
Donglegate: Why aren’t we questioning what Anonymous did? - iProject
http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/03/22/donglegate-why-arent-we-questioning-what-anonymous-did/
======
knowtheory
So, lets start with the factual corrections.

The jokes were most certainly sexual by everyone's account. Whether they were
sexist is a topic on which there is disagreement.

Anonymous is a mantle, not a collective of any meaningful distinction. I could
be Anonymous in one context and have no presence awareness of or agreement
with other so called members of Anonymous or their actions.

The Anons who physically travelled to rally for the victim in the Steubenville
rape case are almost certainly not the same folks trying to ruin Adria
Richard's life.

What remains bizarre in all of these discussions is the lack of agency with
which the companies are described. Play haven and Sendgrid made these
decisions, not Adria not the jokers, not you, and definitely not Anonymous.

------
MetaCosm
"Like many, I have supported lots of Anonymous’s initiatives, as they’ve taken
on something of a Digital Robin Hood-esque persona." -- I love how the
freaking author couldn't even take personal responsibility for passive
support, had to lead off with "Like many, "

Anonymous is a dog without a leash. If you cheer when it bites someone you
dislike, be ready to feel like a asshat when it bites someone you like, or
just an innocent passerby. But don't blame the dog, and don't look around like
everyone else was supportive of this brave new unleashed dog initiative... it
was just you.

------
RyanZAG
I agree! We should question these kind of things more.

Why aren't we questioning what burglars do when they rob people's houses?

Why aren't we questioning what soldiers in Iraq do to enemy combatants?

Why aren't we questioning why school children bully other children?

</sarcasm>

We aren't questioning this stuff because it's how the world works. Good luck
getting angry and afraid people to stop doing harmful things based off
emotions and perceived benefits. When any of these people are caught, we
punish them as we are able within the constraints of the law as best we can.
There really isn't anything to question here.

~~~
MetaCosm
Author is questioning his own tepid support of anonymous, a personal problem
put into the public space.

------
jordanthoms
:%s/Anonymous/Some random people on IRC/g It's pretty crazy how people jump to
treating Anonymous as some sort of cohesive organization - it's not, that's
the whole point.

~~~
largesse
There's a theory that the same thing happened with Al-Qaeda.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda#Command_structure>

------
stfu
Even so this is not going to make me any friends around here, I am perfectly
fine with Anonymous staying a "wild card".

The idea is about "Lulz" and not about saving the whales. Sometimes these
actions align with mainstream perception of "justice", sometimes they are not.

------
jlgreco
Is there really anything to question? What those people did is reprehensible
and everybody besides those people knows that. Asking why we aren't
questioning what they did is like asking why people aren't questioning what
Charles Manson did.

------
smoyer
I don't know of anyone who's condoning what they did but:

1) Anonymous is relatively inconsistent ... you can't count on them seeing the
bat signal and arriving five minutes every time you need them (maybe they try
and fail with some targets)? So even if you could point them at every
injustice, would they show up?

2) We don't condone vigilantism for a reason. Everything you read was filtered
through the court of public opinion and Anonymous wasn't (as far as I know)
privy to any of the underlying discussions.

3) The processes that led to the two firings happen every day in corporate
America. We don't need Anonymous for business to continue. And there are very
defined labor laws to remedy incorrect business practices.

So while I appreciate that Anonymous will in some cases fight for things I
agree with, they're far too erratic to trust. Funny that I feel the same way
about my government!

------
AdrianRossouw
It's like being angry at a nest of hornets.

------
Ziomislaw
because what they did was right, make some pressure on a company to "punish" a
feminazi bully

