War on Scientology

[Master Kong]

Recently, in response to the Church of Scientology forcing a video withdrawn from YouTube, the entity known as Anon declared war on Scientology.

This here is the declaration of war released by Anon.

RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the "Church" of Scientology and the Internet and making provisions to prosecute the same.
Whereas the "Church" of Scientology has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Internet and Society as a whole; and

Whereas, such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the security and freedom of the Internet and it's users; and

Whereas, such acts render it both necessary and appropriate that Anonymous exercise its rights to self-defense and to seek out lulz: Therefore be it Resolved by Anonymous in /i/ and /b/ assembled,

That the state of war between the Anonymous and the "Church" of Scientology which has thus been thrust upon the Internet is hereby formally declared; and

That Anonymous is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire force of Anonymous and the resources of the Internet to prosecute war against the "Church" of Scientology; and

To bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of Anonymous are hereby pledged.

What are the opinions of the scholars on this event? Is it meaningless and trivial? Is it important? What will be the outcome?

<hr>
For those uninformed, the most comprehensive source of info, if biased, is the chanology entry on ED.

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/PROJECT_CHANOLOGY#Houston.2C_TX:_Sunday.2C_February_10

As I said, it is biased, but it does give an overview of events so far. There is some media coverage, but as usual with events such as this, they tend to be pretty uninformed.

http://gawker.com/347367/why-kids-on-the-internet-are-scientologys-most-powerful-enemy
http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/2008/01/hacking-makes-s.html
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/anonymous-attac.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/01/24/1311252

I have seen a NBC video reporting this, but I've been unable to find the link again.

[Kayzr]

My thoughts:

Internet trolls are pretty funny.

Whoever this Anon is, he/she/they have picked a choice morsel for trolling. Given that just about everyone hates Scientology, the LOLZ will be pretty worthwhile.

[Antiochus]

Someone just happens to have way too much free time...

[Shikanosuke]

Someone just happens to have way too much free time...

Agreed. Scientology has enough critics, so claiming an internet war upon an idea is ridiculous. oh well.

[Master Kong]

Someone just happens to have way too much free time...

Anon isn't really a someone, but the collective identity of the people who frequent such anonymous image boards like 4Chan and 7Chan.

Well, I do know that the war is strictly limited to the internet. On the 10th there will be...something, at Scientologist Churches worldwide. I myself will be joining in at the Houston Church of Scientology on that date, one, because I support the cause, two, curiousity.

In addition, they have brought down the main Scientologist site. So at the very least, they are causing the Church time and money (the latter of which they have plenty, and I doubt there has been a dent).

My personal opinion? Anon will get bored and move on. That's how the entity usually works. It may last longer this time, but it will get...bored. Will it have an effect? The church will get annoyed, it will suffer some negative PR, and maybe spend some money. Perhaps the Church's misdeeds will be brought to light to more people than all ready.

Note: I say something, because while its technically a protest/demonstration, that wholeconcept doesn't exactly...fit /b/tards.

[James' iPhone]

I've been following this too, and it has been pretty interesting. Not only have they caused a lot of trouble with the main site, they have been messing with affiliated sites. They have hacked site databases and computers and published pretty bad correspondence and private 'church' documents and proceedures. 'They', at this point, probably now includes hackers previously unaffiliated as the 'Church' of Scientology has pissed off more than a few people in a parent's basement.

I'm personally pleased to see the results. Awareness among the internets educated is spreading rapidly and this, naturally, spills into public knowledge databases such as Wikipedia. When this is said and done they might think twice about throwing their weight around at places such as YouTube.

Lolz indeed.

[Antiochus]

Maybe if we keep mentionning Anon will get bored with it, it will bruise "its" ego and it will keep going. The whole phenomena is pretty interesting the more I look at it.

[Shah Muhammad III]

Sry if offend someone but i find scientology a very good get rich quick plan, i mean a "religion" that says all of our history is alien memories and all advanced technology looks like stuff from the 1950's is kind of sketchy, although most religous stories and whatnot are also, but thats better then the westboro baptist church, which make these people seem sane

[Tigger of Kai]

When this is said and done they might think twice about throwing their weight around at places such as YouTube.

I'm doubtful...Scientology's motto is "always attack, never defend". They don't allow themselves to hear criticism. These threats will increase their collective paranoia.

[Antiochus]

I just wonder how it feel to be attacked by a collectivity of anonymous people. They cant really do an actual counter attack, so it will last until Anon gets bored...