They're brash, articulate and unapologetic; and they have a message for America. Mudkips Acronym is co-founder of "the Patriotic Nigras," the group who attacked John Edwards' virtual headquarters in Second Life, and Wednesday he agreed to an email interview.
Talking about Second Life and the blogosphere, Mudkips explains how his group operates and their pranksterish motivations, and insists that... no, they're aren't Republicans.
LOU CABRON: Why did your attacking avatars wear "Bush '08" buttons?
MUDKIPS ACRONYM: Everything we do is for laughs, and we thought "Bush '08" would be interpreted as humor — as I'm sure you know, Bush obviously can't be re-elected in '08.
However, the resulting aftershock from the "blogosphere", particularly on the left, has been enormous, when they thought the raiders were Republicans. This was completely unexpected, and frankly hilarious. I'm a bit disillusioned with my own party after this event, actually, as someone who did read blogs like the Daily Kos and expected some honest and truthful journalism. However, it seems as if everyone played a giant game of telephone, taking the Republican assumption and adding on more and more anger and hostility as it went on.
While I felt Kerry was a bit wishy-washy, I voted for him in 2004. I'm sort of conservative on economics but very, very liberal on anything else. I'm all for Bush impeachment over the Iraq war and all that jazz. I'm currently rooting for Obama, but that doesn't mean we won't raid him or anything. We'll hit anyone if it's funny, and if the guy I want to be president in 2008's campaign provides the lulz, we'll certainly not cross him off our list.
I'm not going to deny Patriotic Nigras is a troll group. We exist primarily to make people mad. Unlike most trolls, however, the attention is not the biggest concern. However, the reaction to this whole mess has been a troll's DREAM. An "attack," placed in an unofficial spot on an unofficial blog, has been a large story if only because the political persecution factor was tacked on to it.
While a few of us might be racist or something (who knows with this group), that's completely irrelevant to our cause. N3X15, our webhoster guy and acting Second Life leader, is a Republican. I probably disagree with him on a lot of things. But we're willing to overlook that in the fact that we all are allied to the same goal. I think laughs transcend party lines.
I think this whole incident is telling of where our priorities lie (and by "our" I mean America, if you happen to be outside the U.S.). But let's not make this too much of what it isn't.
Returning to the Bush thing, my answer would be "for the lulz". Claiming to be from the Republicans, we thought, would just add some irony to the whole thing. We didn't know that it would become the centerpiece of the event.
LC: Can you tell me about your group? How many people are in it?
MA: We have around 70 members on the forums. Of those, maybe 35 are active and confirmed.
The first attack was somewhere in December or January. I don't remember exactly when, but it was around Christmas-time. Like it says in the Encyclopedia Dramatica article, though, the first attacks were somewhat sparse. Me and a couple other guys, doing random crap.
As for hating John Edwards himself...nah. He (actually, the camp seems to be unofficial, so rather whoever set it up and posted the news on the blog) was simply a high-profile target exploitable for maybe a day or two of chuckles, maybe more, at least we thought at first.
It was only when we'd become able to get to a critical-mass of sorts of members that the "attacks" become organized and large-scale. I'd put that around the time of the third Fort Longcat, the middle of January. Once we got that set up, we were able to organize efficiently and had a place to retreat and regroup when things didn't go right.
The planning for the Edwards attack was actually fairly minimal. We have experience doing this sort of thing with the furry and gorean sims. However, and without trying to be too dramatic, we did have "spies" in and around the physical Edwards campaign HQ.
Our original plan was to arrive in a bunch of Black Hawk helicopters and have sniper areas. We had it planned out for a while, but a couple people from the organization decided to go in prematurely. Like I've said, it would have caused much more of a hubbub had the original plan went through!
LC: What do you tell people who say your group is racist?
MA: As an organization, we have no racist, sexist, or political bias, except in the case of when it serves our interests. The "nigra" thing could be seen as a racist remark at first glance, but Encyclopedia Dramatica explains it well
"Since the Internets is largely Anonymous and because the term was invented by a /b/tard (a cyber being of indeterminate and irrelevant sex/age/heritage) in the virtual, 'colourblind' environment of Habbo Hotel as a way to say 'nigga' without alerting their dirty word Department of Habboland Security feds, any suggestion that the word 'nigra' is racist is not only completely without merit, it's racist against the inhabitants of Internets."
LC: So how are you able to operate in Second Life?
MA: Even though Fort Longcat was deleted by the landowner, we're still setting up small scale forts to organize. Since our forts are usually deleted within the week by landowners, we're constantly on the move, and the fact we have permanent forums (no ProBoards free stuff that can be taken out from under us) now has helped keep us together. Our webmaster has engineered a half-working separate Second Life server/sim as well, where we can meet up independent of the main grid.
