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glenn beckGlenn Beck recently declared that 5,000 (no idea where that number is coming from) "hacktivists" (lol) are fomenting pinko revolution by hacking into the networks of those corporate entities who would disassociate themselves from Wikileaks.

He quotes Coldblood, that geeky kid who appeared on Canadian TV last week, as a spokesperson for Anonymous. But, as I've explained, the 22-year old is no more a spokesman for Anonymous than your teenage son. Anonymous has no spokesman, no leadership, no structure. I would be surprised if a few dozen of them know how to hack anything, let alone 5,000. This is no cabal of Tyler Durdens. It's not an underground arm of socialist interest groups.


Beck cites the group's interest in promoting "chaotic good," which is hilarious because it's an old Dungeons and Dragons reference that has become an internet meme over the last few years. In D&D, characters are defined by their alignment which can be depicted on an alignment chart like these. "Chaotic good" characters are simply those who seek to achieve good outside of the law, like Han Solo, most John Wayne characters, or perhaps Julian Assange. But Beck treats it as worship of anarchy and links it to riots in England.

In all likelihood, these so-called revolutionaries will achieve no more drastic political change than the idealist hippies of Beck's youth. What bothers me most about this lecture is that Beck seems intent on pitting the young against the old, a common tactic of the Right that really doesn't help to explain what's happening right now. A bunch of protestor kids who threw eggs at Prince Charles's car over tuition hikes has nothing to do with Anonymous or Wikileaks.

GTFO with your fear mongering. The kids are alright.