of retaliation for leaving this mysterious powerful hacker group, which L. Oser claimed was called “Anonymous.”

Fox News apparently thought that the word of a 14-year-old was a perfectly sufficient basis on which to base an alarmist “news” report which, helpfully, dramatized the sheer danger of “Anonymous” by rolling video of a van exploding (since, of course, all vans are hooked up to the Internet by default, and you only need enter the correct Secret Hacker Command to trigger the van’s self-destruct sequence.) Fox also helpfully told us about the “secret websites” of Anonymous, where everyone is “forced to” post anonymously. (It’s true, it’s true! They give you a “name” field to fill in when you post a comment, but if you enter anything but “Anonymous”, you’re marked for death!)

Remember how we mentioned that someone could have pranked those news outlets which put on error-ridden “news” reports claiming to deliver the “shocking truth” about organizations that don’t, in fact, exist?

Guess what happened?

Let’s summarize. Are there people who can be legitimately called, in the plural, “Anonymous”? Yes — the majority of people who have ever frequented one of these popular imageboard sites are “Anonymous” because they didn’t bother to choose a different name for themselves. This does not make it any less ridiculous to make a comment such as “Newsweek’s homerun glorifies the people you can see in [Fox News 11's original hysterical display of ignorance]“, that’s like saying “I saw this SCAAAAAARY Fox News special on some Goths and that means I’m right to be prejudiced against everyone who describes themselves as a Goth! Including those who allude to their membership in the non-existent organization known as ‘the Goths!’” At best, that’s total cluelessness. At less than best, it’s ignorance and bigotry. And it might just possibly be deliberate exploitation of cluelessness and bigotry.

Q? How can you stifle a thousand conversations, all over the tubes?
A? Fail!
Noise: They only make more and more!
For each convo they try to stamp out 10 more spring up. GoGoGO Anonymous & LongTime Critics Love you ALL!

Why do people protest Scientology?
Scientology locks people up.

There are over two dozen allegations that Scientology has held individuals against their will.These illegal acts were not committed by rogue Scientologists – they were in accordance with Scientology policy.

Scientology held Lisa McPherson against her will for 17 days, according to Scientology’s own logs. She died in their custody. The state of Florida decided not to prosecute the two felony charges filed against Scientology in her death after Scientology used relentless pressure to get the medical examiner to make a partial change in the cause of death. Her estate sued Scientology for wrongful death and false imprisonment; the suit was settled in May 2004, with all details kept confidential..

Scientology lies.

Lying to people to get their money isn’t just unethical -it’s illegal. It’s called fraud.

Scientology claims there is a scientific basis for all their processes. There isn’t. Scientology claims it’s compatible with other belief systems, like Christianity. It’s not. Scientology claims to be the fastest-growing religion in the world, with 8 million members, utilizing infallible technology developed by a physicist and war hero. They’re lying.

Scientology is breaking the law.

In addition to false imprisonment and fraud, Scientology engages in the illegal practice of medicine by prescribing auditing and vitamins to replace legally-prescribed medical treatment.

Scientology also extorts money from its members, telling them it’s scientifically proven that their lives will become worse if they don’t pay for expensive auditing.

Scientology has a long, well-documented history of criminal activities.

High-ranking Scientology executives were convicted of extremely serious crimes in the United States for breaking into government offices and stealing documents. Founder L. Ron Hubbard was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case, and the defendants stated in their stipulation of evidence that, at all times, he acted as supervisor of the illegal activities.

Scientology itself was convicted of similar crimes in Canada. When Scientology then tried to destroy the reputation of the prosecutor in the case, they were hit with the biggest libel fine in Canadian history.

L. Ron Hubbard was convicted of fraud in France.

Scientology attacks free speech.

Scientology says that “public statements against Scientology or Scientologists,” “writing anti-Scientology letters to the press,” and “testifying as a hostile witness against Scientology in public” are all “Suppressive Acts” – high crimes, according to ” Introduction to Scientology Ethics.” The book goes on to say that people who do such things “cannot be granted the rights and beingness ordinarily accorded rational beings.”

In accordance with this policy (and others like it), Scientology has tried to silence all criticism:

Scientology framed journalist Paulette Cooper for sending bomb threats after she wrote The Scandal of Scientology.

Scientology sued book and magazine publishers – including Time magazine – in an attempt to prevent any future criticism by scaring publishers with the prospect of enormous court costs.

Scientology sued critics for copyright infringement, even though the copyrights to some of the documents in question may have been lost to the public domain years ago.

Scientology tried to unilaterally shut down the alt.religion.sciento
logy newsgroup – unintentionally bringing Scientology to the attention of hundreds of free-speech advocates.

Scientology imposes gag orders in settlement agreements, preventing those who have suffered most from telling the world what they know.

Scientology routinely threatens legal action against critics, alleging copyright infringement, trademark dilution, and dissemination of trade secrets – often in situations in which its allegations are baseless.

Scientology hurts people.

Scientology routinely pressures members into spending more money than they can afford on expensive courses.

Scientology’s disconnection policy destroys families.

Scientology betrays the trust of well-intentioned people by falsely claiming to have a scientifically-proven technology to save the world. Scientology ruthlessly attacks its critics with everything from frame-ups to unannounced visits to the homes of family members to libellous fliers distributed to their neighbors and business associates.

And sometimes, Scientologists die under suspicious circumstances. They even target their own kind.

Buddhism, Mormonism, Islamic, Judiasm, Christianity, etc., have not required bloodshed or money for Centuries. To have such draconian administration is simply morally not right today by any standard of good you want to pluck from.

What time is recess over?