I don't know about that. These acts highlight that the inarguably-real criminals can humiliate the government and not be stopped while public information activists get thrown away. One can say that they're Bad and/or criminals, and might be right, but to assume that the actions of Anonymous are in a vacuum apart from Aaron or Manning is short-sighted. Are their actions and reckless? Probably. So? The means-ends relationship is complicated, but Anonymous acts within their virtues and their intents are from the right place. And come on, this shit's hilarious!

And, this whole 'giving hackers a bad name' thing. Give me a break. Yes, 'hacker' is a dirty word to some. Most likely those that don't understand, nor matter to the greater interests of either types of who self-identify with the word. It will continue to be, regardless of however many Facebook/Google/Instragram/whatevers there are.