Partial Transcript: Episode 29 (Hate Speech & Westboro Baptist Church)

Nick: The Westboro church is a bunch of assholes.

Andrew: They suck.

Nick: I kind of wanted to bring these guys up because Anonymous is now targeting them.  It’s crazy given that they’re such a negative group of people who are following the law.  They’re protesting the funerals, but they follow all of the rules related to the protests.  Now they’re actually very far away from the funeral.  They follow every rule that is thrown in front of them.

Andrew: Part of the problem is that we’re giving them air time.  I feel bad that we’re doing this.  We should stop mentioning them.  They don’t matter.

Nick: That’s a great way to stop them.  We’re not going to show the daughter of gramps who runs it.  You can’t shout horrible things at people.  But I’m also not going to stomp on freedom of speech.  It’s a bunch of lawyers in the group.  They’re trying to tow the line and still be hateful.  But, Anonymous has now hacked their web page.

Andrew: That’s pretty hilarious.  If we had a soundboard, I’d be doing applause right now.

Nick: They also stepped over the line, though.

Virginia: Has Anonymous ever done anything to anyone that you felt didn’t deserve it?

Andrew: Yes.  But, Anonymous isn’t an organized front.  Anyone can use their banner when doing things.  You can’t say that they’re good or evil.  They just are.

Nick: They’ll post every detail required to steal everyone’s identity.  That’s not a good thing.

Mike: They did that to all the Westboro members.

Nick: They do that to a lot of people.

Mike: They call that “Doxing.”

Nick: It’s also a show of the information that’s out there that’s easy.  It’s a valuable thing to point out, but they also do it maliciously.

Virginia: To people that are generally hateful?  How many times has Anonymous taken information for people that are nice and kind?

Andrew: They once raided an epileptic’s forum and posted gif animations that flashed quickly.

Virginia: That’s not very nice at all.

Nick: They’re not angels.

Virginia: I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone that it high profile in a hateful organization.

Andrew: If you want to get down into the nitty gritty, Anonymous does stuff for the LOL’s.  It’s interesting and hilarious to them.

Nick: There’s also children in this group.  We’re talking 4-year-olds.  They published their Social Security numbers.  Attack the adults.  You can kind of turn a blind eye.  It’s freedom of speech, but leave the kids out.  I watched the guy who got imbedded in the group.  During a street protest, one of the kids got bounded by a full-sized drink.  It was a kid who was about 11.  You can’t turn a blind eye to that.  They made a physical act.

Mike: That’s parents not putting the kid where the kid is supposed to be.

Andrew: The proper response is not to throw a drink.  It’s to ignore them for the crazy people they are.

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