War on the Intertubes - Anonymous vs. Scientology
Loading ...As I mentioned in the introductory post to my topic, there’s currently a “war” raging over the Internet right now, and it’s spilling into the real world. The war involves two sides - the Church of Scientology, founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, and Anonymous, a loosely organized group of Internet users, some of them savvy in the use of hacking and other internet mischief.
As you can probably tell from the flyer, one of the main goals of Anonymous is to spread information about the Church through the Internet. Apparently, from the Internet’s conception, the Church has done their best to prevent information concerning their organization from reaching the Net, citing copyright infringement. Scientology is unique among religions in this regard, as the free circulation of religious texts and information would generally be beneficial to a religion, while Scientology charges more and more money for progressively in-depth texts. While there are many sites to claim free Bibles, Torahs, and Qu’rans (www.freeholybible.com, www.internetmuslim.com/Dawah_Center/library.htm, etc) Scientology’s “Dianetics” will cost you money, no matter how much Internet hunting one does (although Anonymous has apparently made some efforts to spread as many of the Church’s texts as possible through torrents and Rapidsearch).
It appears that Anonymous has taken it upon themselves to attack what most people would consider societal ills. In class, the question was raised as to how Anonymous chooses their targets. As I mentioned, they also have brought grief to pedophiles and white supremacists, although the Scientology protests are the first time their activism has breached into the real world. Anonymous deems themselves a collective mass of Internet users, according to them, “Anonymous is not a person nor a group, Anonymous is an idea. Anonymous is humanity when the gloves come off”. It seems that they’re utilizing the form of free speech that’s touted by other extreme groups, such as white supremacists - ironically one of their targets. Since they’re demonstrating intolerance towards intolerant groups who most would agree the world would be better off without, where does that leave them?
It could be that the Internet is a breeding ground for such groups. There’s been much talk about the negative aspect of the Internet of allowing hate groups and other fringe individuals to unify. However, if anonymous represents what they claim to, ie, the unmitigated majority, do they manage to outweigh the negative groups?
Comments
This is mostly just interesting and creepy, but you might want to look up information on Theresa Duncan and her husband Jeremy Blake (both prominent NY artists and bloggers) who both committed suicide last year after openly expressing fears that scientologists would force them to kill themselves.
http://blogging.la/archives/2007/07/did_scientologists_drive_blogg.phtml
I’m sure you’ve seen their youtube, but I just found it interesting the type of videos they favor and who they are subscribed to - maybe doing a little research can help you figure out who they are or gain more of an understanding? Maybe not.
It’s such a good thing when a group of people can unite online in their shared beliefs… But when they unite over something hateful, its pretty scary. With this Anonymous group, I was compelled to “Ask Google about Lisa McPherson” as stated in the image you embedded. I was grossed out as I found pictures from her autopsy and an explanation as to how Scientology killed her. I think that this power of having all types of information, like the disturbing images I mention, right at one’s fingertips can definitely work to rile a group of people to an extreme hate cause.