As to who we are, all I can say is that we're big-A Anonymous.
LC: So what kind of people are in the group? Are you high school students, middle-aged geeks...?
MA:The stereotype of us being high school geeks with acne is funny. Most of our members are well in their twenties and even thirties. The site where we originated from from has an active no-under-18 policy.
As for the site's identity, I have to clarify two things:
1. We're not from Something Awful.
2. Ebaumsworld is a cover, and we're not from there. Rule one in our book is "do not mention the site we come from." Anyone caring to analyze the content (signs, things we say, the "nigras" part of our name) of our raids, however, should be able to figure it out with a little Googling. However, while we originated from that board, we're a separate entity and do not organize there.
LC: Is your group worried about getting busted?
MA: Nah. As far as bans go, IPs can be changed, we can spoof MACs, we can change or send gibberish HD IDs. Thanks to our resident programmers, and Linden Labs' generous open-sourcing of the client package, we have tools that can do most of that already.
As for getting in trouble in general - no. First off, cases involving prosecution on Internet sites require tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, are often dragged out for years, have little evidence to support their claims, and so forth. Add that with the fact that everything being done is according to the game world's own mechanics, and I'm not too worried about anything serious going on.
I think if someone were to be sued (even in a civil court) for putting giant phalluses on somebody's Internet lawn, they'd be laughed out of court. If anything, Linden Labs is attracting more attention to Second Life thanks to this incident. Nevertheless, you're still going to have people like intLib threatening us with obscure felonies to try to dissuade us. At that point, the best way to deal with them is to ignore them.
LC: You sound very libertarian.
MA: I don't support all libertarian causes, but I am of the opinion that people should be able to do what they wish unless it negatively impacts someone else. I'm anti-drug but completely for the legalization of marijuana (though I don't use it), as well as completely against the Patriot Act and things that I feel invade American liberties.
LC: So what happens next? What do you think the Edwards camp should do?
MA: Good question. I'll assume you mean the campaign and/or the people supporting it, not the physical location itself.
The fact is, Second Life is not a credible or effective way to make a campaign statement. Whether or not the headquarters was officially sanctioned by the Edwards campaign, having something like this is a waste of time. Second Life's actual membership numbers are vastly inflated, as is the more literal artificially inflated Second Life economy. The bubble will burst eventually.
Anyways, if the Edwards campaign wants to try to get more public support, they need to take less time trying to be edgy and Web 2.0 and more time focusing on issues and traditional publicity. It's nice when someone takes the trouble to make a video on YouTube explaining their campaign goals, but half the time they're recycled or just plain corny. If anyone in the campaign wants to bring the young demographic in, they need to actually care about their potential constituents, not just put out a video of old campaign meets with cheesy background music, set up a fort in Second Life, and be done with it.
LC: What are your plans for the future?
MA: Well, we'll keep bombing the furry sims, but other than that, who knows?
If I say anything else, there might be some lockdowns, but other candidates in Second Life are a possibility. Anything high-profile is fair game.
See also:
John Edwards' Virtual Attackers Unmasked
Craiglist Sex Troll Gets Sued
20 Wildest Reactions To Obama's Victory
The 5 Faces of Bush
thx for teh publiciteez!11111
No, seriously,
I’m suprised at how objective you’ve managed to remain regarding our group’s actions. We really are just doing this for shits n’ giggles.
Seconded.
I think this is the first piece of legitimate journalism with us as a subject, instead of just blindly making assumptions and thinking we’re evil terrorist nerds or something.
Though, if people pay attention to this article way may lose a little bit of our shock factor.
Then again, those that hate us don’t really use normal logic anyway. lol
I’m Rick Santorum and i support this article.
It’s too bad that the second we get an impartial blog entry, we’re called “ninja looters of griefing” by some idiot and the SL Herald.
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/03/ninja_looters_o.html
Thanks for being so objective and fair about this. Many people on the internet nowadays seem to have no sense of humor and take things way to seriously. Basically, Second Life is something I do in my spare time to get lulz. Also, it’s fun to try to knock some sense into those that spend all their lives on a silly game when they could be enjoying life.
Anyone with a presidential “campaign” HQ on 2cd life is in definite need of severe mockage.
is this battletoads?
Great interview. Too bad it’s based on the false premise that the PN actually griefed the Edward’s Headquarters. On the other hand, great job by the PN copping (dis)credit for something they didn’t do. I guess they are like those rl terrorist groups that just sit around and take credit for the actions of others.
People have good reasons to be pissed at the Patriotic Nigras — that’s the idea. So it must be weird to see them granting long interviews.
