Re:FBI put Anonymous 'hacktivist' Jeremy Hammond on terroris...
by tptacek on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @08:25AM
(#8996639)
I don't think it's terrorism either. Just because we don't agree about everything doesn't mean we disagree about everything. I responded to a comment upthread that suggested Hammond was nonviolent. Hammond is not nonviolent.
On this particular subthread, I'm pointing out that Hammond's inclusion in a watchlist doesn't necessarily mean that Anonymous is a terrorist group (obviously, I don't think it is). He had other affiliations that freaked the USG out. As I've said elsewhere on the thread, this being 2015 and not 1970, I don't think the USG has a reasonable fear that "anarchist extremists" are terrorist groups.
And you think that was by design. A guy said "Hey, I think I'll go ruin their books and their dinner, and then I'll maim one of them half to death pour encourager les autres? No, someone fell on broken dinnerware and received a cut(s).
>We don't consider the substance of their positions when we rightfully send them to prison for doing that.
We do, according to you. That's exactly what we're doing when we maintain terrorist watch lists of people who have committed no crimes, or when the crimes are as minor as this dinner crashing, or the Olympic flag burning. In the dinner crashing, tellingly, Hammond was found guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced to four days in jail.
>The antidote to bad speech is more speech, not violence.
I'm not making a unqualified defense of Hammond's behavior. I'm saying that it isn't terrorism.