Bradley Manning expected to speak at trial today

I saw a quote from Manning that said something along the lines of “I don’t know why I thought that I could make a difference in the world.” It was in a Tweet without enough context, and I’m probably getting it significantly wrong, but it broke my heart. The leaks HAVE changed the world already. No, the wars haven’t stopped, but a conversation is happening that would not have happened before. The acts of Manning have given greater importance to WikiLeaks than they ever had before, and created an environment in which the world was ready to see and hear what Snowden leaked. Manning’s leaks may not have single-handedly stopped the wars, but in some future high school history book those leaks will be seen as a catalyst of an era. The fact that Manning was a young person struggling with their identity, with issues around personal secrecy, and the justice of the situation they found themselves in will not be seen as proof of treason but as the perfect setting for an act so brave and so insane as to leak those documents.

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Well heaven forbid we try to be more accurate here, and distinguish between the two.

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That kind of dismissive normative bullshit is a large contributor to kids doing poorly in school, yes.

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Because he didn’t age at all for a few decades and then suddenly aged all at once?

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Am I the only one who is surprised this is not THE story of the trial in the mainstream press?

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In hindsight, joining the army might not have been a good idea.

Dunno what to tell you, man. If you think that modern education is so perfect that only a tenth of a percent of dropouts were failed by the system and 99.9% of dropouts are just so…what? willfully ignorant? naturally lazy? got the Devil in 'em?..that no human could’ve possibly educated them and they were doomed from birth to a life of self-pitying brute stupidity…well.

No snark intended; this question is for me to better understand and abide by the rules: is Manning’s gender identity (and, consequently, the language surrounding it) not part of the topic?

Arguing on pronoun use for Manning isn’t on topic.

EDIT: Moved all discussion on How to refer to Bradley Manning here: How to refer to Chelsea Manning

But thank God he did.

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