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Originally Posted by Elerion

I think the confusion stems from thinking Anonymous are a "group" as the word usually implies.

They are as much a group as people reading Wall Street Journal are a "group".

I definitely have to help emphasize that 4chan (and anonymous) isn't a group. if anything it's a mob. Not a mafia mob, but an unruly mob, a belligerent group of folks looking for pure entertainment that will use its anonymity to goad the most crazy visitors to do whatever. Some of the visitors are super hacker awesome guys, and some are kids posting from their parents computers who just think it's funny to lol at random pictures and call people faggots.

But it's mob rule. some times you can show up and say "hay guys, i hate this guy" and the mob will decline to be interested, saying they aren't your personal army, or they'll trace the information of the poster and ridicule him instead. Some times when it's in the mood, the mob will join in a crusade just for shits and giggles (like they did for Scientology).

Like Arbuste said though, most of the time they're content to post muddy dicks, or pictures of underage girls puking in each other's mouth, or whatever else they can do to raise the bar of what's shocking....but you can bet when some one does something like post Palin's email information, they're doing it to see what lols can be produced, and a lot of people there hang around for specifically this sort of situation. For the epic lols.