[pp.int.general] PPi ask Anonymous to stop Payback

[Richard Stallman]

    I disagree here. You don't 'punish' unlawful/immoral actions by other 
    unlawful/immoral actions.

I think we are not talking about the same issue.  You seem to be
talking about whether Operation Payback is right or wrong.  I am
saying that question is a distraction from the real issue, and we
should not be distracted.

If our adversaries are citing the actions of Operation Payback to
paint themselves as victims and win support for their oppressive
plans, that is a fallacious argument.  How should we refute it?

It is a common practice for those with power to deflect attention from
their big wrongs by focusing condemnation on the smaller wrongs of
people opposed to them.  The "moderate" opposition, fearing being
associated with this criticism, often bends over backwards to condemn
those smaller wrongs.  By doing so, it supports the distraction
campaign.

Whatever we say about Operation Payback's DDOS attacks, we should not
make them the focus our attention.  Instead, we should put that issue
in perspective by showing that the publishers are doing far nastier
things.  Society should put a stop to them.  Then it can look at
smaller issues such as DDOS attacks (if they continue).

-- 
Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org