Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Internet Privacy

Anonymous Begins Publishing Ku Klux Klan Member Details Online 546

An anonymous reader writes: Anonymous has begun releasing the personal details of members of the Ku Klux Klan, escalating its cyberwar against the white supremacist group. Last week the hacktivist group promised to reveal the identity of 1,000 members of the KKK after getting possession of the private information through a compromised Twitter account. A press release from Anonymous reads in part: "After closely observing so many of you for so very long, we feel confident that applying transparency to your organizational cells is the right, just, appropriate and only course of action. You are abhorrent. Criminal. You are more than extremists. You are more than a hate group. You operate much more like terrorists and you should be recognized as such. You are terrorists that hide your identities beneath sheets and infiltrate society on every level. The privacy of the Ku Klux Klan no longer exists in cyberspace. You’ve had blood on your hands for nearly 200 years. You continue to inflict civil rights violations, commit violent crimes and solicit others to commit violent criminal acts. You seek to intimidate and/or eliminate those that are different from you and those that you dislike by any means possible. You seek to terrorize anyone and anything that you feel is a threat to your narrow view of the 'American way of life'."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Anonymous Begins Publishing Ku Klux Klan Member Details Online

Comments Filter:
  • Rednecks Anonymous (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:07PM (#50849911)
    The names of a thousand hateful red necks. Sounds like the best reading list for the winter. The real fun will be to see who gets wrongly targeted. I hope no one has the same name as me or signed me up. Vigilantes for the win!
    • by Austerity Empowers ( 669817 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:15PM (#50850003)

      The real fun will be to see how many of these people are active politicians.

    • by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @05:19PM (#50850711) Journal

      The names of a thousand hateful red necks.

      "Redneck" is a racial slur. It insinuates that the target is, not just from a rural culture (especially - a poor white southern farmer), and not just sunburned on the back of his neck due to working outdoors with a short haircut, but also that he may be part American Indian. (It originates in a time where this was considered to be extremely "poor breeding", and many so-called "sundown towns" had laws requiring people with any American Indian genetics to be out of town by undown.

      It currently has an implication that the pepole it is applied to are unintelligent and uneducated. (The space program proves the lie of this: Note the accents of the people involved. A substantial fraction of real rocket scientists are, and were, rednecks.) This slur dates at least to the Scopes Monkey Trial (which was largely a propaganda piece fomented by the mining interests to brand the miners, who were trying to unionize at the time, as igorant idiots in the urban east coast's public perception.)

      Rule of thumb: If you don't self-identify as a redneck, and wouldn't use the "N" word, don't use the "R" word.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        and not just sunburned on the back of his neck due to working outdoors with a short haircut,

        That makes no sense, rednecks have mullets.

      • by amicusNYCL ( 1538833 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @06:01PM (#50851085)

        Did you just make all of that up? I can't find a single source that connects "redneck" with Native Americans, every definition I've seen ties it specifically to white people. Many today claim it as a badge of pride. And the Scopes Monkey Trial? That had nothing to do with unionizing miners, and everything to do with a publicity stunt to draw attention to the town of Dayton, TN. Mr. Scopes was even unsure whether he had ever taught evolution but incriminated himself anyway so that the trial could have a defendant. The miners that you're referring to were trying to unionize 5 years before Scopes and they wore red bandanas around their necks and self-identified as "rednecks" to help themselves organize and have solidarity. That label was not given to them by outside interests, they chose it.

        • by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @06:19PM (#50851239) Journal

          Did you just make all of that up? I can't find a single source that connects "redneck" with Native Americans, every definition I've seen ties it specifically to white people.

          I got it from my wife - trained as a historian, a member of Phi Alpha Theta (the historical honor society), redneck, and raised as a part American Indian.

          I'm not where I can consult her for references right now. If I think of it before this is off the front page I'll see if she can come up with some.

          Yes, the term is used on rural whites. As I said above, the bit about insinuating American Indian admixture is one of the several allegedly derogatory slurs embedded in the package.

      • by russotto ( 537200 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @08:00PM (#50851853) Journal

        The space program proves the lie of this: Note the accents of the people involved.

        German?

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @08:37PM (#50852041) Homepage

        I don't think you have any idea what it is like to work in the sun, your neck stays pretty much untanned as getting the sun on it really heats you up, pretty much the reason why you should wear a wide brimmed hat. The red neck comes from when certain people with very pale necks lose their temper and they become flushed and as a result of having those pale necks they turn bright red. It is not red neck via race but via behaviour. Please do not include the majority of pink skins in your red neck assertions because by far the majority of pink skins are not red necks, this not because of some new assertion of further variegations of pink skin race to define more shades of pink but based upon intellect and behaviour. Red neck is a behavioural classification. Me and my lilly white butt take offence at your associating of red necks with all people of European ancestry, nope you get your red neck tag based upon the way you behave and choose to express yourself, nothing to be proud of either. They are found pretty much all over the globe, unfortunately. Bogans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] is another name for them, perhaps American red necks might prefer it, it definitely has a more descriptive ring to it.

