

Anonymous has chosen a new target - stcredzero
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/02/18/2336216/Anonymous-Goes-After-GodHatesFagscom#comments

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Vivtek
What WBC does isn't so much the honest expression of a political viewpoint or
even an ideology, as it is a refined business model - get in as many faces as
possible over the most emotional possible issues (I mean, protesting at
funerals?), and sue everybody for physical harassment if they so much as touch
your sleeve.

They make good money at what they do.

~~~
eli
I don't know if the goal is to make money or what, but it seems very obvious
to me that they are coming up with the most vile things they can think of for
the sake of getting a rise out of people.

I don't know why anyone would waste time arguing with them when they are
clearly just looking for attention and may not even believe everything they're
saying.

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elliottcarlson
Ehh, I remember that site (godhatesfags.com) getting hacked on a weekly basis
back in '99 - even recall someone stole ownership of the domain itself... That
site deserved it every time and Westboro Baptist Church still deserve it for
the despicable methods they use... believe in whatever you want, but be
tactful in some way or another...

~~~
cagenut
I remember him spamming my paintball newsgroup in 97. Even then it was
considered newbish to acknowledge him.

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SlyShy
Ironic that a supposed defender of free speech is doing this. Although I find
Phelps abhorring, I still support his right to spout his ideology.

~~~
FiReaNG3L
There's free speech, and there's hate speech.

~~~
moxiemk1
What's always concerned me is that I don't know how to draw that line. Where
do you put it?

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kabuks
Not knowing where to put the line, is a poor excuse for not drawing one.

Any boundary will be imperfect, but that does not mean we don't set
boundaries.

Who decides what's too much? I do. And you do too. And we keep trying to get
better at setting intelligent and fair boundaries.

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eli
Don't feed the trolls.

~~~
cpeterso
Phelps or Anonymous? :)

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bugsy
Westboro is obnoxious and vile, but they work within the law. Anonymous has
declared war on free speech.

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portman
No, if anything they have declared war on a very specific _tactic_ :
protesting at funerals.

There are well established limits on free speech, such as yelling "Fire!" in a
crowded theater (Schenck v. US, 1919).

Pretend for a moment that we live in a world where the Schenck case never
happened. A group (call them the "Eastboro Baptist Church") has started using
the _tactic_ of running into movie theaters and yelling "FIRE!". After all the
commotion, they spread their anti-gay message.

This "fire" ruse is starting to get on some people's nerves, so an online
group (call them "NAMED") says that they are going to protest the Eastboro
Baptist Church.

That's not a "declaration of war on free speech", it's an argument that
shouting fire in a crowded theater does not deserve protection under the First
Amendment.

Also, for anyone who isn't aware, the Supreme Court has already heard oral
arguments (Snyder v Phelps) about whether these funeral protests are protected
speech, and will issue an opinion at end of term in a few months.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snyder_v._Phelps>

~~~
bugsy
Schenck is an abomination of a case and clearly was decided on the side of
fascism and repression of utterly harmless free speech.

The problem is that no one shouts fire in a crowded theatre, and anyone who
did would rightly be indicted on a number of charges not pertaining to speech.
The Schenck case had nothing whatsoever to do with theatres or people wrongly
alerting theatre goers to a fire.

The metaphor was used by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who was an embarrassment
to the country, to stop people from criticizing US involvement in WWI,
claiming that criticism of US imperialism was identical to shouting fire, and
was a clear and present danger, which is obvious bunk to everyone as it is not
the same thing at all.

And here we are again. Someone is saying unpopular things and the reaction is
to claim censorship is justified because there is a theatre that is not on
fire somewhere.

Let me be very clear. There is no theatre. There is no fire. There is no one
shouting fire in a theatre. And if there was someone shouting fire in a
fireless theatre the result would be that the other patrons would tell the
person yelling to shut up and sit down.

It is time to stop defending the abomination that is the Schenck decision and
the lunatic that was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

"It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate
offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can
prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The
principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover
cutting the Fallopian tubes." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in Buck vs Bell,
ruling that the government has a right to sterilize women against their will
for the same reason the government has a right to vaccinate people against
their will. The decision upheld Laughlin's Model Law, which was then used as a
model document for the Law for Protection Against Genetically Defective
Offspring, passed in 1933 in the German Republic, allowing forced
sterilizations of those thought defective there as well.

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trotsky
Is Anonymous teasing around the edges of the technological singularity?

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Technological...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Technological_singularity)

A suitable glitch soundtrack for such questions:
<http://soundcloud.com/heyoka-1/heyoka-marklar-promo-mix>

~~~
astrange
I don't understand what the original site has to do with members of Anonymous
uploading themselves into robots.

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sequoia
Wait, what? hackernews is linking to slashdot?

I'm having a Cobb moment...

~~~
mkr-hn
Soon we'll have reddit linking to HN linking to slashdot linking to reddit and
we can find out what happens when reality falls apart.

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lurkinggrue
Trolls trolling trolls.

