This was originally posted at love.me-hate.me
A99 launched an Operation focused against the global banking cartel centered around the Federal Reserve. It's like the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans declared class warfare against the rest and 30 years later we finally have some sort of quasi-coherent response.
Except that one of the main topics is whether the site is a hoax. Turns out some guy named David DeGraw is more than likely the driving force behind it. And there's nothing Anon hate more than feeling like some douchebag's personal army (except cat-related violence). He has an interview and then some kind of manifesto called "Analysis of the Global Insurrection Against Neo-Liberal Economic Domination and the Coming American Rebellion – We Are Egypt" published online. It's the same exact message that A99 delivers in their video. In fact Part One, section VIII is titled, "The Empire State Rebellion."
What's interesting about the hoax forum posting is that many people didn't seem to care. They wanted a separate ESR site and some suggested that using Anonymous would be a mistake. Others, correctly predicted that without Anonymous, no one will give a shit and the movement will quickly die. The same author wrote (somewhat crudely) about moot's ideas of "fluid identity" and "creative mutation" (which he spoke about at this years SXSW conference). Essentially, Anon will change their identity, tactics, strategy, or whatever they feel like changing in order to achieve the results they desire. The wealthiest 0.1% of Americans are adept at the art of creative mutation. Just take a look at income distribution over the last 30 years (BTW there's a great companion article). We're dealing with people who are very familiar with the legislative process, how to change it to their favor, and are on a first name basis with those who set its agenda. It's like a triple-barreled shotgun to our head. An economic one. That's already been fired at us for three decades.
This is clearly a new (and surprising) direction for Anonymous but not altogether out of step. It's plainly obvious to me that Anonymous has been picked up a lot of political activists and other people who have the same beliefs as me and who want to do something anything as long as they are no longer sitting idly by.
I believe that's why Anonymous morphed from Scientology to Wikileaks and has gained steam with the revolutions happening around the world. As more and more Democrats (especially) read about Anonymous they're seeing this group as the missing link to the official party platform. Democrats are fed up with their party's reluctance to act decisively in the face of adversity. They mostly hate Obama for trying to reason with unreasonable people. So this is the logical progression for their outrage to take. As a result it's gaining the service of some highly educated people. Since Anonymous follows those who have the best ideas at the time, it's no surprise that their activities have taken a turn for more politically motivated Operations. Whistleblowers and those with Political Science/History backgrounds are three types of people (amended below) who have endless ideas about how to make the world a better place. After all, what political activist (Left or Right) doesn't want to "put on a mask" and "be a superhero" at night; or at very least feel like they have?
Let me stress that this is the "new" Anonymous. It was originally never about politics, and I can state for a fact that it still isn't. Backtrace Security's Hubris has noticed the same trend:
That spokesman, who goes by the name Hubris and calls himself BackTrace’s “director of psychological operations,” tells me that the group (Backtrace calls itself a company, but Hubris says it’s still in the process of incorporating) aims to put an end to Anonymous “in its current form.” That form, Hubris argues, is a betrayal of its roots: Fun-loving, often destructive nihilism, not the political hacktivism Anonymous has focused on for much of the past year. “[Anonymous] has truly become moralfags,” says Hubris, using the term for hackers who focus on political and moral causes instead of amoral pranks. “Anonymous has never been about revolutions. It’s not about the betterment of mankind. It’s the Internet hate machine, or that’s what it’s supposed to be.”
(Just as a note I think Backtrace Security is Aaron Barr's newest outfit. They have the resources and motivation for both revenge and seeing his plan in those HBGary emails come true. So I don't trust them and I think the chat logs they offer might be bogus. It's possible that #HQ is his invention and the people in those logs are serving as "honeypots" for Anons to try and contact and then be deceived. Maybe they're legit. They make some good points, but why risk it? Although
Kayla seems to be real.)
So a fourth category shall be created entitled non-moralfag-internet-hate-machine-types-of-people, who also can have the best/funniest ideas. To elaborate on whether it's about politics or lulz, it's always been for the lulz. But getting lulz from political causes is a capability almost every political activist possesses.
Having said that, I fully support Anonymous starting a class war. But time will tell whether they have the endurance or perseverance necessary to fight it to conclusion. One thing is for sure, if they're going to do it they're going to need a website with anon forums dedicated to ESR, possibly a wiki, and an IRC channel. The greatest disappointment with A99 is that they didn't seem to anticipate the "communication infrastructure" necessary to carry out class warfare. Which means, that if David DeGraw is indeed behind this he is a newfag, and has committed an EPIC potentially-mortal fail.
For the record: I used Forbes as a convenience. I didn't intend to rely so heavily on that particular source but, in a way, they delivered. If you want alternative sources, try Google.