Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

I love the masks though I wonder why anonymous prefers the Guy Fawkes mask as they're signature rather then any others? A symbolism behind it?

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

Stupid thread

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

Because it's fun!!!

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

They were out of Nixon masks...

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

And we can come back and ask "Why not?".

While I can't speak for all of Anonymous, I can give a couple of reasons as to why. They may be legit or they may be complete crap, but reasons off the top of my head none-the-less.


1. It's a uniform look. Everyone looks the same. No individuality. If we all had different masks, would we make the same impression? Probably not.

2. It's a very recognizable face. Lots of people have seen the movie (or comic book) V for Vendetta. It sticks in one's mind.

3. It's easy to find. Despite all the threads of asking "Where can I find a mask?" they're not hard to find. Order one online or find them at costume stores and you're set.

4. V for Vendetta. A few parallels from the movie of dismantling something larger than we could do individually is there. Not to mention watching it fall together. And it starts with the domino effect - one small thing after another until the whole thing comes crashing down.

5. Identification. People see the mask and think Anonymous. It has become a brand.

6. This just looks cool.



Is it with any historical significance? No. Is it strictly a V for Vendetta reference? No. It's a face we choose.

Not all protesters are allowed to wear masks because of laws in their country/city. Does it take away from their message? No. They may wear the mask somewhere on their person - an arm, or backpack - to connect with the Anonymous branding and association.

The mask protects one's identity while giving them a new one.



... though I may have thought this through too much.

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

are the Guy Fawkes masks some kind of refrence to v for vendetta? if so does the refrance relate to a personal belief in anarchy?

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

This thread gave me aids

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

Yes, it's because we all secretly want to destroy all forms of government, organised religions, charity and not-for-profits so that we can slowly take over the entire world with our policy of lulz.

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

Re: Why the Guy Fawkes masks?

No it's a reference to the "epic fail guy" 4chan meme . See here.

Guy Fawkes became synonymous with anonymous when he was given away in the "gunpowder plot"by an anonymous letter in the year 1605....the only reason I can relate the two!

Yes OSA.... the only reason we use Guy Fawkes is we all support a world thrust in Anarchy. I hope you put this quote to good use and get some Upstats so you can get a decent meal and sleeping hours.

^^ Also Don't point out that Sympathy is mis-Emotional and Low on the Tone Scale.... I already know that. Leave me alone to my Wog practices of extending kindness

It's a little more convoluted, yet fascinating, than it seems on the surface. Guy Fawkes was a real person, whose real name was a close approximation to "Guy Fawkes" in its native tongue, Tahitian. The individual was called Guy Fawkes as an anglicized version of his hard-for-Brits-to-pronounce real name.

Guy Fawkes, in the 1600s, led a large revolt against the tribal "government" which was in control at the time. Being a fairly simple people, the bulk of their structures were built from indigenous Noni trees. The Noni fruit is now known for being a specialty juice and food product. Anyway, the structures were structurally sound, but anything like an explosion or other large force pushed against it would easily topple it. This was compensated for by the most important structures having a LOT of guards around. A _lot_, practically impenetrable.

So Guy Fawkes had to figure out a way to do his destruction _from the inside out_, and mentioned to his one and only partner in crime the need to essentially become one of the guards, and thereby have considerably more access with a lot fewer hassles. Fawkes mentioned the need to "burrow into the huts", to which his partner in crime replied "Like a noni mouse?"

Fawkes replied "Yes. Just like a noni mouse."

Fast forward to 2005, V For Vendetta gets released (essentially a reworking of the original struggle but considerably redone in a futuristic-modern setting), someone does research on the REAl Guy Fawkes (from Tahiti), sees this quote and connected the whole mask thing with a play on the words "a-noni-mouse" (anonymous).

So there. Now you're in on the secret and I've given up my nonexistent membership in the cool kids' club. Don't go blabbing this to too many news outlets, ok?

^^^Fukken this.

Dox or GTFO.

Thank you. I was wondering if anyone left remembered.

trufax

I don't wear a guy fawkes mask. I wear other peoples' faces.........sometimes I take then while they are asleep.

because guy fawkes was a revoloutionary. he saw what was wrong with the government and decided to do somthing about it. thats exactly what Anonymous do.