      • "he [a redneck] may be part American Indian"

        Can you give a citation, or is this just a pigment of your imagination?

        • That seems unlikely considering that around the world the term is used by people of Dutch and German ancestry to refer to people of British ancestry and has been that way since the early colonial days.

          Here at the South End of Africa "rooineck" is still a common slang term for "Englishman".

    • Well they did try to prove each members' membership to the clan by gathering DNA evidence, but they found it was all the same.

  • Ob (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:07PM (#50849913) Homepage Journal

    The crux of the matter comes down to this: is it a burning issue?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:08PM (#50849927)

    Looking at the Pastebin data, seems almost all the E-mail addresses in the pre-release come from a Russian site. It would be interesting to have some confirmation before people listed in the data get the dogs of war sicced on them.

    • You mean an anonymous hacker site if not the gold standard of reliability to be used in developing a list of people to persecute?

  • Irony (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:09PM (#50849931)

    One anonymous criminal organization exposing another. For transparency no less!

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:10PM (#50849935)

    There are no journalistic controls in place. They can put whoever they want on that list.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:14PM (#50849979)

    Oh wait... we hates the KKK so it's just "publishing" informaiton.

    Information we don't even have decent proof as to the nature of the source.

    Like Dan Rather's proof that Bush got preferential treatment - Until the documents were proved as forgeries - That's ok, he said, the documents are fake but what they said is true!

    So which is it? Do Slashdot's editors now agree that doxxing is good?

  • a real false flag (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The data in this one makes no sense.

    This isn't Anon, this is someone else trying to discredit Anonymous before the real data comes out.

  • Oh wait, they are not doing anything to expose actual terrorists, because that might actually be dangerous?

    I don't think much of the KKK but to call them "terrorists" seems a pretty big stretch at this point because they've not really done anything, or been relevant for some time. They probably talk a lot of shit on private mailing lists, but as we all SHOULD know that doesn't mean much.

    • Not dangerous? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Elfich47 ( 703900 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:24PM (#50850103)
      Cases of arson, lynching, beatings, killings, cross burnings and voter suppression in an organized manner against a specific segment of the population? These activities have been ongoing for over a hundred years in a systematic manner? The frequency is down but it still occurs or is overlooked. I would call that terrorism at the very least.
      • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:34PM (#50850227)

        Cases of arson, lynching, beatings, killings, cross burnings and voter suppression in an organized manner against a specific segment of the population?....The frequency is down but it still occurs or is overlooked.

        But when was the last time any of that happened? I have not seen stories about anything like that for many years - the most recent stuff being black churches set fire to, which it turned out was not don't by the KKK at all (who would seem to have been a primary suspect).

        I'm not saying the KKK has not been a horrible organization in the past, or even that they are in any way an organization that should be supported today. I'm saying that they have become essentially irrelevant, and the resources used to combat the "terrorists" of the KKK would be far better spent on real terrorists - but they aren't because the real terrorists can bite. Attacking the KKK like this is lame because it's pretending to help people while actually helping no-one.

        The KKK is dying, why even give them the publicity these attacks grant? It can only help the KKK at this point.

      • is it 1910 again? because it hasnt been that way in forever
        • We're had cross burnings as recent as 2006 with intimidation and violations of the fair housing act. That recent enough for you?
          • we also had black churches burned down.... but oh wait, it was done by a black man trying to set up the "white man"
    • by thaylin ( 555395 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:28PM (#50850149)

      What is a terrorist?

      a person who uses terrorism in the pursuit of political aims.

      the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

      So are you saying that the KKK does not use violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims?

      • by harrkev ( 623093 )

        So are you saying that the KKK does not use violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims?

        No, not as far as I know. Well, not lately.

        I find the notion of the KKK abhorrent, an I despise anybody that would join such an organization. However, if they have not broken a law, there is honestly not much that you can or should do to these people, from a legal perspective. Feel free to shun them, and call them names. But having an ideology (no matter how stupid it is) and joining a group is not, by

      • They do, but they're not remotely the threat that they used to be. The various non-KKK white power groups are more of a problem.

        I despise the KKK and what they stand for, but as long as they're not using violence or threat of violence, they have the right to undertake their actions anonymously. The ACLU has sided with them several times on free speech and anonymity points. Publishing this list is a form of presumed guilt, and as others have mentioned, there's little way to prove that it's accurate.

    • by bmo ( 77928 )

      I don't think much of the KKK but to call them "terrorists" seems a pretty big stretch

      The KKK has done some pretty bad things over the past decades. On equal with what ISIS and other terrorists have done.

