Anonymous and LulzSec

Well, I was just about to fall asleep while reading the news on my iPad and caught the story about LulzSec hacking into the Arizona Police department, “because we are against SB 1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.”

Don’t feel like writing an in-depth post tonight so just going to write down a few thoughts.

I HAPPEN TO REALLY REALLY LIKE ANONYMOUS AND LULZSEC!
(Well, I like LulzSec for getting Arizona and Fox.  Seems like this Wild Child of Anonymous is throwing quite a tantrum.  My opinion of them is evolving.)

It was not long ago that Anonymous really was anonymous unless you happen to be a Japanophile like me.  As you know I have an an affiliation with Japan and it seemed these guys shared that as well as my obsession with computers.  I never really liked /b/ though which is where the group originated.  I guess I imagined these people to be the ones who play World of Warcraft (like me, but was able to tear myself away last year), like internet cats and are just looking for more interesting things to do on the internet.

Well, it seems they found that “something interesting” and it is a lot more important than simply leveling up the Night Elf Rogue to get epic gear or doing interesting things with Photoshop.

So I followed their adventures online and as it turns out, , Anonymous and LulzSec share the exact same opinions as us regarding oppression, closed mindedness and the authorities being mean to others.  If you read just a few of our posts you’ll quickly see we are on board with just about everything they now stand for.

1. Call of Duty – Black Ops
Anonymous said: “You can`t shoot people in real life, therefor you play a game and go online to shoot people. But now that you`ve also been denied that you rage mindlessly, maybe it`s about time you put your mind to productive use?”

We said: Global Citizen vs. Call of Duty Black Ops

2. Arizona Anti-Immigration Bill – SB 1070
Lulz Sec: *Said the above, no need to repeat*
We said: Arizona Immigration Law – A Unique Perspective

3. Wikileaks
Anonymous Said: ‎”Censorship; it will always force itself upon us…. and we will always be there to vanquish it.” ~Anonymous X

We Said: Forum Post – Wikileaks

4.  And many many other examples.

It seems like the internet has come alive to all these wrongs and they know more about computers than the bad guys.

I’m sure people are still trying to figure out what to make of these two groups.  Well, they are most likely the same, only LulzSec are the super intelligent Anons and are seriously hyper-active.  It was also not long ago I believed that Anonymous was a secret and the biggest sin was talking about it.  Well, seems those rules went out the window.  Here is my favorite explanation about Anonymous

What really appeals to me about this video is their statement “the influence of thought.” They ask difficult, unpopular questions and do something about it as well!

*As a side note I’m not smart enough to do what these Anons do but I sure support what they have become!

The Arizona bill is wrong and it does terrorize communities.  Governments should come clean and dispense with so many secrets.  The war on drugs HAS been a catastrophe that has wasted countless lives and an enormous amount of money.  Hell, there is even a bill going through congress to legalize marijuana.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x2069920958/U-S-Rep-Barney-Frank-looking-to-end-federal-pot-penalties

Think this is outlandish?  Well, Ron Paul agrees with the dispensing of government secrets part and he has been re-elected for as long as anyone can remember.  The politicians talk of change yet it never comes.  Now, you have a bunch of Netizens simply calling out a lot of things that are wrong with the world.

Of course not everyone agrees.  PC Mag called them “Thugs.”  But who cares what stodgy old PC Mag thinks.  They went out of style with Windows ME.

It is impossible to say which way these groups will go, because as the video mentions, there are no leaders, no authorship, they just do what they want to do.  And recently, if we look at the big picture, the things they are doing are very positive.  The collective has shed light on a lot of hard, unpopular truths.

For my part, I wish them all the best.  It also feels good to have fellow internet geeks taking on the powerful and winning!  =)

* Follow up 6.24.2011

The following just occurred to me.

When you go live overseas and meet other adventurous people you quickly realize that just about everyone would be considered “Liberal.”  I don’t mean this in the American sense but rather that they are more open minded, understand how the world works more clearly and more keen to point out enormous wrongs that go on internationally.  They have a much better sense of justice and are usually quite intelligent.  After all, they have learned to survive and most often thrive in an environment that is not their own, many of them even speak the local language.

Anonymous and LulzSec (Well, LulzSec on rare occassions) currently seem to espouse the same type of political/social ideas (proven by their most recent actions) that you will find among expatriate populations.

At first blush, people who are not thinking clearly or do not understand “The Bigger Picture,” think them simply criminals.  But if we look at history a lot of injustices required more than a bit of civil disobedience.  What makes Anon and LulzSec so effective is that there is no point of origin, no real leaders.  What you have is an awakening that it is quite fun and there can be plenty of Lulz by doing something meaningful and for the greater good.

Yes, some may do some bad things under the Anon umbrella but it looks like the battleships are aiming mostly in the right direction even though a few bystanders might get injured.