When one thinks of internet counter culture, one cannot possibly avoid the mention of the word Anonymous. Anonymous is a collective entity that gathers for some pre-designated goal in a rather rabble-esque manner. These goals can range from fairly innocent jokes and trolls to truly life-ending purposes.
Starting in the mid 1990s and continuing on to this day, Anonymous originally formed itself on several web sites, forums,image boards, bulletin boards, wikis, and mailing lists all during a long and drawn out process when millions of people discovered that they had common goals and a great interest in lulz and general messing around. During this process, individuals realized that through the power of the internet, their goals, ideas, and opinions were safe from outside influence and compromise, unlike voicing ones beliefs in the real world. Because of this relative safety and the broad new frontier that the internet offered, people from all walks of life were no longer frightened to make judgments or to cast scorn upon those they felt were wrong or inferior. Out of this new awareness, Anonymous was born.
Origin
The most accepted "face" of Anonymous.
Anonymous is the term used on several websites when a person posts but does not reveal anything of certainty about their person, personal information, or their history. It is virtually when a person makes a comment “out of thin air.” Sites like 4chan, 2chan, and other popular image boards allow for the posting of images and commentary without signing on, giving personal information, or attaching anything to a poster’s real life.
When a person does this sort of posting, the default username given is “Anonymous.” Because of that name, it was only a quick jump to calling the whole conglomerated mass “Anonymous” or “Anon” as well.
Hierarchy
Even Tron Guy knows there is no actual leadership in Anonymous.
Often, in human life, when a group gathers (be it for a common goal or interest), there is a natural desire for a leader (by individual or committee) to take charge of the situation and bring the common interests of the group to some sort of conclusion. Within Anonymous, there is no such leader. There is, at times, an overwhelming desire for a leader to be named, and several individuals will often come forward and claim to be a leader of some sort, but this is not what Anonymous is.
There is no leader of Anonymous. Anonymous is an absolute “black-and-white-no-gray” equality, and because of this, it is faceless. A recent article concerning how Anonymous deals with hierarchy is quoted below:
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Anonymous is made up of all the John and Jane Does in the world, and we'd like to keep it that way. With leaders come hierarchy, with hierarchy comes class, with class comes separation, and separation would destroy the equality we've worked so hard to build.
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—The Who We Are Article from above.
Quotes
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The first and foremost reason Anonymous has taken up this fight is because we have witnessed countless individuals who have been the victims of violence, both mentally and emotionally.
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—Anonymous on the Church of Scientology.
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As individuals, they can be intelligent, rational, emotional and empathetic. As a mass, a group, they are devoid of humanity and mercy. Never before in the history of humanity has there once been such a morass, a terrible network of the peer-pressure that forces people to become one, become evil. Welcome to the soulless mass of blunt immorality known only as the Internet.
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—Anonymous on Anonymous
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Anonymous has no specific agenda, save doing it for the lulz. This is an agenda that those who are not Anonymous fail to find the sense in; and thus the enemies of Anonymous are numerous and diverse.
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—Anonymous on Anonymous
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Anonymous is one of our generations greatest men, do not insult his benevolence. Whenever one of us strays to the 4chan, it is Anonymous that cleanses our ranks of cancer. We should be worshiping him...in fact, cult time!
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—A Protester
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So Anonymous are on the case? Then I will sleep peaceably in my bed knowing rough men stand ready to do violence on my behalf.
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—George Orwell
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Recent research has proven that Anonymous is in fact, a single twelve year-old boy named Tom who has over 9,000 fake AIM accounts and single-handedly makes every single post on the anonymous' website. No one knows why he does it.
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—Funny take on just who Anon really is.
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I've been fax DDoSing with black pieces of paper taped together creating an infinite loop but they've recently blocked them from coming through.
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—Anon describing his attack.
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Scientology's forces have been flanked, we have won the battle, but the war- has just begun....
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—Spoken soon after a successful shutdown of a Scientology website.
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ANONYMOUS: FINAL BOSS OF THE INTERNETZ.Respect our authoritah
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—Anon on Anon.
Previous Quote | Next Quote
Gallery
Artist's concept of Anonymous.
Rendering Scientology sites unusable.
Motivator/Demotivator
Anonymous uses Photoshop quite effectively in a lot of cases.
There ARE females on the internet!
Dolls are not what Anonymous is about.
Calling out Anonymous is just as futile.
Another Shutdown.
A typical tactic is to blame Ebaum's.
You cannot use the internet against Anonymous. They just hack you and come back for more.
Another use of the Ebaum's tactic.
Anonymous cannot be drawn out by name calling.
The truth...with links.
Damage control.
What's on your "too buy" list?
How do you sue "John Doe?"
On PS3's Modnation.
Video
The original message to the Church of Scientology delivered from Anonymous.
A response from Mark Bunker known also as "Wise Beard Man" from his YouTube channel: XenuTv
Pool's Closed: The Movie
Protesters dancing and singing along to their favorite song.
