Who is Anonymous?

If you could distill awesome and pour it in a can, you would have Chuck Norris.

If you put it in a group protesting the Church of Scientology, you would have Anonymous.

What, you want actual information?  Fine: Anonymous has been amorphously meandering through the Internet for years.  Neither good nor evil, Anonymous has exposed child molesters, unearthed evidence on racist leaders, and wandered around online games dressed in a suit and afro, blocking access to swimming pools.  Originally angering Anonymous by censoring the video showing Tom Cruise laughing like an idiot (“Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident… you know you are the only one who can really help.”), Scientology’s response to Anonymous and the initial attempts to attack the church’s main website only brought about a stronger response, and caused Anonymous’s activities to spill beyond the Internet.

On February 10, 2008, on what would have been Lisa McPherson’s 49th birthday, thousands of members of Anonymous descended on over a hundred Scientology facilities worldwide.  Organized on message boards, chat sites, and nameless email exchanges across the Internet, the “hivemind” chose to turn out in force.  Since then, over 9,000 “Anons” have protested at the global monthly demonstrations.  Various protests have focused on raising awareness of the Disconnection policy (“Operation Reconnect”), the Fair Game policy (“Operation Fair Games”), the Sea Organization (“Sea Arrrrrgh”), and the tax exempt status of Scientology.

Due to the actions of Anonymous, insiders* report that both revenue and membership have halved at nearly every site, and are in some cases down by 90%.

So who is Anonymous?  Anonymous is a global leaderless collective of individuals who have a monthly party in front of the Church of Scientology, and are slowly driving it into the ground.  Anonymous is young.  Anonymous is old.  It is rich.  And poor.  Nerds, and cheerleaders.  Feel free to join in – just don’t tell anyone your name.

We are Anonymous, we are Legion.  We do not forgive, nor do we forget.

Expect us.

*(Note to CoS: PTS-As who would blow if you didn’t force disconnects from SPs are so out-ethics that they’re overtly leaking stats to wogs.)