      Indeed the definition of terrorism is "the use of violence is the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes."

      http://withoutsanctuary.org/ [withoutsanctuary.org]

      Tell me that was not violence for political purposes. Try me.

      Just because the lynchings aren't widespread anymore doesn't m

    • The KKK is by definition a terrorist organization. The intentional try to instill fear in people for their own personal agenda.

      Which ... Ironically ... Is EXACTLY WHAT ANONYMOUS DOES. They just don't have the balls to do anything other than hide in moms basement and run scripts someone else wrote while they hide. The Internet is the silly named groups white hoods, they are just too stupid to realize how idiotic they make themselves look

    • Oh wait, they are not doing anything to expose actual terrorists...

      Oh really? [thehackernews.com] The only people that seems to have scared them off are the drug cartels.

  • by Koreantoast ( 527520 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:18PM (#50850027)
    The short post of four US Senators and five US mayors includes one openly gay mayor and a older Latina woman who started her political career organizing Mexican laborers with Cesar Chavez. That alone casts a bit of doubt on the accuracy of this list.

    An alternative theory - a lot of these individuals may have signed up for these mailing lists simply to monitor these groups, and some of them may have just been signed up by other people as a prank. Just pulling information from a mailing list hardly represents membership.
    • Perhaps that was intentionally done by Anonymous who are simply trolling and seeing if they can get a reactionary internet crowd to send these people all kinds of hate mail because they never verified the accuracy of the list.

      It sounds like the kind of thing they would do "for the lulz" based on previous exploits.
  • I'm with the dicks.

  • by Shoten ( 260439 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:20PM (#50850047)

    So, a lot of people have been asking about this...asking why so many of the addresses end in ".ru"

    Fundamentally...think about it. Russia is a haven for a lot of different things, including bulletproof hosting that is beyond the reach of the FBI and other Western LEOs, either via direct raids, wiretaps or by more procedural means (subpoenas, etc.). So it entirely makes sense that people who are, in the truest sense of the word, interested in the overthrow of the US Government as it exists today should use email accounts that are hosted in Russia, far from the reach of the organizations that are out to get them.

  • by NotDrWho ( 3543773 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:20PM (#50850051)

    The Klan as a mainstream group, even in the deep south, peaked in the 1920's. It had a brief minor resurgence in the 1960's during the civil rights movement, but for the most part it's a fringe-of-a-fringe-of-a-fringe movement and has been for most of its existence. Exposing them isn't even fighting racism, since their membership rolls today are made up of a tiny handful of disenfranchised rednecks who don't have any power to oppress or intimidate anyone. Hitting them today is like stabbing Julius Caesar several decades after his funeral. It's a pointless feel-good exercise that doesn't help anyone.

    • While I'm pretty much in agreement with you (though I wouldn't discount the idea that politicians were part of the rank-and-file, they'd just be more clever at hiding it), if I were in law enforcement, I'd be very careful about a resurgence of the KKK if race is going to be a hot topic during the next year and for election season.

      Not that I advocate arresting people for thought crimes. I'm just saying that if there's going to be a resurgence of the Civil Rights Movement in the form of Black Lives Matter (w

      • by swb ( 14022 )

        I'm just saying that if there's going to be a resurgence of the Civil Rights Movement in the form of Black Lives Matter (we'll see if that hasn't calmed down within the next year), there IS going to be a counter-movement as a reaction.

        I think that more or less, the general intensity of racism is less than it used to be. It's debatable what the reasons are, but because of this I think the kind of open, militant racism of the 1960s or earlier Klan or any other racist groups just won't fly, regardless of whe

    • Unless of course the 4 Republican Senators so far listed are indeed KKK members. If so the rednecks aren't quite as disenfranchised as one might hope.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    First they came for the pedophiles. I was not a pedophile, so I did nothing.

    Then they came for the Klansmen. I was not a Klan member, so I did nothing.

    Then they came for the Anonymous Cowards who post on Slashdot.

    There was nobody left but me and my buddy CowboyNeal and we were no match for The Legion.

    What, not you too CowboyNeal. Nooooooo!!!!!!!

  • by LichtSpektren ( 4201985 ) on Monday November 02, 2015 @04:24PM (#50850107)
    --Anonymous also inadvertently published the identities of all the developers of the KDE Desktop. Presumably this was an error.
  • You are abhorrent. Criminal. You are more than extremists. You are more than a hate group. You operate much more like terrorists and you should be recognized as such. You are terrorists that hide your identities beneath sheets and infiltrate society on every level

    Are they talking about themselves or the KKK ?

  • Oh great, now their hat sewing pattern is all over Interwebs. Thanks alot.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical." -- Jon Carroll

Working...