Yes, ThunderF00t and William Lane Craig have some serious disagreements on the topic of science. And both have been speaking up on this topic on YouTube.
ThunferF00t is a bona-fide scientist, with the credentials to prove it.
William Lane Craig is a theologian, self-described philosopher and calls himself ‘Dr.’.
They got into a bit of a spat – ThunderF00t used clips of Craig’s videos in his rebuttal videos: this is perfectly legal and ‘protected se’ under the DMCA rules. Despite this, someone has, on behalf of Dr. Craig, filed false DMCA claims against ThunderF00t and others. (We know they know their claims are false because they have filed these DMCA notifications many times on the same groungs – even after being repeatedly told that this use is not a violation of their copyright – yet they continue filing…)
The purpose of these types of actions is clear: to force the filer’s critics to spend so much time and energy fighting against these false claims that they will not have the time and energy to criticize him.
The reason we must pay attention to this is because it demonstrates how laws already passed with the good intent to protect copyright are already being abused to stifle speech – and these laws are nowhere near as intrusive as the ailed SOPA bill was…and we all know that those promoting these tools of censorship will not stop. They will simply try to pass these types of laws more stealthily, a tiny increment at a time.
They are, well, enigmatic… When a big company picks on little guys – and this appears on their radar – they kick but. Their aims are altruistic – perhaps idealistic – at least for now. And they are big-time fans of freedom of speech!
They are techies who are kicking some slick behinds – you have GOT to love that! (OK, I am indulging in a bit of tribalism here – even if the ‘tribe’ is diffuse and I don’t know them personally. I suspect that most of the people behind Anonymous are Aspies or have strong Aspie tendencies: they are, after all, techies. And I like to think that I am rather good at playing ‘spot the Aspie’. The rules they pick and the way they adhere to them: very Aspie-like…)
We are still full of the #occupy news….and Anonymous was there first. No, I don’t think that the majority of people who are there now are in any way connected to Anonymous, but, please, consider the following:
before anything happened, Anonymous announced the protests and said to look for them there, on Wall St.
when the occupation of Wall St. first started, there was an almost complete news blackout on it
Anonymous had hacked into some local CCTV cameras and streamed the signal – that was, at the very beginning, the ONLY coverage of the event
then, as time went on, the professional protesters and their media henchmen began to trickle in…and Anonymous disappeared from the picture…
now, the protests are creatures of the professional protesters and the big money behind them – including semi-official backing by the US President and his minions, with absolutely no role played by Anonymous (that I can discern)
It is not a coincidence that the vast majority of the people protesting in the #occupy movement have no idea what they want to accomplish with this protest: it is not a ‘regular’ protest of the sort where people want to accomplish a specific goal, analyze the approaches to achieving this goal and then choose protesting as their tool. Rather, I suspect, this may have been a bit of an experiment…
…an experiment to see IF Anonymous can harness the power of the professional protest organizers when they need to – and to get an idea of how it would play out.
…an experiment to see how ‘neurotypicals’ (non-techies/non-Aspies) would react and behave, to gage their intelligence, initiative and individuality – or lack thereof in this type of a situation. How soon and how deeply would ‘mob mentallity’ set in?
…an experiment to see whether ‘if we build it, they will come’ would work with protests.
Recently, when an Islamist group doc-dropped/outed Thunderf00t and his family members and threatened them by urging ‘all Muslims to do their duty’ because he dares to criticize Islam (he criticizes all irrational belief systems – systematically and effectively), Thunderf00t dropped the name of Anonymous as his protectors….and potential avengers!
Which got me thinking: this is not the first time Thunderf00t has talked about Anonymous in his videos. So, I went back and looked through his earliest material. Here it is:
Interesting, is it not?
But there is more here, here, here, here (note the Guy Fawkes mask in the background) and here.
Not just in what Thunderf00t says – and how he says it, but also in how fascinated Anonymous is by Scientology. Remember how, a few years back, they tried to build some sort of a movement against that cult? I wonder if this is an indication of their fascination in how brainwashed neurotypical behave in groups … or the source of this fascination.
Don’t get me wrong – I do not think Anonymous has bad intentions. I rather suspect that they are attempting to figure out how to help neurotypicals help themselves from self-imposed servitude (if this was not a full fledged attempt of its own to get them to help themselves).
But experiments/projects can go wrong – and more people than just Anonymous are keenly watching this and taking notes.
Yes, there are some people who abuse anonymity on the internet.
Then there are others who eschew it – they believe that attaching their real-life name to an online communication will add weight and respect to it. This is, to some degree, true: if their real-life name has some earned public credibility, attaching it to their online persona will add credibility to the online persona.
BUT!!!
Name is just a label.
If a person has built up his or her credibility using an online persona – truly built up credibility – by time and time again providing solid, verifiable, quality information, then their real-life name is really quite irrelevant.
To the contrary: it is a very useful shield!
Journalists who publish in traditional media have an organization that stands behind them and offers them at least a modicum of protection should they become threatened by those who wish to silence them.
Online communicators do not have this luxury!!!
But ‘online’ is not the beginning of ‘anonymous protest speech’!
No, nowhere near… Even the most basic bit of research into the history of anonymous protest speech demonstrates brings us to Colonial North America. Printing presses were used to print anonymous pamphlets which were distributed and which informed the public of facts that the government did not want known and which fostered the atmosphere necessary for the fight for independence.
In fact, most of the works by America’s Founding Fathers were originally published as anonymous pamphlets!
So, let’s not go down the role of silly posturing: anonymity is essential for free speech!
(Sorry if I am not particularly coherent in this post – I am so angry as I write this, I can hardly keep myself calm enough to type!)
To hear that Thunderf00t’s real-life name has been ‘outed’ by an Islamist group (which claims to be made up of ‘moderate Muslims’), that his job has been threatened, that his address has been published – and now, that his family members are being threatened with physical violence…THAT IS AN OUTRAGE!!!!
I guess all we can do is spread the word…
…and hope for the best. Because I am at a loss for what else to do to help him.
P.S.: It took me a second viewing to pick up pn it, but it does seem that the online Islamists just may have attracted the attention of ‘Anonymous’. THAT would be interesting, to say the least!
