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AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#116701: Mar 18th 2016 at 6:31:26 PM

I think Anon won't have any effect. I mean, most people don't appear to take them seriously, or even know what Anon is. And as has been stated in this thread before, Trump has no shame. Most of his bullshit is out in the open, and it hasn't hurt him so far.

CassidyTheDevil Since: Jan, 2013
#116702: Mar 18th 2016 at 7:12:01 PM

I always thought Anon was just the 4chan userbase. Or the ones who are hackers, anyway.

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#116703: Mar 18th 2016 at 7:47:02 PM

I suspect that Anon's greatest achievement will be them having managed to get us to post and discuss their declaration three bloody times.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Ekuran Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Artificius from about a foot and a half away from a monitor. Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Norwegian Wood
#116706: Mar 18th 2016 at 7:54:20 PM

[lol]

"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."
darksidevoid Anti-Gnosis Weapon from The Frontiers (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Robosexual
Anti-Gnosis Weapon
#116707: Mar 18th 2016 at 8:02:52 PM

I always thought Anon was just the 4chan userbase.
The "We are legion, expect us" thing is, always and without exception, just /b/ or a /b/ imitator trying to grandstand. No other board is stupid or underage enough to actually do "raids" of any kind this side of 2010. As you might expect, their actual politics board is garbage like trolls trolling trolls, and no good if your goal is actually discussing politics instead of flinging feces. /pol/ is also YUGEly gung-ho for Trump, or at least a large portion of it is.

And now you know! Don't you feel enlightened?

GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#116708: Mar 18th 2016 at 8:17:41 PM

They did get some pedos arrested, tracked a few animal abusers, leaked a bunch of Scientology documents, messed with the Westboro Baptist Church protests numerous times and essentially crashed the business of a security expert that claimed that not even Anonymous could breach their internet security.

So usually, for whatever reason, when something gets their attention you usually can expect something interesting to come out of it.

Probably they will end up releasing every single mail or message Trump would rather not let others see.

Inter arma enim silent leges
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#116709: Mar 18th 2016 at 8:19:27 PM

Unless those messages contain proof that Trump secretly runs thousands of genuine charities and is giving out the cure for cancer for free then I doubt they'll do anything but further galvanize his voter base.

Klan connections, marital rape, theft, embezzlement, bigotry. These are positives to his supporters, not problems.

Oh really when?
Artificius from about a foot and a half away from a monitor. Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Norwegian Wood
#116710: Mar 18th 2016 at 8:29:31 PM

If he repeatedly and explicitly described his base using negative adjectives however, that could be damaging.

"I have no fear, for fear is the little death that kills me over and over. Without fear, I die but once."
ILoveDogs Since: May, 2010
#116711: Mar 18th 2016 at 8:29:56 PM

To his supporters is the key word, though. His base isn't big enough to win an election, and more dirt might keep it from getting bigger.

AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#116712: Mar 18th 2016 at 8:30:59 PM

Yeah, but it will certainly make everyone else hellbent against him.

Also Trump seems the kind of person who'd say how stupid his supporters are, if there is anything from him stating that they are idiots that won't really work for him. Better yet, showing if he has close relations with the other groups he likes to bash painting himself as an anti-establishment candidate.

Inter arma enim silent leges
ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#116713: Mar 18th 2016 at 9:05:36 PM

Keep in mind that Anonymous has tried their hands at larger things, including the Mexican drug cartel Zetas (which has a history of targeting civilians). They called it off after said cartel kidnapped a member of Anonymous in retaliation for their trying to release the names of cartel members. Well-meaning in intent, but as a software firm in that article says, it's like "the Boy Scouts going after Al-Qaeda, hey are not equipped or experienced to take on an operation of this kind."

Also, in what could be a landmark case in regards to the First Amendment, Hulk Hogan won his lawsuit against Gawker with an initial $115 Million judgment in his favor. And honestly, I feel kind of bad for the guy - as much crap as he tended to pull behind the scenes, the transcript of the contents of those three sex tapes is legitimately depressing, since it's pretty obvious he was overwhelmed in his private life at the time.

[down]

Apparently, Gawker included the clip (8 seconds) as part of a larger article about the "fascination of people with celebrity sex tapes". Much hay has been made about their being Hypocrites by criticizing various web forums sharing stolen nudes of celebrity women while hosting a male version on their site, but that's beside the point. Allegedly, Hogan nor the woman knew about the tapes, though the transcript for the third one has Bubba "The Love Sponge" and his wife (the one Hogan had sex with) mention the possibility of blackmailing Hogan with footage of the racist tirade he went on after they'd had sex - that's the one that made him an Un-person at the WWE once the trial advanced far enough.

edited 18th Mar '16 9:37:07 PM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#116714: Mar 18th 2016 at 9:14:30 PM

[up]Unless he was having sex with children or animals, the contents his sex tapes aren't anyone's business but his and that of the other person. I've always felt that, with rare exceptions, the sex lives of people I do not personally know are none of my business—and most of the time, the sex lives of people I do know are none of my business.

