No way.

[Calzaeth]

Anonymous = anonymous. There is no set rules, groups, objectives, or beliefs. The only thing they share is the belief of anonymity.

When people say "we are anon and we're gonna do blah blah blah", they're literally just trolling everyone that reads it because they don't grasp the concept. That's the only reason they present themselves as a group, because they get a kick out of people not understand what the word means.

The word anonymous merely means (correct me if wrong)"Nobody knows who the true identity", which doesn't exclude the possibility of a group of people using the word as a banner to gather under. If they wanted to troll people not knowing what a word means, wouldn't it be a better idea to just go with 'divided', 'singular' or something similar? These people aren't exactly making a good case for themselves if they want to appear intelligent and well-read...

[Deleted]

the funny thing is that the problems caused by successfully pulling something like this off, will affect normal people more than wealthy elites anyway.

things like reduced internet freedoms, deepening the recession etc etc

[Horrid Crow]

It's funny how they see themselves as great hero's and brutal warriors but in reality they are a bunch of ugly nerds sitting in their parents basement with some cola and chips...

[glo]

The word anonymous merely means (correct me if wrong)"Nobody knows who the true identity", which doesn't exclude the possibility of a group of people using the word as a banner to gather under. If they wanted to troll people not knowing what a word means, wouldn't it be a better idea to just go with 'divided', 'singular' or something similar? These people aren't exactly making a good case for themselves if they want to appear intelligent and well-read...

Being anonymous means you are unidentifiable. It's impossible to use the word for referring to a specific group of people.

The word anonymous is a descriptive adjective, not a noun. It's like saying "We are brown haired Americans, and we are taking down Facebook".

[Deleted]

Wankers. Can't someone arrest these clowns for crying out loud ?

[Smigglephor]

Eh. The group of people we collectively refer to as Anonymous was highly entertaining for a while, but now I'm just sick of it. You wanna change the world? Write a goddamn book. It still works.

By the way, glo, the main reason Anonymous is referred to as an actual group/entity -may- be because they do a good job of appearing like one. So either they need to share some info so that our term for them can be refined, or they should disconnect whomever does their publicity

The reason some people refer to Anonymous as a group has nothing to do with how they appear, it's simply a matter of ignorance. Anonymous is a hacktivist collective. That is to say they are a number of individuals with no real ties with any other members; no set roster, no group meetings, no universally shared beliefs, and no shared goals. The "PR" is done by AnonOps, which is essentially a microcosm of the totality of Anonymous itself and cannot speak for Anonymous as a whole. AnonOps does not speak for Anonymous, it simply speaks for itself as a collective of anonymous individuals. People that assume AnonOps is the "higher ups" that are able to "give out orders and declare attacks" is laughably ignorant and such beliefs are the reason that governments and organizations pretend to be able to take out Anonymous.

To address the first part, do you sincerely believe writing books would change anything? Not only do I think that we're far beyond that point with the corruption of the system, but I seriously question whether a book has made any significant change in the past 100 years. The Jungle may have worked in 1906, but I don't think minds can be captivated by clever pieces of fiction like they used to.

[KeirAdish]

Being anonymous means you are unidentifiable. It's impossible to use the word for referring to a specific group of people.

The word anonymous is a descriptive adjective, not a noun. It's like saying "We are brown haired Americans, and we are taking down Facebook".

or perhaps your reading too much into the name...
perhaps Anonymous is the groups name...

I've been a member of groups with names that made no sense or had to proper context, yet they were the names...

Its a perfectly logical assumption to assume that it is the groups name...


*Edit*
Oh and before anyone goes batsh!t crazy on me for this post citing anything anon has said on the subject...
I am your average citizen, I really don't care what anon does so long as it doesn't hurt my life style...
only thing I wanna know is if the core or whatever you would like to refer to those that do the actual attacks as is actually planning on shutting down facebook or if thats BS, only curious cause I wanna know if I should save my pictures to my harddrive...
and cause I'm getting rather sick of my friend saying 'november 5th facebook goes down' he got all excited cause he 'joined' anon... -.-

[Siri]

Wankers. Can't someone arrest these clowns for crying out loud ?

Arresting someone for crying out loud would never stick in a court of law.

[Egolock]

oh come on ppl really? ripping off from v from vendetta ... i mean... seriously. this is just down right silly even in a guy fawkes mask... you guys dont even have the right to wear a mask symbolizing a man of that calibur.. ur no different then a terrorist ... except u are commiting crimes against ur own country!... make threats against the nyse... are u for real god i cant wait to see this guy/organization get arrested!

[Smigglephor]

oh come on ppl really? ripping off from v from vendetta ... i mean... seriously. this is just down right silly even in a guy fawkes mask... you guys dont even have the right to wear a mask symbolizing a man of that calibur.. ur no different then a terrorist ... except u are commiting crimes against ur own country!... make threats against the nyse... are u for real god i cant wait to see this guy/organization get arrested!

Guy Fawkes attempted and failed high treason against his home country. Either stop talking about his "high calibur" or rescind the flagrant hypocrisies in the very next sentence. Your derp is showing and it's not attractive.

[glo]

oh come on ppl really? ripping off from v from vendetta ... i mean... seriously. this is just down right silly even in a guy fawkes mask... you guys dont even have the right to wear a mask symbolizing a man of that calibur.. ur no different then a terrorist ... except u are commiting crimes against ur own country!... make threats against the nyse... are u for real god i cant wait to see this guy/organization get arrested!

People embracing Anonymous were around waaaaay before V for Vendetta came out.

[Smigglephor]

or perhaps your reading too much into the name...
perhaps Anonymous is the groups name...

I've been a member of groups with names that made no sense or had to proper context, yet they were the names...

Its a perfectly logical assumption to assume that it is the groups name...

Anonymous is the name, no one's arguing that. The fallacy is in calling Anonymous a group. It's an intangible collective with ever-flowing members, goals, and beliefs. It's only unshifting property is anonymity.

[Baz]

I see them taking down the NYSE for an hour at best. The way they write freaks me out though even though I know the chances of them crashing something major like facebook or the stock exchange is pretty much less than zero.

[vizzle]

Being anonymous means you are unidentifiable. It's impossible to use the word for referring to a specific group of people.

The word anonymous is a descriptive adjective, not a noun. It's like saying "We are brown haired Americans, and we are taking down Facebook".

No, anything can be a noun if you choose to make it one.

[Egolock]

i understand that ... but i mean come on...this is a tad bit on the silly side is it not?

[glo]

No, anything can be a noun if you choose to make it one.

Right.

In the context they use it in however, they're not using it as a noun. "We are anonymous" =/= "We are the group known as Anonymous".

[KeirAdish]

Anonymous is the name, no one's arguing that. The fallacy is in calling Anonymous a group. It's an intangible collective with ever-flowing members, goals, and beliefs. It's only unshifting property is anonymity.

then could it not be argued that if its the name that the system is there just not how people think it is...
people assume that once they say 'I'm part of anon' that they are then part of a collective group...
But could we assume safely that it works like this...
there is the core group of anon, the ones that do the main attacks and such, and most of the "members" are just fans, they make up their own group essentially, and are not actually part of anon but work as a smokescreen for the real group that lurks behind them...

[Einzweidrei]

I'm starting to think that Anon might be biting over more than they can chew. That'd cause some serious heads to roll, should they actually pull it off.
It'll be interesting....

Welcome to Guantanamo Bay, Anonymous members!

[Chirri]

Heaven forbid they target individuals who're out of line, no, let's just mess with the entire freaking world. It's not like economies are linked or anything.

And that's assuming they have the ability and nerve to carry through with it, whichever little sect within Anon's made the announcement. A lot of the "calling card" warnings I've heard about from Anon have never struck me as good ideas, just threats that haven't considered the consequences of either their threats, nor what would most likely happen if carried through.

[vizzle]

Right.

In the context they use it in however, they're not using it as a noun. "We are anonymous" =/= "We are the group known as Anonymous".

Here's the transcript of the latest Occupy Wall Street video from Anonymous:
Greetings, institutions of the media.
We are Anonymous.
The events transpiring within Wall Street have caught our eye.
It seems that the government and federal agencies enjoy enforcing the law a little bit too much. They instate unjust laws as mindless automatons, blindly following orders with soulless precision.
We witness the government enforcing the laws that punish the 99 percent while allowing the 1 percent to escape justice, unharmed, for their crimes against the people.
We have observed this same government failing to enforce even the minimal legal restraints of Wall Street's abuses. This government who has willingly ignored the greed at Wall Street has even bailed out the perpetrators that have caused our crisis.
We will not stand by and watch the system take over our way of life.
We the people shall stand against the government's inaction.
We the people will not be witnesses to your corruption and ill-gotten profits.
We will not labor for your leisure.
We will not assist you in any way.
This is why we choose to declare our war against the New York Stock Exchange. We can no longer stay silent as the population is being exploited and forced to make sacrifices in the name of profit.
We will show the world that we are true to our word. On Oct. 10, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet. On Oct. 10, expect a day that will never, ever be forgotten.
Vox Populi, Vox Anon.
The Voice of The People is The Voice of Anonymous.
We are Legion. We are the 99 percent.
We do not forgive. We do not forget.
Wall Street: Expect us.

Refer to the bolded words. They are referring to themselves as a group (and yes, I realize that they aren't a group per se, but they are still a collective number of individuals that believe the same thing) that is called Anonymous, as they are capitalizing the word and making it like a name.

The name of their ideology is Anonymous, and the people who participate in it are anonymous.