WTF !!!!
everybody told me that we must have a Kanye West Mask ! What's this all about?

The GF mask was picked just so this faggot would one day make this retarded post.

Ok, let's see. The guy fawkes masks that Anons wear come from the comic book / film V for Vendetta- in which the mask was worn by a violent, revolutionary Anarchist. Someone sees a bunch of people wearing the mask associated with this anarchaist and asks whether those wearing the mask are expressing a belief in anarchy.

Obviously the above scenario makes no sense. No, it's OSA coming to ask whether Anons endorse anarchy in order to say Anon endorses anarchy- because an anonymous poster asking whether people wear the masks out of a personal support of anarchy would clearly mean Anonymous = anarchaists. Am I in the right ballpark here?

Is there beer? If so, probably. If not, maybe.

Wow. I'm a total newfag, just long time ED reader... it does seem like even many practiced Anons don't know about Epic Fail Guy.

This is not a criticism of Herro, the post above is fine IMHO. I just wanted to clarify something to any OSA who may be reading this because it's something that riles me about people's understanding of Anarchy.

Anarchy is a society without leadership but it is more than that, it is a society where the individual has full responsibility for their actions. As an ideal it's the concept that anyone should be able to do what they want without any restraint other than self restraint. This ideal does not mean a violent society, rather a society in which each individual respects the rights of all the rest and balances their behaviour in order to mitigate any impact on the rights of another. Beyond that there is the nice notion that people may actually help each other too.

Humans are not mature enough socially to work effectively as in a real world anarchic system but there is nothing wrong with the ideal, aim high.

Anonymous is a social evolution and while not a proper anarchic system, it certainly is not real life, it is pretty damn close. The debates, flame wars, etc are just the kinds of things one would expect in an Anarchic society, bruised egos sure but nothing particularly fatal.

As regards V in V for Vendetta (the film as oppose to the comic novel which I haven't read), I don't think he was an Anarchist per sa, he was a revolutionist who wanted to get people to question the authority but that isn't quite the same. His ideal was more about people having more control over their Government (Governments should be afraid of the people not the people should be afraid of the Government - and I totally agree).

As to the V mask, sure Epic Fail Guy deserves a mention but most people wear it because a) they identify with the V for Vendetta film for what ever reason or b) other people were wearing them and they want to identify with the other protesters.

I confess to not having heard of the Epic Fail Guy (in so much as Guy Fawkes was widely thought of as EFG - which makes sense I guess) link until after I started protesting, I also confess to not wearing the mask all the time and often wearing it on the back of my head. And I confess to a warm feeling as I walked down the street in a town many 00's of miles away from the nearest scilon outpost while wearing a V mask on the back of my head when a bunch of school kids in a bus cheered and shouted yay Anonymous / Go Anonymous. The V mask has certainly caught on as being synonymous with Anonymous regardless of origins.

EDIT: As to Anarchy, damn straight I endorse it (as an individual not Anonymous) but I also recognise the fact it would never work in the current society. I also recognise the the church of scientology would create a society much further removed from the Anarchic ideal than the current social models.

EDIT EDIT - for those in to word clearing check out ochlocracy, this is what most people mistake anarchy for.

If no one has alread said this( cause tl;dr with all the other msges). The whole reason behind the masks is because of a guy named giudo fawkes, in fance in the 1600s i beleive. and he hated the portestant church and wanted the king of england dead so england would become catholic again. he had a failed bomb plot in the king palace and was beheaded. like 300 years later some guy or people made stories about him and comics turning him into a sort of hero. ever since then he has been a symbol for resistance and rebelion.
ps. sorry for the bad grammer and punctuation and spelling, im tired as hell atm.

No, it was a popular movie, and someone suggested it. Since the movie was new, masks were available.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST YOU FAG.

LET ME GOOGLE THAT FOR YOU.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=epic fail guy

That movie is based on the histical incident that happened in france. FTFY

What the...?

Ewww, that's one of those before and after Crack picture sets isn't it.

It's the before and after from reading this post:

For starters, why not read the thread?

Atralheaven:

You're fucking welcome. God forbid you scroll up seven posts, right?

The mask isn’t quite inspired by Guy Fawkes. It’s more of a tribute to the film (and comic book) “V for Vendetta”, where it's a theatrical symbol of resistance to authoritarian oppression.