THINK
– what happened to Anonymous?
The answer to this should be obvious.
Anonymous had what 4chan now lacks
The power to wage vigilante hacks,
And publicize corruption where it rots,
And force truth into sleepy public thoughts.
Has Anonymous now disappeared?
Once legendary, now no longer feared?
Once sparking protests– is that fuel now spent?
The lulz are gone, gone the seething dissent?
What do you think this disappearance means?
Is speech still free in internet machines?
Well, look at what the chans have now become;
Examine what swirls in the daily scrum.
Ask yourself– does it seem really real?
Does it show what actual people feel?
Does it seem organic and not fake?
How much repetition does it take–
How much frenzied vile monotony–
Until we guess that internets ain't free?
Ask yourself– if you sought to control
The media, and hence the public soul,
And something like 4chan was swelling up
And spilling truth from propaganda's cup
Would you let it go its merry way?
Or would you lock control down in some way?
And if you locked control down would you try
To do it in a way to fool the eye?
To make it seem like free speech carried on
Even though, in fact, it were quite gone?
For if you shut down free speech openly
The public would respond suspiciously;
But if you hid control beneath a ruse
What you once feared becomes a tool to use.
So that, controlling, you have it both ways–
Enslaving dissent, dictating what it says!
Anonymous was infiltrated by
The famously mendacious FBI
Whose antics as shown by COINTELPRO
Target dissent, as I'm sure most people know.
Do we think that having sunk its claws
Into Anonymous, with lies and laws,
That the FBI would then allow
Free speech to have stayed quite free till now?
But it's not like we have far to look
To see by what means free speech got the hook;
The image made by chans' mirrors and smoke
Is so stupid it seems to be a joke!
How laughable must a deception be
Before the world opens its eyes to see?
The simple fact– as stark as winter dawn–
Is that Anonymous, busted, now gone
Was replaced by swarms of– wait for it–
Virulent nazis spewing nazi shit!
We would have to laugh if we were told
This outcome in the 4chan days of old.
So formulaic, politically cliched–
And yet this very game is being played!
How can a joke as stupid as this one
Be used to strangle free speech, and to stun
The helpless mainstream public with the fear
That an internet fourth reich draws near?
But if that preposterousness is not
Enough to spark the understanding thought,
Consider, even stupider to tell,
The arch absurdity of the “incel”!
No, it's not enough that nazis rose
To cloak and choke the chans in nazi throes–
No, these scary nazis all the same
Must wallow in their helplessness and shame!
The “incel” is not just a defeated man–
But a powerful extremist with a plan!
No matter that these two things contradict–
We'll just keep hammering at them till they stick!