"Weev" is a professional hacker and a troll veteran, causing havoc at marketplaces and provoking reactions in the cyber world. His activity has led him to espouse a "ruin lifestyle," which means he moves from condo to condo, with no name and no posessions. Weev recently made the headlines when he appeared in an interview with Mattathias Schwartz for the New York Times, in which he explained trolling as a way of circumventing societal norms and creating social discourse. His ideological and religious ideas challange the common perception of what it means to be a troll in the 21st century.

1. In the recent NYT interview with Mattathias Schwartz, you mention that blogging gives the illusion of participation. What kind of participation has blogging replaced that existed before it? Does the Internet world function as a kind of surrogate activity for people?

It hasn't replaced any previous illusion of participation, only enhanced it. It is in the same vein that Democracy gives people the illusion of choice. Blogging gives people with average to slightly above average intelligence the idea that they are somehow contributing to the public dialogue, when in reality their regurgitated opinions are selected from a small buffet of acceptable viewpoints driven by the economic elites of our society. Consensus is manufactured; one believing that their individual political viewpoint, sans violence, is going to have a dramatic effect upon society is as ridiculous as believing that the choice between McDonalds and Burger King is worthy of philosophical treatise and long discussion.

2. In that same interview, the Internet troll Jason Fortuny explains that he went through sexual abuse as a child, implicitly linking that experience to his trolling activities. Is trolling psychologically a form of disruption with the motive of revenge, or is there a creative, compassionate, and positive side to it?

Fortuny is a godless idiot. In a brief conversation I had with him, he's modeled himself after a character in a Stephen King novel (which apparently is the source of the "RF" in his nick). I think he's an undeveloped child. He acts alone, without community support or consultation. He has no deeper philosophy behind his actions and no idea of what kind of society he wants to live in. He is utterly uncharacteristic of the vast majority of trolls I've held relationships with. He is more like the kind of people we target, not the kind of people we are. The fact that he's never been a part of a militant troll organization is telling, especially since he makes a consistent effort to find a community to accept him. No organization I know of would take him.

Trolling is a method, a style of rhetoric and action. It can be used for constructive or destructive purposes. Some of the greatest champions of Western philosophy have implemented the troll method.

3. When anti-industrial terrorist Theodore Kaczynski sent homemade bombs to targets he believed represented advocates of industrial-technological development, he in part motivated the attacks by claiming that killing people was the only way of getting his message across. Do you agree that method is less or not important than to successfully getting an important message across? Are there moral limits to trolling?

There are, of course, moral limits to trolling. Goodness, beauty and the meek are valued amongst my comrades and I. I have never picked a troll target that was not morally and spiritually bankrupt. As far as Kaczynski's methods, I would like to defer to Matthew 10:34-39, Luke 12:49-53, and Luke 22:35-38.

4. As a troll you've chosen to be anonymous. Do you believe anonymity is necessary for discourse, and if so, why?

I have not remained anonymous. For the companies I've targetted, I've showed up at their parties and given some friendly greetings to bask in the looks of disgust and disdain. I take credit and responsibility for my actions. I think the mask of anonymity is not intensely constructive. I think the Anonymous group has dismantled some of the great idealism which pervaded troll organizations previously. In Mark chapter 5, there is a man posessed by demons. When asked for his name, he replies "Legion, for we are many."

Some take the fact that I do not use my real name any longer as a sign that I am using a mask of anonymity. This is simply not true, I have just begun to contest the legitimacy of the identity assigned to me by the state. I am not anonymous. I have a name. I have a signature. When attacking organizations, I call their representatives or board members up to tell them in advance who I am and what I am about to do and why I am doing it.

5. How do you look at the Internet security industry, that daily profits from working against hackers? Is there a dependency relationship on either part between, say, Symantec and a professional hacker?

The security industry does not work against hackers. Security is a myth, there is no system that cannot be broken. The industry in and of itself was largely created by hackers. McAfee and Symantec were created by the first virus writers. Some of the most expensive IDS systems have the men who invented IDS evasion on their payroll. Signature based defenses are useless snakeoil, and aren't stopping anyone who wants to get into something from penetrating it. The most effective security solutions (grsecurity, similar patchsets for freebsd, firewalls and policy routing) can be implemented for free if one does not count the time of someone intelligent needed to implement them.

