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London Zoo: Anonymous vs. Scientology (2/10/08)
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CommentAuthorRootfireember
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008 edited
Detroit Freepress Article (Must have codes or whatnot to read:P)
KNBC coverage of the LA protest.
UK Sun on the London Protests
The Spectrum coverage from Buffalo
Student life at MO article.
And from NPR
here -
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- CommentAuthorstandardman
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
I've been making an effort to keep up with my del.icio.us feed.
http://del.icio.us/standardman/anon -
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CommentAuthorCassowaries
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
I've been hearing a lot of people complaining about the memes at the protests, and I agree, they don't help get the message across, they don't communicate to the public that we mean business and we seriously want to educate. But that rationale misses a few key points, and as I've been saying to anyone who comments on it, it's a miracle that Anonymous hasn't yet got bored with this, and they deserved their big day out. And it'll help. The infighting and the memes at inappropriate moments is a /b/ norm, and it will actually keep this in everyone's minds, and Anonymous will stay interested. Even with all the rickrolling and desu, people were enthusiastically handing out meaningful flyers, flyers that were prepared long in advance specifically because Anonymous knew that Anonymous would get excitable when it got close to the day and crack out the lolcats. The message got across, I think. And as others have been saying, the surreality of the whole event was effective as a weapon in itself. What can COS do against that? Think about it: You're walking down the street, you know nothing of /b/ or the COS, but on one side you see the Scientologists, with their patronising pamphlets and their false, worn smiles, and on the other side there's a hundred, hundreds of people, desperate to tell you to tear up that pamphlet you just got, "here, take these! take these! The COS kills!" before demanding the Scientologists do a barrel roll. These people are evidently having a lot of fun, and only half the stuff they're saying is making sense, but they're here for a reason. Who do you choose to listen to?
I think the OH FUCK motivational sums it up, really. The internet arrived, and it looked dashing and insane at the same time, as well it should, but do you see all the serious placards? The signal-to-noise ratio was just about right so that everyone involved had fun but everyone who wasn't in on it knew why they were standing there. And with any luck, we'll do it again. -
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@ octegon.
who buys ice? heh leave it to the scientologists to make you pay for that too. -
i find the meme use kinda deflates the respectability a bit. i mean, what use is a long cat banner against scientology? i think what they are doing is great if they can knock them down a notch thats awesome. but it seems it could be derailed by the few idiots there "cause its funny"
and how is it pronounced? meemee or meem? -
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CommentAuthorPete Martin
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
pronounced to rhyme with "theme" -
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CommentAuthorDoctor Pockets
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
Jeffrey Rowland, FTW. -
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what use is a long cat banner against scientology?
It's actually fighting like with like - a battle of infectious sticky ideas.
The more I think about this, the more I'm reminded of Snowcrash, with Scientology as Snowcrash and longcat etc as the nam-shub.
I wonder if there's a case to be made for things like internet memes inoculating minds against grand narratives? -
- CommentAuthorDewey Decibel
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
Heh, the longcat of Enki, lolshub.
The tactics of this really intrigue me though, on one hand you have serious protest and compelling youtubery, on the other you get Rickrolling and the Fresh Prince. But the more I think about it, I can't help but realize that the two sides work together amazingly well. The CoS is used to dealing with the serious people, just as they're used to dealing with the nutjobs (and I use the term loosely, due to context). When the two combined for an offensive, I can't help but think it caught them all off guard. There are stories, unverifiable of course, of a single kid who scoped out the CoS Tokyo headquarters and saw a bunch of CoS guys waiting around for a protest that didn't even happen. For a group that prides itself on catching people with their pants down, snapping pictures and putting funny captions on them, it worked.
As far as folks advising Anonymous, there's got to be some talent to spare floating around the pool of folks that showed up to the rallies. Even without outside advisers coming in, there are folks in it, who in addition to being /b/tards, also have history protesting or media work. Case in point, along with Oddcult, I'm one more person with PR and event-planning experience who showed up at a raid. We're not running the show, but an influx of people who know what they're doing, if only to tell the bad idea bears to shut up, makes the collective smarter. -
Yeah, it's derailed the CoS's PR machine, which normally works well. Their use of terms like 'cyber-terrorist' look ridiculous in the face of longcat, do not want and masked hello kitty girls.
The blatant and now actually filmed, photographed and documented examples of the CoS using surveillance against the protesters backs up many of their claims.
