[DrCaleb]

Thanos Thanos:

Whatever. I guess that Assange is a journalist in the same way Walter Duranty once was, what with his hard-hitting and prize-winning exposes of what Stalin was up to in Ukraine in the early 1930's. More concise and revelatory uncovering of those sorts of things are certainly needed in this world. All the facts, all the time.....

Journalists tell the truth, even if you don't like them or what they tell you. Duranty I'm sure is taught in Journalism school as a lesson on what not to do.

[Thanos]

And we'll put down Assange's close association with the Trumps, and that the GQP who once wanted him put up against a wall and shot now fete him as a hero for his effort in taking out Hillary Clinton, as just more of those things that doesn't matter because whatever it is that he did before them is not to be criticized. Like, wow, talk about apologetics for "our guy" running amok.

[DrCaleb]

Still not illegal. We don't prosecute people for being assholes.

[Scape]

[Zipperfish]

I haven't followed it all the closely, but I don't get a good feeling about Assange. Seems a bit of an insufferable prat. He'll pay a dear price in the US. They will want revenge for the serious embarrassment Assange caused, not just in disclosing information but in letting the public see the ham-fisted, self-serving, above-the-law antics they went trhough to try to get him.

I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Wikileaks did nothing. It changed nothing. It is a big, fat nothingburger.

Snowden, I got time for, but the same thing. If he did it for principle then he sacrificed any kind of decent life for nothing.

[Thanos]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Still not illegal. We don't prosecute people for being assholes.

Hacking isn't illegal? Being in possession of documents from a hack isn't illegal? This will probably make you mad but I can't help that - this strain of logic is identical to what Trump fanatics say when his behaviour and actions get pointed out with their "haw haw! not illegal! fuck you!" mentality.



Thousands of Social Security numbers and private email addresses of Democrat supporters were released in one of Assange's 2016 dumps. These aren't Clinton catamites, they were just average Americans doing what they could through donations & volunteering to help defeat Trump, the absolutely worst and most disgusting person to ever sit in the White House. If the argument is Wikileaks doing this sort of thing with that kind of private information of ordinary people isn't illegal then you're not arguing about Assange anymore. You're arguing an absolutist principle that doing something like this is perfectly fine regardless of any harm that might or will happen to people getting caught in the middle. If that's the case then, well, I don't know what to say anymore in the face of that kind of moral negation. Except....

[Scape]

herbie herbie:

He's not a journalist, he's a whistle blower. All wikileaks ever intended to be.
And the US gov't is so embarrassed being exposed with shit on it's hands, they'll carry this facade on until the end.

No, he's not a whistleblower. He reported the statements of the whistleblowers. Ergo, a journalist. What he reported needed to see the light of day and no one else did it but him. This is why he is being made an example of.

[Thanos]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

I haven't followed it all the closely, but I don't get a good feeling about Assange. Seems a bit of an insufferable prat. He'll pay a dear price in the US. They will want revenge for the serious embarrassment Assange caused, not just in disclosing information but in letting the public see the ham-fisted, self-serving, above-the-law antics they went trhough to try to get him.

The US already promised the British courts that Assange won't be held in solitary confinement. And that if he's found guilty he'll be allowed to serve his sentence at home in an Australian prison.

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Wikileaks did nothing. It changed nothing. It is a big, fat nothingburger.

Not true. Wikileaks harmed a lot of people directly due to Assange's policy of not redacting names and personal information of average people from his info dumps. At a minimum he set up a lot of people to be hacked later on when their information got taken over by trolls & online criminals. At worst he's responsible for the deaths of Muslims in Iraq & Afghanistan who were assisting US and Coalition forces in the fighting against Saddam's dead-enders, Al Qaeda, and ISIS. Assange had zero concern over what might happen to those he put into a crossfire and that sort of complete lack of empathy on his part shows that he's some kind of narcissistic sociopath.

The only time Assange showed any concern for anyone, period, was when he got enraged at the Panama Papers leaks for showing how many Russian gangsters and oligarchs were hiding their fortunes overseas. Once again, his only priority aside from boosting his own fame was to go to bat for his Russian benefactors whenever any dark clouds headed their way.

[Scape]

Biden could stop this today, if he wanted to.

[Scape]

Thanos Thanos:

The US already promised the British courts that Assange won't be held in solitary confinement. And that if he's found guilty he'll be allowed to serve his sentence at home in an Australian prison.

Epstein didn't kill himself and neither did Assange right?

[Thanos]

It's like dealing with the 9/11 "truthers" all over again.

[Scape]

If by truth you mean challenging the dominate and highly curated narrative, then yes.

[Thanos]

Looking forward to you posting multiple pro-QAnon videos then, as the citizen journalists bravely speak truth to power against ZOG, the black helicopters, and whatever else it is they have scratching away constantly at the inside of their skulls.

[Scape]

Except the GQP aren't even truth adjacent they outright lie and expect you to believe it without producing a single shred of evidence to support their claims.

[Thanos]

Kind of just like Assange & Wikileaks did in 2016 when they deliberately kicked off the Seth Rich conspiracy theory on behalf of the GOP, Donald Trump, and FOX News. No evidence at all, but hey, I'm Julian Assange so you have no choice but to believe me.