6. What function does "Internet eugenics," or natural selection, serve within the sphere of modern human civilization? Do we also need eugenics outside of the cyber world?

Kate (as mentioned in the NYT article) suggests that the death of the trolling scene on Livejournal effectively lowered the standard of human beings which contribute content on the service. She describes communities she once valued being "filled with fucking furries" and "noone even says anything to them anymore". I contend that trolling is the chief moral arbiter of the Internet. I see little difference between the methods performed by trolls on the Internet when they ruin the lives of furries and pedophiles and the methods used by Moses when he ordered the idol worshippers killed. Martin Luther contended in his tract "On the Jews and Their Lies" that if Moses were alive today he'd be busy burning synagogues. I'm inclined to agree; the only thing keeping us deriding furries on the Internet instead of going to their furry conventions and rapidly exterminating them is the Jewish influence upon society.

Just like how the loss of troll influence upon the Livejournal community resulted in a lower quality of human inhabiting the site, the lack of memetic selection upon Western civilization is resulting in a drastically lower quality of human being infesting it. For Western values to survive, those who attack them must be exterminated. We should start with the furries, and move to the media moguls who are glorifying prostitution and drug use.

Upon some timeline Protestants are going to have to stand up and admit that it is their belief system that made their nations so great, and that without their persistent influence they will degrade into the third world shitholes from which they began.

7. On your LiveJournal blog, you claim that "[e]verything is clearly algorithmically designed." What is the relation between the mathematical language of a computer and the organization of the universe? What is the role of a hacker in this relation?

If divine creation doesn't appear obvious to you, there's really nothing I can say to convince or show you. It is either truth to you, or it isn't. The role of the hacker archetype is of his own decision, but ideally it is to bring the universe more in line with the goals of the creator. We all have a choice every day of our lives to live morally or live under the shadow of evil.

8. You outline a religious-historical perspective on humanity and suggest that we are destined to regularly face crisis, in order to force us to create change and grow through struggle. Is this struggle, in your view, striving towards some form of linear goal of divinity, or is it cyclic and purposeless in nature?

Just because a process is cyclic does not mean it is purposeless. Some of the most efficient and admirable algorithms are recursive. After a period of crisis, religious thought generally gains a lot of mind share. Right before the crisis, scientific innovation and commerce are most highly valued. Religion without science leads to dogmas and stagnation, but science without religion leads to behaviorism, social determinism, and the erosion of the natural world and aesthetic beauty. Perhaps this cycle is indefinite, but perhaps we may break it. Every crisis presents a chance for humanity to say "there is a third way". Every new beginning presents a chance for us to do this new society right, in a sustainable manner. Perhaps the coming purge will be followed by a period where science and spirituality can not spurn one another; it certainly seems more likely than the previous crises. Though I wouldn't put my money on it this time, and if you want to know how the major players are betting you should look at the ratio of investment between weapons development and alternative energy research.

9. If civilizations go through cycles, what is the mechanism that transfers them through cycles?

God. But not in an interventionist fashion. It is the programming of the simulation in which we interact.

10. In what way were Socrates, Jesus and Loki trolls, and do their individual fates reveal something in common that can be equally attributed to modern-day trolls like yourself?

I'm going to focus on Loki because he is the most archetypical figure of trolls and hackers. The Loki archetype has three defining characteristics which were repeated in tales before and after the commission of his myth to prose. The comparison of the Loki myths to the Hindu goddess Kali is the most obvious, but the similarities between Loki and many other figures in both religion and history can be quite revealing.

* Unusual level of access to all available tools/weapons. Loki was the sole innovator of the norse pantheon. Any time the Gods had a special implement Loki was the source. Thor's hammer, the flying ships and whatnot, Loki either made it or designed it and tricked the dwarves into making it. In the case of Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir, Loki birthed it. According to the Norse he was the creator of the fishing net, which had a critical role to play in mankind's development. There is a strong mystical connection between tricksters and innovation. Similarly Kali is given all the magical weapons of the Hindu pantheon before she transforms into Mahakali, her grandest form. Throughout the gospels you can find Jesus being given gifts of tools, culminating with the two swords he receives in Luke.

