Operation Teaspoon / Operation Earl Grey

Submission 49,275

Part of a series on Anonymous. [View Related Entries]

Background

In July 2010, the Oregon Tea Party sent out a series of mailers with the Anonymous slogan "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." Prior to its usage in bumper stickers, the slogan had been seen on protest signs and, for a short period of time, as the official description on the Tea Party Patriots website.^[3]

Development

One of the earliest photos of a Tea Party member using the slogan on a protest sign (shown below, left) was shared on the Portland Mercury blog^[1] in October 2009. The article covered the merchandise available during the 2009 "Countdown the Judgement Day" bus tour.^[4] On July 26th, 2010, Geekosystem^[3] published an article with a photo of the mailer, originally found on the Oregon Tea Party Facebook page.^[5] A few hours later, The Next Web^[6] published a screenshot of email correspondence (shown below, right) with Oregon Tea Party representative Geoffrey Ludt who confirmed that the mailer was theirs and that the author of the slogan was anonymous with a lower case letter "A."

Following this revelation, Gawker^[2] picked up on the story and 4chan users began to spam the Oregon Tea Party’s Facebook page with image macros and text posts featuring 4chan catchphrases including Desu and Derp. This Facebook spam attack was nicknamed both "Operation Earl Grey" and "Operation Teaspoon."

On July 27th, the Tea Party initially posted a Facebook status saying they would not be "intimidated by … basement dwellers" before agreeing to stop using the quote a few hours later. Coverage of this Facebook raid was found on Oh No They Didn't! Political^[7], The Escapist^[8] and the Daily Kos.^[9] Discussion threads also appeared on Something Awful^[10] and the BodyBuilding Forums.^[11]