Recently they announced that they will “erase Wall St. from the Internet” on October 10th in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It isn’t clear what they actually intend to do. Attacking the web pages of NYSE will barely register to most traders that day so that doesn’t seem chaotic or destructive enough for the Anonymous collective. Since they promise that this will be a day that will “never, ever be forgotten,” some fear they have found a way to actually interfere with trading and could thus force the markets in this country to close indefinitely, grinding our economy to a halt.Go read the whole thing at PJM.
But this speculation on their next attack has caused people to overlook another Anonymous threat issued just days before. In a video called “The Bankers are the Problem,” Anonymous spends a little over eight minutes making the case for violence against bankers and the mass murder of Wall Street workers:
In the video you’ll notice that the speaker disparages the idea of freedom, which should surprise some of Anonymous’ more rabid fans. But what I found most chilling were the frequent allusions to homicidal mob violence being divinely inspired.
What divinity inspires mobs to lynch unarmed people?
Anonymous claims to be fighting for some sort of larger cause. But what is it? Advocating murder will solve what problem? And what will happen if Anonymous follows through on its threat and does give us a day we’ll “never, ever forget” on October 10th? If Anonymous gets rid of those pesky bankers and financial services, what will happen to the thousands of trucks that bring food and water into New York City? What will the allies of Anonymous do if the group manages to collapse our economy? Forage for food in lower Manhattan?
Anonymous helped organize the Wall Street Occupation movement, encouraged hundreds of people who can barely care for themselves now to congregate in New York, and now wants to create a catastrophe there that members hope will cause untold chaos. This is not so much a protest as a plot to murder those people. The aftermath of a successful takedown of the markets by Anonymous will not look like the glorious revolution these protesters are imagining; it will be akin to a zombie apocalypse as panicked city dwellers find the intricate web of services that keep them alive disappearing with the malicious keystrokes of people watching and laughing from hundreds of miles away.