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Anonymous Begins Publishing Ku Klux Klan Member Details Online
An anonymous reader writes: Anonymous has begun releasing the personal details of members of the Ku Klux Klan, escalating its cyberwar against the white supremacist group. Last week the hacktivist group promised to reveal the identity of 1,000 members of the KKK after getting possession of the private information through a compromised Twitter account. A press release from Anonymous reads in part: "After closely observing so many of you for so very long, we feel confident that applying transparency to your organizational cells is the right, just, appropriate and only course of action. You are abhorrent. Criminal. You are more than extremists. You are more than a hate group. You operate much more like terrorists and you should be recognized as such. You are terrorists that hide your identities beneath sheets and infiltrate society on every level. The privacy of the Ku Klux Klan no longer exists in cyberspace. You’ve had blood on your hands for nearly 200 years. You continue to inflict civil rights violations, commit violent crimes and solicit others to commit violent criminal acts. You seek to intimidate and/or eliminate those that are different from you and those that you dislike by any means possible. You seek to terrorize anyone and anything that you feel is a threat to your narrow view of the 'American way of life'."
The usefulness of your post notwithstanding, I heard in a news broadcast a few months ago (to my recollection) that the Klan's membership used to numbers in the millions at its peak and is now measured in tens of thousands. Happily, it's a club apparently on the decline.
Oh wait, they are not doing anything to expose actual terrorists, because that might actually be dangerous?
I don't think much of the KKK but to call them "terrorists" seems a pretty big stretch at this point because they've not really done anything, or been relevant for some time. They probably talk a lot of shit on private mailing lists, but as we all SHOULD know that doesn't mean much.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In Freakonomics, they delve into one man's 30 year war against the KKK, where he broadcasts things like their secret rituals and so on, on radio shows, effectively turning them from a serious organization to a laughingstock few people (relatively) wanted to join, in the early part of the century.
The vast bulk of damage to them is already long done. The point of the article was mockery, rather than outlawing, seemed to be much more productive.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Time for our bi-yearly reminder:
Anonymous is a generic group-heading that refers to multiple cells of groups.
Many of these groups hate each other, but they all fall under the same heading of Anonymous since it is where their roots began.
Occasionally they work with each other for a common goal, but it is rare.
There is no singular Anonymous group and hasn't been since 2006.
Robert Bird was a democrat and KKK member. One of the more famous cases of liberal bias against their own hate. He got a pass for being KKK because he was a good liberal.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The usefulness of your post notwithstanding, I heard in a news broadcast a few months ago (to my recollection) that the Klan's membership used to numbers in the millions at its peak and is now measured in tens of thousands. Happily, it's a club apparently on the decline.
The clan has had many rises and falls throughout history -- it hasn't been one continuous organization. This is the third Ku Klux Klan active. The first arose (and fell) during Southern Reconstruction after the Civil War, the second Klan was active between WWI and WWII (and was more concerned about Catholics, Jews, and immigrants moreso than black people), and the third arose post-World War II. Who knows if a fourth will ever arise. At first, I thought it would be more difficult in today's world of hyper-connectedness, but one of the side-effects is that it's now far easier for geographically-distant radicals to band together and enjoy their echo chamber.
The Klan as a mainstream group, even in the deep south, peaked in the 1920's. It had a brief minor resurgence in the 1960's during the civil rights movement, but for the most part it's a fringe-of-a-fringe-of-a-fringe movement and has been for most of its existence. Exposing them isn't even fighting racism, since their membership rolls today are made up of a tiny handful of disenfranchised rednecks who don't have any power to oppress or intimidate anyone. Hitting them today is like stabbing Julius Caesar several decades after his funeral. It's a pointless feel-good exercise that doesn't help anyone.
Don't forget those Tea Party bastards.. I move that 90% of them are KKK. David Duke is a confirmed Klansman who tried to run for President and also an extreme right wing, bat shit crazy republican. You see one there are 100s more you don't see, like cockroaches!
Did you just make all of that up? I can't find a single source that connects "redneck" with Native Americans, every definition I've seen ties it specifically to white people.
I got it from my wife - trained as a historian, a member of Phi Alpha Theta (the historical honor society), redneck, and raised as a part American Indian.
I'm not where I can consult her for references right now. If I think of it before this is off the front page I'll see if she can come up with some.
Yes, the term is used on rural whites. As I said above, the bit about insinuating American Indian admixture is one of the several allegedly derogatory slurs embedded in the package.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
a) It's Robert Byrd. b) If you look at his voting record from 1968 onwards, you'll see that he was hardly voting the Klan agenda: He voted in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In 2003-2004 he had a 100% "pro" voting record from the NAACP, and in 2005 proposed additional funding for the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial.