Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
This morning we awaken to the news that the shadowy hacker group Anonymous has hacked a federal government sentencing site and perhaps stolen an enormous amount of confidential information. They did so to avenge the suicide of Reddit founder Aaron Swartz, who they claim was hounded by federal prosecutors contributing to his sense of loss and despair.
This comes in the same week that the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the President of the United States overstepped his constitutional bounds by making appointments to the NLRB when Congress was still in session without its advice and consent.
This is the same week that the Secretary of State expressed hostility to Congress about whether the false narrative put forth by the White House by a State Department official, the UN ambassador was important to discuss. In Secretary Clinton's words, "What difference does it make?" Perhaps only the difference between the life and death of four brave Americans and the difference between an honest administration or an administration that is knowingly lying to the American people and treating them as a necessary nuisance who are not entitled to know whether their leaders have engaged in criminal negligence and a cover up.
This is the same week that executive orders have been issued by the president that place limitations on the Second Amendment right to bear arms wholeheartedly supported by those on Left who think those Americans who want some measure of protection from an increasingly powerful federal government are reactionary fringe wackos. What was it that George Washington said?
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
For as much as many of us find the tactics of Anonymous and other hackers unlawful and a threat to our other rights — are they in fact the last line of defense from a government that could become more tyrannical and totalitarian?
What do the lovers of liberty say here on Ricochet?
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Comments:
Jul '11
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
I find it amusing, but they are not the last line of defense. They are more like an emotionally disturbed kid who is taking his anger out on your enemy for once instead of you.
Jun '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Granted that a statue of a hacker in his underwear sitting in front of computer terminal wouldn't exactly conjure up the same emotion or patriotic fervor that the Minute Man statue does...but the effective outcome from their efforts may be the same. :-)
Apr '11
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
The hackers broke the law and I'm sure there will be consequences. I'm not convinced that Reddit was innocent in the first place. But I felt a small sense of satisfaction. Perhaps I am misguided, but I thought to myself, if the government continues to abuse power and usurp the constitution, at least there are people out there that know how to fight back.
Mar '12
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Hackers can be the modern equivalent of the French resistance fighters.
But, at present I think they are mostly disgruntled youth.
Oct '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Disgruntled youth (DY) are generally among the first to join the front lines once there is actual fighting. Perhaps all hackers are not DYs. There might actually be some folks of patriotic stripe who have spent years exercising a prescient knowledge of what it will take to defeat a modern tyranny. Of course, they would also be smart enough to keep it to themselves.
Brian, you are correct in your intuition.
Apr '11
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
And like most emotionally disturbed kids, they're generally supporters of tyranny rather than its opponents. This is one of the more underrated elements of Liberal Fascism, and is widely demonstrated in many areas that Jonah did not touch.
These are the people who supported naming informers in Afghanistan and exposing innocent housewives to the worst horrors of the Taliban. They are amongst the most evil abusers in America, and any plausible threat to American liberty and/ or decency would find find allies in them.
May '12
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
I think the Brits said the same thing about the men who signed the Declaration.
May '12
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Agree with James here. It is romantic and fun to cheer them on, but this is not an organized group with a focused long term objective. They are more like a bunch of hand grenades that can go off in a government office just as easily as a pre-school.
There is no immediate threat or retaliation for their actions so they can be directed anywhere at anyone for any reason.
There may be another revolution coming and cyber warfare will certainly be a part of it, but I am not sure we want order restored by the hackers.
Mar '12
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Hackers are not the last hope of this country. Loosing anarchy is not a sign of hope. Whether they hack my bank info, a secure company site, or the government, they cannot generate justice.
Putting one's hope in hackers is misguided.
If one wants to work toward saving this country, one might act as Breitbart did, or support a Breitbart-type of activity, noting that such are now occurring on the web.
Getting the truth out publicly, without endangering one's self to jail time, would seem a much better methodology than hacking possibly erroneous information, placed there for just such an occasion as a hacker, in order to throw the hunt in the wrong direction.
Why would anyone put wrong information where a hacker could hack it and even make it public? Why indeed?
Apr '11
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Anonymous may hit a target now and then that provokes a chuckle and secret approval on the right but I don't think a bunch of hackers are the ones to dictate policy. It's mob (in)justice and I don't yet think we need the mob deciding what is and is not a crime or what should or shouldn't be secret. Sometimes things are secret for a good reasons not obvious to the outside.
Sad but true: a lot of government abuses wouldn't happen if the media did it's job.
Jun '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Donald Todd: Hackers are not the last hope of this country. Loosing anarchy is not a sign of hope. Whether they hack my bank info, a secure company site, or the government, they cannot generate justice.
Putting one's hope in hackers is misguided.
If one wants to work toward saving this country, one might act as Breitbart did, or support a Breitbart-type of activity, noting that such are now occurring on the web.