But although the Second Life Herald reported an (unsourced) rumor that Something Awful goons were “mostly” responsible for the Edwards raid, even their commenters seemed to disagree with that theory.
I think they’re just confusing two separate incidents. The Something Awful “goons” in Second Life created the next-door building — a campaign headquarters for psychic John Edward. It’s entirely possible that the Patriotic Nigras ended up with some of these Something Awful participants joining in when they attacked the (real) Edwards HQ.
(It’s probably hard to keep track of where 35 members came from…)
It’s not a rumor, its a report from a highly credible source who was there. S/he said that the attack was mostly SA goons, with one guy there with a “Pool’s Closed” sign. The commentors on the Herald who disagree with this assessment are PN members.
Consider the following quote from Mudkips above:
“We had it planned out for a while, but a couple people from the organization decided to go in prematurely.”
My interpretation: They planned to grief it, the SA goons started griefing it instead, and the PN ran to get in on the tail end of the action.
@Urizenus Sklar
Kill yourself.
Yes, it’s a troll group, and the claims that any of them are over 18 would have to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Many of them have been ejected from Second Life because it was proven that they were under SIXTEEN. Their claims to technical capabilities granted internet anonymity are also rather optimistic at best.
Additionally, since they have to get new accounts every week or so to avoid prosecution, it’s probably impossible for them to ascertain how many members they actually have. The number is actually far lower than they claim, probably only two dozen active members at very most.
Mudkips Acronym is my hero.
Oh wow @ Concerned Citizen.
Actually, NONE of the bans that were doled out were because we were under 18. They were because of, you know, crashing sims, raiding places, and squatting on land. All of our members are at least of age 18, so you can stop making stupid accusations and do a little more reasearch next time.
Also, the forum has over 80 members, and none of them need to apply for new accounts since it is essentially a safe haven. We don’t even need 5 members during a raid though. Solo raids are still successful if carefully planned.
But DO continue making baseless accusations. It bores me to no end to have to respond in a somewhat intelligent manner instead of simply telling you to kill yourself.
Lol.
People who don’t know us accuse of of being anything.
A) @Urizenus Sklar. I know you aren’t going to pay any attention to this and instead are going to go on about your own theories in an attempt to annoy us (go ahead, we don’t mind using SA as a scapegoat). But the truth is, anonymous just sucks at time.
Habbo, SecondLife, Tom Green, etc, etc, there are ALWAYS people who start the raid early. Always have been, likely always will be.
“It started early, it must have been someone else” is just faulty logic.
B) @Concerned Citizen.
As N3X15 already stated, no one was banned for being underage. I myself am 22, with a Bachelor’s Degree. I may not be able to speak for everyone in the group, but I can attest to the majority of the group being over and 18 and surprisingly pretty well educated (even though we act like tards as much as possible for fun).
Perhaps the most we’ve had on the grid at a time is about two dozen, but on SL we’re a bit more organized than we have been in the past, allowing us to get a decent estimate of our group’s size (as N3X15 stated, over 80).
We also don’t even need to be all that active to get a lot done. We’ve been on long enough now to be quite efficient when it comes to getting and rearming a new account.
In any case, every last one of you is giving us exactly what we want, so we’re going to be sticking around for quite some time.
ENJOY, LOL.
so i herd u liek mudkips?
You herd rite.
Awesome patriotic nigras are awesome! I want to join. How I use Second Life? (I dunno lol)
@606
Lurk moar.
Good cover, N3X15, since it’s your hacked client that’s been handing over IP addresses and personal information to the Lindens. Thanks for nothing, fuckhead!
Well done PN. We at Ebaumsworld are very proud of you.
you are a genius.
Edwards is just butthurt,
I bet he doesn´t liek mudkips but I know for sure that he loves the cock.
POOL’S CLOSED DUE TO AIDS
Apparently everyone IS giving you what you want, considering that about fifteen of the groups you’ve been harrassing have teamed up to make sure your accounts are getting permabanned almost as fast as you can make them. Your people are being rounded up, sued, and jailed – you just don’t realize how bad it is because your own people are either lying to you about their ages, or disappearing without a word because they’ve been arrested.
Apparently you want to be shunned, ejected, then eventually jailed.
You honestly think people are going to jail for raiding in-game? You honestly believe that? Like.. in your head you can conceive a judge signing a warrant for arrest based on “lol he shot virtual penises at me in a video game”?
Keep it up.
“Your people are being rounded up, sued, and jailed”
SORRY NOPE. Nobody’s mysteriously disappeared, intLib. All our leadership is still here, our servers are still online, and I haven’t seen the partyvan in my driveway yet.
Here ~ Here to the PN’s!
