Mark: if I do a good thing for a bad reason does it suddenly become a bad thing? If, when presented with a completely unlimited range of things that I could be doing in the world right now, I choose to help destroy a malicious organization that has harmed the lives of thousands of people just for the hell of it, is that somehow worse than if I did it because they killed my mother?
Also, you should fucking expect hostility on the internet. Bad people live here. I don't have any beef with you, I've never seen you recruit and you answer my questions as best you can every time, but I'm not the internet. I'm going to go ahead and guess that you're a little older than I am. I started going online when I was 15, and I learned what I needed to do to stay safe, learned about trolling and spam and worms and bots and how to escape the pedobear. If you didn't come to the internet from there, or from the side of the people doing the bad shit, it can be hard to understand how the place works.
That said, ESMB is Emma's little corner of the internets and she keeps her place nice and clean. You should not expect personal attacks in this space because she has requested that we not do that sort of thing and I for one would like to abide by her rules and not feel the wrath of the banhammer.
BWG, I personally have no beef with either Anonymous or you personally. I've met a few individual anons who were brainless bigots, but that's true of any group. I could say the same for some freezoners. Most of the anons I've met are quite amiable, clever young people who are interested in making an end to the very real abusive practices of the Co$. They are engaged and doing something to address a real problem.
I see those efforts as very much in the same vein of those undertaken by those of us who left the Co$ in the early '80s. I applaud the present efforts. Nor do I entertain some hope of picking up the pieces left over from destruction of the Co$. I left that organization years ago and have no interest in returning either to the current institution or some imaginary "purer" version of a prior incarnation.
The idea of Anonymous being in the protests "just for laughs", or lulz if you prefer, is hardly a reassuring characteristic for a movement that is veritably a "moral crusade". Nonetheless, I fully agree that the protests should be carried out with a "spirit of play". This is so, if for no other reason than that it is a common belief among scientologists that any activity which is devoid of fun is deadly to the spirit. The element of "fun" also serves a useful purpose in defusing tensions and helping to prevent the demonization of opposition, both of which I consider essential to any protest.
My earlier post in response to you was a jocular reminder concerning the anon slogan "We are Anonymous". This stands in contrast to the tendency among freezoners, et al, to refrain from espousing our individual views as uniformly reflective of those of some larger group. Those within the freezone tend to speakout as private individuals. Yet those of you who identify with Anonymous purport to speak for a collective?
Whether true or not, the juxtaposition I find amusing. If you wish, attribute it to my rapidly approaching senescence
I don't "expect hostility" anywhere, either on the internet, a public thoroughfare, or elsewhere. Such behavior simply isn't appropriate. Ask your mama.
However, as a middle aged man who was raised during the cold war by a WW II vet, who can remember the civil rights struggles of the '60s, who came of age during the viet nam war and associated peace movement, who worked as a merchant seaman upon the high seas and in foreign ports, and who observed the Long Beach race riots from a residence half a dozen blocks away from the destruction zone, I consider that I am reasonably well prepared to deal with whatever passes for communication in a public venue. I do maintain however that those who imagine that ignorance, invective, & vitriol are appropriate forms of public speech should confine their activities to "thunderdomes" and the like.
If a public commentator can not express himself without open resort to hate then to my mind he has nothing of value to say. The open tolerance of such in public fora I personally find unacceptable. As a practicing freezone scientologist I'd strongly advise such hate-obsessed individuals to seek out a good auditor or other similar practitioner.
For the record, I'm also one of the old guard who yearn with quiet longing for those halcyon days before the opening of the ARPAnet to general public & commercial access. Computer usage SHOULD be predicated on the ability to RTFM. It keeps out the hoi polloi.
Unfortunately, the genie is out of that bottle.
Mark A. Baker
aka "Old & Grumpy"