Getting the truth out publicly, without endangering one's self to jail time, would seem a much better methodology than hacking possibly erroneous information, placed there for just such an occasion as a hacker, in order to throw the hunt in the wrong direction.
Why would anyone put wrong information where a hacker could hack it and even make it public? Why indeed? · 30 minutes ago
Are all hackers engaging in unlawful activity? Do any work for Internet security firms?
Feb '12
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Hackers are the true warriors in our culture. Not only are they the coolest, but they are the smartest and most benevolent of people to have emerged from mortal man.
That's spelled P-A-U-L D-O-U-G-H-E-R-T-Y
Jun '11
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
All rallies begin with short covering.
Don't underestimate the rabble.
Go Anonymous.
Mar '11
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Please. These guys are the very types that would bring about a totalitarian state if they could. We've seen this all before. Mussolini was a socialist and a "freedom fighter". We saw how that ended. Fidel Castro only had the liberty of the Cuban people in his heart when he was figthing that bad ole' Batista. He had nooooo dictatorial ambitions at all, nope, un uh.
I'll promise you that if these guys had their "revolution", all manner of stuff would be banned, pronto-like. People's property would be appropriated... for the public good, of course... and they'd generally run things like goose-stepping thugs.
Mar '12
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Brian Watt: #11 Are all hackers engaging in unlawful activity? Do any work for Internet security firms?
If this is something that you know about, you might tell me. I am not pretending to be the end-all for this subject.
My own impression is that hackers bilk lots of money from innocent people, and as noted above "out" people who should not be outed.
When you do respond to this, I have a question: What companies or governments would Internet Security firms have the right to hack?
Oct '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
How about “open government” or “transparency”? Not the platitudes the politicians perpetually prattle about, but the real thing?
The taxpayers are funding the work product of Leviathan. So why shouldn't they be able to see what they're paying for? Every E-mail sent or received by a government employee, every telephone conversation made on a government telephone line, every document produced and distributed within a government agency should be made available to the taxpayers for their scrutiny. This might seem daunting in volume, but it's actually modest compared to the firehose Google swallows every day.
Of course, there would be exemptions for diplomatic and military communications, but those constitute a small fraction of the output of the beast.
The rule would be that if it's something that could be obtained by a FOIA request or in discovery in an open trial, it should go on the feed as soon as it's written.
They want to snoop on us? Let's see how they like it themselves.
Jun '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Donald Todd:Brian Watt: #11 Are all hackers engaging in unlawful activity? Do any work for Internet security firms?
If this is something that you know about, you might tell me. I am not pretending to be the end-all for this subject.
My own impression is that hackers bilk lots of money from innocent people, and as noted above "out" people who should not be outed.
When you do respond to this, I have a question: What companies or governments would Internet Security firms have the right to hack? · 0 minutes ago
I found this to be interesting.
Jun '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Brian Watt
Donald Todd:Brian Watt: #11 Are all hackers engaging in unlawful activity? Do any work for Internet security firms?
If this is something that you know about, you might tell me. I am not pretending to be the end-all for this subject.
My own impression is that hackers bilk lots of money from innocent people, and as noted above "out" people who should not be outed.
When you do respond to this, I have a question: What companies or governments would Internet Security firms have the right to hack? · 0 minutes ago
I found this to be interesting. · 0 minutes ago
And this.
Jun '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Brian Watt
Brian Watt
Donald Todd:Brian Watt: #11 Are all hackers engaging in unlawful activity? Do any work for Internet security firms?
If this is something that you know about, you might tell me. I am not pretending to be the end-all for this subject.
My own impression is that hackers bilk lots of money from innocent people, and as noted above "out" people who should not be outed.
When you do respond to this, I have a question: What companies or governments would Internet Security firms have the right to hack? · 0 minutes ago
I found this to be interesting. · 0 minutes ago
And this. · 0 minutes ago
And this.
Jun '10
Re: Are Hackers The Last Hope To Prevent A Totalitarian State?
Donald Todd:Brian Watt: #11 Are all hackers engaging in unlawful activity? Do any work for Internet security firms?
If this is something that you know about, you might tell me. I am not pretending to be the end-all for this subject.
My own impression is that hackers bilk lots of money from innocent people, and as noted above "out" people who should not be outed.
When you do respond to this, I have a question: What companies or governments would Internet Security firms have the right to hack? · 16 minutes ago
Internet security firms need to know about vulnerabilities in the Internet and what can penetrate networks and compromise information. There have been many hackers who have worked directly these firms to point out where those vulnerabilities are.
There also seems to a strong Libertarian streak with many in the hacking community...whether black hat or white hat hackers. I think a general statement that all hackers are Left-leaning anarchists would be a misconception.