Nobody should waste their time with trying to disrupt their disruption ~ especially with threats of prosecution. That’s all nonsense…
The Lab Rats have a long way to go before they can thwart such outside control and disruption of InWorld idiots, furfugs and No Lifers…
Keep on keepin on brothers…
Zito
In twenty years, all these guys really will be rounded up and disappear. They’ll have gone pro.
You think it’s bad now? Just wait.
Listen to some of these people. Whatever happened to that magic filter in their heads that seperates retarded ideas from good ones? JAILED AND SUED for screwing around in a video game? These are the people who make up SL’s most ardent supporters, these are the ones that donate, these are the ones that try to sue for e-libel or e-harassment in e-court. These are the ones who use Second Life as their first life. Tricking out their avatars with the latest dog cock add-ons and pasting gayass textures on their houses while the bills pile up and their IRL bodies go to shit? What hath the Internet wrought!
Frankly, if you can’t see how utterly insane YOU have become over a fucking VIDEO GAME ON THE INTERNET, then fuck you. You DESERVE to be raided, you DESERVE to be griefed, you DESERVE to be hacked and destroyed. You deserve everything the PN’s can throw at you and more. The Legion didn’t want to become the Internet’s immune system, but if that is the role that fate has chosen for us, then so be it. It is our job to keep fucks like you from shitting up the Internet for the rest of us. Yes, YOU. You amateur e-lawyers threatening to sue people over stolen LJ graphics and virtual penises. You furry fuckwits demanding we respect your disgusting fetishes and smile while you cornhole your pets. You self-diagnosed Aspie Wikipedians getting butthurt over comments on your Myspaces.
The Internet is not supposed to be SERIOUS BUSINESS OMG like you social reject retards seem bent on making it. The Internet is a place to screw around and have flamewars and invasions and be an asshole without any repercussions. But you come in here with your “copyrighted” MS Paint doodles and Furry Pride macros and neckbeard-stroking circlejerks about Japan and SERIOUSE POLOLOTICS bullshit, and the gloves come off. The Internet is the last true frontier on Earth, the one place where absolute freedom is still possible, and we are its cowboys and outlaws. If we have to shoot a few city-slickers and railroad barons to keep it that way, then so be it.
Well done, well done. The last post was epic copypasta. Amen to that, brother.
You people are the worst kind of scum. You are internet terrorists, trying to ruin SL for others.
I love you too
That’s fine, Anon. Just remember that some people don’t like to be fucked with, and some of us can shoot back.
Mudkips Acronym is a third-rate dick in need of a good hug. PN are nothing. This whole article has been a waste of 4 minutes of my life.
You think you’re not costing people money? The internet is meant for having flame wars? ::facepalm::
Stupid… as… hell…
“MA: I don’t support all libertarian causes, but I am of the opinion that people should be able to do what they wish unless it negatively impacts someone else. “
I’m confused. Isn’t what the PNs do negatively impacting other people? Leaving aside the issue of whether or not actual e-commerce is happening, if the PNs are out to piss people off, isn’t that a negative impact?
Oh man the PN really beat the fuckin shit out of those yiffin’ furfags.
Keep up the good work, /b/rothers!
So i herd u liek to pwn furrys? WIN
(oh, and yes, if some furfag is gunna complain over my comment:
just go to hell for all what i care, fur.)
The Antichrist, Galbraith attacks me indirectly,through, in this case,
Candidate Edwards. Read Luke 11. NAM’s Mr. Baroudy may have a hand
in it as well.
I’m on the understanding that N3X15 bans people from the forums if they grief him.
“Hi Pot, you’re black,” said the Kettle.
I love how so many people are getting hot under the collar about griefing. It pleases me an indescribable amount how so many people treat Second Life like RL and therefore get excessively emotional about what should be a trite and inconsequential manner. It actually makes me happy that it is possible to get a rise out of such stupid and intellectually lazy people, as if they’re children who think that anything out of the ordinary is immediately unfair and grounds for pouting and crying. Haha.
I may hate most of the PN, mostly for their lack of intellectual interestingness, since most of them are “script kiddies” and have no idea how they work. There are a few gems in the bunch, though, whose mere ability to comprehend how a program is compiled and executed impresses me far more than the twisted “artwork” of some dog-cock builder, much less one who can’t even do that but just sells that crap.
@Anatolian: what are you talking about? If they “grief” him? N3X15 probably doesn’t play SL innocently by his lonesome when suddenly come along 3 griefers from his own forum who ruin his day. Think about what you’re saying, man… Plus most kettles I’ve seen are uncolored stainless steel (“silver”).
@everyone else: you’re all retarded. Go home.
i lol’d
EPIC WIN!!!