I mean, just to bring up an infamous political example, Bill Clinton cheating on his wife. Do I approve? No. Was it a dick move on his part? Absolutely. But was it really any of the electorate's business? No. It's their business, and their immediate family's business, and perhaps some of their friends' business (inasmuch as somebody who was friends with Bill would have the right, after finding out about his treatment of his wife, to decide whether or not Bill still has the qualities that they look for in their friends) but beyond that? No. It really wasn't anyone else's business.

I obviously know very little about this particular case. Maybe he was doing something illegal in the tapes. But even if he was...well I'm still not sure you have any right to release them to the public. I mean, if you catch a guy having sex with children or animals on tape, arresting him and using the tape as evidence at trial is certainly justified. But releasing it to the public? Even in a case like that (maybe especially, given that in the former instance it'd be releasing child porn) I couldn't think it was justified.

EDIT: Reading the article, yeah it definitely wasn't the public's business. He slept with his one-time best friend's wife? That's disgusting and sleazy. His friend had every right and need to know and to stop being friends with him (and hopefully get a divorce). Any of his other friends would arguably have a right and need to know (as I said above, they get to decide if they still want to be friends with him after all, especially since in this case what he did with his sex life says a lot about what kind of friend he is). If he himself was married at the time, she has a right and need to know. But I don't have the right or need to know. The general public doesn't have a right or need to know.

edited 18th Mar '16 9:17:32 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#116715: Mar 18th 2016 at 9:33:47 PM

[up]

Just to point out - this was a wife-sharing situation. Bubba even appeared in the first video a few times, and was the one secretly recording the footage to watch later. Hogan even settled out-of-court with him to the tune of $5,000.

edited 18th Mar '16 9:34:10 PM by ironballs16

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#116716: Mar 18th 2016 at 9:43:48 PM

[up]Then it's even less of anyone's business.

NickTheSwing Since: Aug, 2009
#116717: Mar 18th 2016 at 11:23:39 PM

@ Donald vs Cruz:

Cruz is a holier than thou Ayatollah type, he would have any who refuse to worship as he does castigated.

Even though as I said Trump's movement is fascist and scary, Cruz is brutal in his nihilism and pettiness.

...I'd have to go with Der Trumpenfuhrer instead of Cruz, if only because it would be easier to come back from and easier to adapt to.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#116718: Mar 18th 2016 at 11:52:06 PM

[up]Everything I've seen about Cruz paints him as an evangelical. This biases me a bit automatically since I'm a firm believer that religion and political power should be kept as far from each other as humanly possible.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#116719: Mar 19th 2016 at 12:04:13 AM

Cruz's fundementalism doesn't bother me that much, though that's probably feint praise as I've been called a theocrat more than once before. For the record, I consider church and state to be better off relatively separate, but the purpose of religious institutions in society is partially to influence the cultural values of society, which in a just society will necessarily feed back into policy.

Leviticus 19:34
flameboy21th The would-be novelist from California Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
The would-be novelist
#116720: Mar 19th 2016 at 1:01:36 AM

[up] So that means instead of having a country run by religious figures we have a country ruled by religious figures' ideals?

Non Indicative Username
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#116721: Mar 19th 2016 at 1:11:46 AM

Either you completely separate the church from the state or you don't. Half-measures lead to chaos.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#116722: Mar 19th 2016 at 1:26:10 AM

Not Chaos, just a very sucky kind of Order.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#116723: Mar 19th 2016 at 1:47:41 AM

[up][up] I wonder what that means for Britain. Then again, we like compromises and our Church is more left-leaning than our Government...

Keep Rolling On
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#116724: Mar 19th 2016 at 1:48:54 AM

[up][up][up]Well, technically, what I'm suggesting is a choice between completely separating church and state, or not. In this case, the latter.

[up][up][up][up]Basically. Really, it's the State services the people, and the people in this case would be highly religious. Ergo, the state begins following vaguely religious ideologies.

The fundamental problem of an outright theocracy is that the state can basically change religion to mean whatever it wants. In a democratic society, any ideal (religious or otherwise) has to go through We The People™ before it's turned into policy. Ergo, you avoid the sort of feedback loop where the state gets to choose its own ideology.

edited 19th Mar '16 1:50:04 AM by Protagonist506

Leviticus 19:34
flameboy21th The would-be novelist from California Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
The would-be novelist
#116725: Mar 19th 2016 at 1:57:06 AM

No, but those religious people sure do.

Non Indicative Username

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