* Destroys a force of greed. According to myth, Loki disguised himself to arrange the murder to Baldr. According to certain Norse prose, Baldr had commissioned the largest ship and the most beautiful hall of the times. Baldr was the Paris Hilton of his age. The son of Odin, he was never known to do anything but spend money and look good. His accomplishments are nil, but you find many mentions of his wealth and physical beauty. Baldr was decadent and without inner value, and thus Loki selected him to be destroyed. You can find this in the Kali myth as well; Mahakali annhiliates a "great beast" which threatens all of society. The rhetoric of this myth in Hinduism is very similar to that of Revelations.

* Banished or imprisoned by forces friendly to the tyrant, only to be reborn again during a time of crisis. After the death of his son Baldr, Odin became greatly angered. He rounded up a posse of the Gods and had Loki put in a prison, from which he will be released at the time of Ragnarok, which is the norse concept of apocalypse. Kali's supposed "impurity" got banished by Vishnu, the Hindu analogue to Odin. Jesus dies and rises again to hedge against man's exposure to the wrath of the apocalypse.

11. If you could make five large-scale changes to modern society that you deem important, which would those be?

* For evolution to work, we must remove unfit specimens from the breeding pool. We must embrace death as a viable method of preening the population. I would like to focus this selection chiefly upon males, though if a woman becomes powerful and preaches a barren behaviorist philosophy she'll certainly be on the chopping block. The physically unfit by birth should be exterminated in infancy. The physically unfit by accident and mentally unfit should not be supported by the state, forcing them to find a sustainable and simple way of life. I used to be for the mass extermination of the physically disabled, but my business associate Claudia reminded me of how the ancient greeks made an effort to find means of living for their disabled; Homer was blind but still managed to become a defining influence upon Western civlization. I believe that without the narcotic of state welfare these people would find a positive means of living. The obviously mentally unfit (extreme autism, Downs syndrome, etc) should be sterilized.

* For evolution to work, we must create more life than the environment can support. I would like to propose the state prohibition of birth control and abortion. Not that I think it will end access to these things for anyone, but merely make people consider the consequences of their actions more seriously. Widespread distribution of birth control to the Dalit class has lead to a casual attitude about promiscuity and prostitution. In addition to rational evolutionist benefits of having more life to select from, an end of birth control will have positive moral and social effects upon our society.

* No organization should have a monopoly over the creation of their own bank note system. Douglas Jackson and Barry Downey made e-Gold, an online central brokerage that distributes a currency backed 1:1 by gold bullion. The secret service responded by raiding them and taking all their gold. If I don't like how the government runs its monetary policy, I should have the freedom of choice to opt-out. The society that is created after the collapse of this empire should write monetary freedoms into its constitution.

* The shareholders of the reserve bank of any state-created currencies should be the public at large. I find it hilariously ironic, considering the history of this country, that many of the major shareholders of our central bank are organizations and dynasties heavily connected to the Bank of England.

* Under no circumstances should the unfit be subsidized by the state. I would like to propose the end of all state-funded health care, education, food distribution and housing.

12. According to most interpretations of the Hindu tradition, we're currently living in the age of Kali Yuga; the age of deception, moral decay and spiritual decline. As a troll who also believes in the historical determinism of ancient religious tradition, what is your message to people who feel they're caught in a dark age and want to survive it?

Get many sons and lots of guns. Grow some wheat. Herd some goats. Have a few cows and some chickens. Consider buying a yacht, depending on your locality. Invest 5% of your wealth in commodities. Buy acreage with water rights on it. Get rid of your debts. Start a church. Join your local volunteer rescue organizations. Get involved in CB, shortwave and ham radio. Get sustainable, off-the-grid power. Have some family/community explosives. Promote ideological homogeneity in your community.

Interview was conducted by Alex Birch the 8th of August 2008.

Corrupt would like to thank "Weev" for kindly participating in the interview and sharing with us his thoughts on trolling, religion and society.

Visit Weev's blog