# anyone think anonymous could uses their forces for good rather than evil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 7, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056 "2012-04-07T02:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elbravoiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@elbravoiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbravoiv)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/1 "2012-04-07T02:54:19Z")
I’m wondering why anonymous doesn’t try to endorse a 3rd party candidate and get them exposed. This could actually be the one chance to get things changed… yet they seem too busy trying to fight for civil liberties by hacking government websites, which is only going to make civil liberties whither quicker. thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/2 "2012-04-07T12:04:03Z")
Anonymous is not a cohesive entity, it’s pretty much anyone that happens to be browsing a certain website that cannot be named and has access to a few programs. Very little can be planned, perhaps outside of a few spin offs and IRCs… When a coherent plan does emerge, a significant number of posters are willing to oppose it vociferously (forced meme, not your personal army). /pol/ denizens tend to be infatuated with Ron Paul, especially after “sup” was filtered to that phrase a while back. Pretty much no chance of them endorsing anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/3 "2012-04-07T12:37:54Z")
Leading question much? Do you still beat your wife? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/4 "2012-04-07T12:54:37Z")
For Anonymous to actively endorse a candidate would require a degree of organization that would be antithetical to Anonymous’ existence as a crypto-anarchist front. By definition, Anonymous isn’t a single group that can set an agenda and goals to meet - it’s anyone who wants to call themselves part of it, doing whatever they feel like doing in its name, with the assistance of whoever feels like helping them. And as far as I can tell, most of them are just in it 4 teh lulz anyway - the only reason they’d try to bring a candidate into the limelight is to destroy them later on by revealing that they have sex with barnyard animals, or beat orphans, or feed thermite to babies. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/5 "2012-04-07T15:34:44Z")
Why Anonymous? There are lots of groups that could do this kind of thing - throw their support behind a group and give them a lot of exposure. Anonymous isn’t organized that way and it’s not partisan as far as I can tell. Are you saying they should hack the Democratic and Republican websites? Leak information that hurts the parties and is favorable to third-party candidates? How is this supposed to work? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/6 "2012-04-07T16:22:24Z")
pssst. [http://www.occupytheballot.org](http://www.occupytheballot.org) Not Anonymous, but the sort of thing you may be looking for. Oh, that guy gave up. Never mind. Well, you could do it your own self. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/7 "2012-04-08T01:15:53Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Leading question much? Do you still beat your wife? Exactly. But I have a feeling the OP won’t get why you are saying that. So I’ll be explicit: Why do you assume that Anonymous uses their forces for evil in the first place? Anonymous isn’t always good, but a lot of the stuff they do is. The good stuff gets them a lot more support and a lot more voluntary drones they can use to do things. Anonymous is at worse an amoral entity, neither good nor evil. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/8 "2012-04-08T01:23:58Z")
The way Anonymous “exposes” people doesn’t promote those people. Why do you imagine that Anonymous would be any better at promoting a political candidate than a political party and a good publicist would be? ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2012, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-think-anonymous-could-uses-their-forces-for-good-rather-than-evil/618056/9 "2012-05-16T09:05:39Z")
What couldn’t a bunch of thirteen-year olds with a penchant for teen pornography accpomplish if they organized? Nothing! They could totally get their own candidate! Snooki for president!