I Dont Know: Anonymous are they they the Good guys????

[GonzoGamer]

I kind of see them the same way I see the wikileak people. Kind of like modern day Robin Hoods. But instead of stealing money, they steal information.

 

[Aijou]

We don't need protection of our freedom of speech, no one's trying to take it away.

Three things that prove your ridiculously sweeping final statement wrong - Martin Luther King and co., Amnesty International, and the Suffragettes/ists. To say that a single group who manage to DoS a couple of sites (all of their strategies have clearly worked, I can see the Church of Scientology crumbling!) and ruining a couple of people's lives is more important than these three is probably what the definition of insane should be changed to.

To you it may not seem like anyone's trying to take freedom of speech away (Though this is also debatable), to me it doesn't seem like we've ever really had freedom of speech to begin with. For me freedom of speech isn't about being able to say what you want without fear of incarceration, it's being able to say what you want without fear of moral backlash or social sanctions. It's breaking down the walls and boundaries civilization laid down for us within our own personal and collective minds, making thought and expression limitless. In anon's world, the only thoughts and ideas that are unaccepted are those that deny other ideas as an axiom of their being. No subject is taboo, and no form of self expression stifled.

Anon may not have led to massive immediate empirical changes in the real world yet, unlike the groups you mention, and yes, my phrasing was a bit exaggerated. But their mere existence, albeit digital, albeit fringe, helps spread true uninhibited freedom of thought and expression around, and to me that's a good thing.

 

[EvilEggCracker]

...to me it doesn't seem like we've ever really had freedom of speech to begin with. For me freedom of speech isn't about being able to say what you want without fear of incarceration, it's being able to say what you want without fear of moral backlash or social sanctions. It's breaking down the walls and boundaries civilization laid down for us within our own personal and collective minds, making thought and expression limitless...

Well, you're wrong. Freedom of Speech is about being able to say something without fear of incarceration. The idea that one can say whatever one wants without fear of social backlash is an idiotic one. Sure, it sounds good in principle, but in practice it is absurd. Society needs some barriers. Look up some John Stuart Mill - he covers some of this. And resoundly destroys what you want freedom of speech to be.

Anon may not have led to massive immediate empirical changes in the real world yet, unlike the groups you mention, and yes, my phrasing was a bit exaggerated. But their mere existence, albeit digital, albeit fringe, helps spread true uninhibited freedom of thought and expression around, and to me that's a good thing.

I can reiterate this enough. Anonymous have done NOTHING. Literally, nothing. They've had protests outside Scientology buildings. They've harrassed people. They've... Well, what? Hacked Sony? Where do they get the nerve? How dare they? Who do they think they are? Anonymous don't have the right to do any of these things. Just because they get bullied in the real world doesn't mean they get to play bully on the internet.

They are children, playing at freedom fighters. It's just dangerous and stupid. They're socially weak people that seek to empower themselves by making others look small. All the grandiose posturing in this thread about fighting for freedoms and inspiring people to take action is moronic. Anonymous achieves none of these things. If you truly believe in freedoms join Amnesty International. Not some group that believes the best way to protect freedom of speech is to hack sony's website. It achieves nothing.