If you don't feel like reading the article: the guy wasn't printing bigoted content just to bring attention to the lack of security on printers, he seems to actually believe in this stuff.
I didn't gather that at all from the storify. He seemed to enjoy people getting all worked up over the content of the papers and the attention it was gaining.
Being a white supremacist, bullying people online (weev stalked and bullied Kathy Sierra off the Internet) and getting people worked up are not necessarily mutually exclusive. They can all be done at the same time.
I skimmed the article, didnt see anything where he was mentioning that he endorsed the subject other than the implicit endorsement by sending it in the first place. The dudes a troll, of course nazi propaganda is going to create the urge for internet justice, which is probably one of few things that would get people tweeting about it from their high horses.
> "If he's just trolling then he's really, really dedicated to the cause."
Weev's written extensively about his white supremacist views in the past, I don't think where he actually stands is in any way under contention.
I'd also argue that "dedicated troll" and "true believer" is a distinction without a difference, especially when it comes to the people who are being harassed.
To be honest, I don't know or care enough about him to really research if he truly feels that way. From my semi informed viewpoint, I see where he could see it as a sort of Andy Kaufman style of trolling. He could be just picking a topic that he knows most "normal" people would be outraged about because if he wants to know how well his printer hack worked, a penis enlargement pill or public service announcement would get ignored by the recipients. The dude is toying with people's emotions for his own amusement, just narcissistic behavior.
The swastika tattoo is also a troll, it's not angled like a Nazi swastika and he filled it full of norse mythology symbols thus not an endorsement of National Socialism.
He sure does enjoy the outrage when people see it though making him a walking troll factory.
> The swastika tattoo is also a troll, it's not angled like a Nazi swastika and he filled it full of norse mythology symbols thus not an endorsement of National Socialism.
Lot's of Asians where I live have the same tattoo, if you see an elderly Chinese man on a beach take off his shirt and reveal a 90deg swastika it's not a Nazi endorsement either. If you see a solid black 45deg swastika it's a Nazi tattoo.
Obviously Weev got it to trigger whoever sees it of course.
Why are you excusing his actions based on his intent? If someone goes stomping on people's feet, do we tell those people to loosen up because the stomping was unintentional?
There are people who actually believe the earth was created six thousands years ago. What people believe is their own business. This guy isn't running for public office so this shouldn't matter.
In a country where we have a Presidential candidate being introduced by a pastor where he says the Bible says gay people must die, I don't think we have a leg to stand on when it comes to prosecuting people based on their anti-gay "philosophy".
I still believe love shall overcome. It just takes time and effort.
I think it matters in this case. A hacker ironically spreading Nazi propaganda for the lulz is different from a hacker spreading Nazi propaganda he actually believes in. Nobody's saying we should persecute this guy for his beliefs, but it means the motivations are different and that matters in some way.
Nobody's talking about prosecuting people for their thoughts. But the foundation of the right to free speech is that thoughts, expressed publicly, mean something, and that public debate matters.
What people believe privately is their own business, sure (until it starts to affect how they act in public). But what they publicly communicate their beliefs in is an entirely legitimate subject of public discourse, if not the primary legitimate subject of public discourse.