In WW1 many soldiers never fired a shot. They were unwilling to kill another human being. Soldiers nowadays are not only trained how to kill, they are conditioned to kill without guilt. To achieve this, they are taught to see the enemy as less than human. This is mostly not innate, it is imposed upon them. We are all complicit in that.
I wonder what the behind-the-scenes discourse is from WH/StateDept to media/NGOs RE Wikileaks. What combination of carrots/sticks was presented to those publications that won awards based on their reporting from WL dispatches? Why are publications that won awards based on his work so sure that they won’t one day be targeted?
There’s been a deafening silence about the inhumane treatment of a fellow publisher. You’d think that’d merit at least one mention from ACLU, but I just searched their twitter acct from 2017-today and found 0 mentions of Wikileaks or Assange. Correct me if I’m wrong, please, b/c I’d like to believe ACLU still exists to protect speech.
None of the carefully constructed arguments that we so pride ourselves on, none of our close readings of texts or pointing out the manifest absurdities and chilling implications of the American government's persecution of Assange matter, any more than quoting Bible verses will convince an armed robber to stop preying on us.
We are ruled by persons, Team R and Team D alike, whose behavior is indistinguishable from that of sociopaths. The persecution of Assange merely illustrates what should have long been obvious to anyone not distracted by touching gestures and noble-sounding OpEds.
Like that armed robber, like a schoolyard bully, power is what matters to these people, specifically force. To get them to stop persecuting Assange and those like him, you need to make them.
Publishing "Collateral Damage" was bad enough, but what really set the hounds of State on Assange were the Vault 7 files and too, the Bank of America files that a former Wikileaks spokesman, Daniel Domscheit-Berg conveniently destroyed.
The demise of WikiLeaks is a sad development for a world that needs mechanisms to hold governments to account. It is much harder for individuals to bear the burden of leaking incriminating media. The Snowden files were released too slowly and redacted too heavily to make the impact on political discourse that they could have enabled.
The pursuit of Assange is relentless and so hypocritical. How an Australian citizen who has never resided in the United States can be tried for effectively treason is perplexing. But the rule of law is the law that serves the interests of the United States. Just don't expect those rules to serve your interests if you are merely a citizen.
In WW1 many soldiers never fired a shot. They were unwilling to kill another human being. Soldiers nowadays are not only trained how to kill, they are conditioned to kill without guilt. To achieve this, they are taught to see the enemy as less than human. This is mostly not innate, it is imposed upon them. We are all complicit in that.
Excellent observation, Tony.
Thomas
I wonder what the behind-the-scenes discourse is from WH/StateDept to media/NGOs RE Wikileaks. What combination of carrots/sticks was presented to those publications that won awards based on their reporting from WL dispatches? Why are publications that won awards based on his work so sure that they won’t one day be targeted?
There’s been a deafening silence about the inhumane treatment of a fellow publisher. You’d think that’d merit at least one mention from ACLU, but I just searched their twitter acct from 2017-today and found 0 mentions of Wikileaks or Assange. Correct me if I’m wrong, please, b/c I’d like to believe ACLU still exists to protect speech.
None of the carefully constructed arguments that we so pride ourselves on, none of our close readings of texts or pointing out the manifest absurdities and chilling implications of the American government's persecution of Assange matter, any more than quoting Bible verses will convince an armed robber to stop preying on us.
We are ruled by persons, Team R and Team D alike, whose behavior is indistinguishable from that of sociopaths. The persecution of Assange merely illustrates what should have long been obvious to anyone not distracted by touching gestures and noble-sounding OpEds.
Like that armed robber, like a schoolyard bully, power is what matters to these people, specifically force. To get them to stop persecuting Assange and those like him, you need to make them.
Predators indeed. Real ones. Enabled by a neoliberal excuse and cheered by the mass of Americans. Scary stuff.
Thomas
Publishing "Collateral Damage" was bad enough, but what really set the hounds of State on Assange were the Vault 7 files and too, the Bank of America files that a former Wikileaks spokesman, Daniel Domscheit-Berg conveniently destroyed.
The demise of WikiLeaks is a sad development for a world that needs mechanisms to hold governments to account. It is much harder for individuals to bear the burden of leaking incriminating media. The Snowden files were released too slowly and redacted too heavily to make the impact on political discourse that they could have enabled.
The pursuit of Assange is relentless and so hypocritical. How an Australian citizen who has never resided in the United States can be tried for effectively treason is perplexing. But the rule of law is the law that serves the interests of the United States. Just don't expect those rules to serve your interests if you are merely a citizen.