A better response would been to pretend to be in on the joke, to play it down and write it off as badly misinformed high-spirited kids and pranksters having fun. As things stand, the protesters are coming across as reasonable, humourous and dedicated, whilst the Scientologists' spokespeople are sounding both rattled and using terms like 'terrorist' and 'bigot' inappropriately in the light of the information that Anonymous is presenting.
Scientology is losing the PR battle very badly over this. And really, that's all it takes. If Hollywood and celebrity publicists, who pay attention to such things, decide to strongly advise their charges against getting involved with Scientology, they've lost their main assets. -
Without giving anything away, I know that some veterans in the protest and independent-media businesses are now advising Anonymous.
MARK STEEL! I knew it!
I'm absolutely astonished by the turnout to this thing. Anonymous is such a loosely organized crowd.. I definitely hoped there would be something, but I kinda thought maybe nobody would show up.
Think about it; This was all done through a few websites. I can't even put it to words, but I think this is amazing. -
The web is a powerful mobilizer but I think in some ways that scientology has been losing a PR battle long before these protests. I mean when you look at Tommy and his stepford wife katey, well it's already been a farce in the North American media for sometime now.
That's not to say that I'm downplaying the protests at all. I appreciate the effort muchly and what the whole thing kind of says to me is: "here's some pie in the face, scientology". The masks and the picket signs and all that, whether using net memes or not speaks to the absurdity of all the scientology business. What was is that Jenna Elfman (another scientology convert) once said? "AIDS is a state of mind?" I mean really when you're spokes people are out there making such rediculous claims how much more face can you lose really?
But kudos to anon. and to those who showed up to egg on the scientologists.
"Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!"
now the aftermath of this. that's what i want to see. -
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CommentAuthorCat Vincent
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
Of course parallels between Anon vs. CoS and 4th Generational open-source strategic techniques versus US forces in the Middle East can be drawn...
(and already I hear the dulcet tones crying out 'TL;DR!" as I type.) -
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I wonder if there's a case to be made for things like internet memes inoculating minds against grand narratives?
Hah, I love this idea.
I think that there is a case to made for this and that it speaks to what's beneath the surface of the CoS raids.
I think CoS is something of a bikini atol for the Internets going IRL. The web isn't Vegas and there's no reason that anyone should expect that what happens there will stay there. -
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CommentAuthorRootfireember
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
I enjoyed reading about it, and am rather happy that sometimes what happens on the internet doesn't stay there. It looks like a lot of people had fun, and made their point. In the greater scheme of things, I don't know what, if anything this means or has accomplished, but one has to start somewhere.
I'm rather fascinated by the photography and documentation of the event, as well as by the reports of what occurred and by how non-violent it ended up being; before the 10th, I was somewhat worried about the possibility, and am glad it went off as cleanly as it did. -
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How much news coverage did the protests get in other places? We didn't have much in GA.
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- CommentAuthorE. G. Gauger
- CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008 edited
In terms of meme/substance ratios, San Francisco seems to have been very successful. I only saw professional, polite, earnest behavior from the protestors.
I didn't take this, but I dig it:
from here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48741441@N00/sets/72157603885148146/
Flickr SF pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/anonymous-sf/pool/
Pics I took:
The SF protest predictably brought to the fore the CoS's policy on homosexuals, which is that they're scum and should be quarantined. This wasn't the only sign about homosexuality that I saw.
I was extremely impressed with the way the SF Anonymous followed marching orders. Memes were used as a safety measure in conversation with other protestors, to weed out scieno spies, but memes were not foisted on the public. With the exception of Raptor Jesus. But a little of that is probably vital for morale. I also saw no one person trying to take over, and Anon moved as Legion, like christ intended. No other businesses were blocked or disrupted. Anon were absolute angels to police, civilians, and each other. I really feel like they got something done, even if it was a tiny something.
I felt warm and fuzzy all day. I love you, Internet. -
I felt warm and fuzzy all day. I love you, Internet.
No kidding. I've been giddy ever since I found out about Project Chanology. I've been feeling a little afterglow ever since I saw the photos of the turnout.
Finally, the world makes sense. -
- CommentAuthorsacredchao
- CommentTimeFeb 12th 2008
I feel like I completely missed something. What does a hentai forum have to do with protesting Scientology?
So confused. -
the chans are the "cool kids" of the internet. where most of the memes start and some of the most annoying people in the world congrigate.
This discussion has been inactive for longer than 5 days, and doesn't want to be resurrected.