I don’t even know if I should try to be witty. The image is perfect on its own.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    23·
    9 months ago

    This is the same account that started the “we are legion, expect us” shit on 4chan back in the day, led a lot of the raids, encouraged use of LOIC. Etc etc. I’m convinced all those cringey videos back everyone got caught up in was all a fed op.

    It’s a fed account. Literally the cia.

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      15·
      9 months ago

      I highly doubt the CIA cares about a bunch of children defacing websites that are reverted a few hours later lol. These guys have never done anything meaningful and the only influence they had was making children open up command prompt on school computers and pinging websites and thinking they’re hacking

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        20·
        9 months ago

        It was their first foray into crowdsourcing through anonymous means. You can see very clearly how they developed it into several different things that are operated today, the OSINT community is crowdsourced intelligence that is very easy for them to drop things into anonymously through the likes of belingcat and others, NAFO might not have been founded by them but was quickly boosted by their participation.

        The biggest giveaway is that it was a dead project for at least a decade or more but suddenly came back into prominence during the George Floyd protests? A time where everyone here saw first hand the activity to coopt protests, take them over, deradicalise and disarm them. It was reactivated as a project aimed at online influence.

        It isn’t their only project. But it’s certainly one of them. The whole anonymous shebang has all the hallmarks of what the osint community is today, before the term was invented. 4chan’s incredible “detective” work was one of the big memes that grew it. You ever seen that kind of detective work happen organically? When it’s organic it looks like Reddit’s attempt at the Boston bomber. What happened to that detective work that 4chan used to be famous for? Why did it just morph into crankery? Where did it go? It migrated into the osint community they created and off 4chan because they no longer needed it.

        Do I think non-state people were involved? Sure. That’s how it works. It creates a crowd that state actors can hide in and manipulate.

        Then there was that crazy military recruitment ad with the colour revolutions in it. Don’t tell me that doesn’t bear the hallmarks of the anon we are legion shit either. (EDIT: This ad. https://youtu.be/_uNPZKJqbE8)

        I’m not joking about this for the record. I’m not doing a bit. I genuinely believe this was fed shit. I believe it considerably more than the belief some people here have that Vaush is fed controlled with handlers. It’s far more plausible.

        • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
          6·
          9 months ago

          I believe the feds were involved only because anonymous was getting involved with occupy Wall Street and other protests. Everything else is just mostly larping.

          It was their first foray into crowdsourcing through anonymous means.

          They’ve done this since the Cold War lol

          The biggest giveaway is that it was a dead project for at least a decade or more but suddenly came back into prominence during the George Floyd protests? A time where everyone here saw first hand the activity to coopt protests, take them over, deradicalise and disarm them. It was reactivated as a project aimed at online influence.

          My god lmao. Anonymous did not play a role in the outcome of George Floyd protests. If it did, it is so minuscule. The FBI had literal violent felons infiltrating activist groups in 2020. Anonymous shows up for every protest. They “call for action” the same way redditors and twitter users call for boycotts and strikes. It’s all to feel good and useful while doing nothing.

          Maybe those are feds deradicalizing people, but even during it’s hay day the collective was a bunch of libertarian teenagers who think they were enlightened. Empty calls for activism certainly fits the same mindset. You don’t need men in cartoon masks to deradicalize Americans. That happens via a war of attrition because people get bored or tired or jaded when the state does nothing and everyone goes back to business as normal.

          You ascribing everything to anonymous and the feds is about as goofy as ascribing “meme magic” to the election of trump. It IS fed shit but the outcome is so unimportant. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to reply to this nonsense

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            4·
            9 months ago

            Maybe I’m misunderstanding this whole discussion, but it seems like Awoo is saying that the CIA is involved with these groups, not directing their every move. They keep tabs on them and use them like they would any other asset (like direct infiltrators), so we would expect them to mostly be useless LARPers, because that’s what they do when the feds aren’t trying to push them in a different direction. Not that Anonymous is responsible for everything, but they are just another tool for the feds to use.