Julian Assange is such a monster, we must remember that.
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.”
–60 Minutes (5/12/96)
Rick: Oh, so you’ve been going through my Y-fronts have you, Vyvyan? I suppose you fancy me, is that it?
Vyvyan: (pause) Yes! As a matter of fact I do, Rick. I really really fancy you, and I want to give you a big girly kiss on the bottom!
Rick: Urgh, Mike, Vyvyan’s gone all funny! He says he wants to kiss my bottom!
Vyvyan: Oh! Did I say kiss you on the bottom? I’m very sorry, what I meant was, stick a pickaxe through your spinal column!!
Free Michi
He’s not rotting in prison.
Funny how it worked out that he assisted the least transparent administration in decades.
I feel bad for him. If’ he’d allow me, I’d like to set up a meeting with him and some Saudi friends in the embassy. You know… just to talk.
Big surprise, Assange isn’t just a rapist and a proven liar, but he’s an ungrateful slob who neglects his pets.
By some accounts he was a crappy and entitled houseguest during his couch-surfing days, at least once he became a celebrity and felt that the host should be grateful and honoured to have him.
All I’m saying is that if Ecuador is doing him this kind of solid the least he could do, whatever the circumstances, is clean up after himself and his cat and his visitors and not hog the Internet. He needs to remember that Ecuador is doing him a favour by choosing to host him and not vice-versa.
Here’s my obligatory PSA on Assange: Fuck Assange.
It’s a bit more complicated than that, as you probably know.
The existence of Wikileaks is problematic to anyone in power because they don’t control it. That’s what’s good and what’s bad about it. Because in addition to democratizing data, it is pretty clear that it can be used by political players for the own ends (ie the belief that Russia was the source of many of the Hillary leaks). It was in part the danger that potentially uncritical release of sensitive information could cause that led to defections and conflict within Wikileaks itself, as different people had different visions of how it should work.
Complicating matters, however, is the increasing accumulation of evidence that Assange is a bit of an asshole in his personal life. That doesn’t negate the impact of Wikileaks, but it certainly does weaken the conceit that his troubles are uniquely due to political backlash to Wikileaks.
Nah. Authoritarians love him.
You’re not wrong. And hearing about how terrible a roommate Assange is is like revealing sprinkles on frosting. (Yes, it’s trivial, compared to the mess of bad cake underneath it all, but it’s still part of the whole nasty confection.)
It is more significant that Wikileaks isn’t terribly transparent itself. I suppose no one is entitled to see their books, but it does come off as pretentious to present themselves as an agent for change, to hold power accountable, and yet, and yet, one of their founding members clearly holds himself to a different and incompatible standard.
It is nice to know about the sprinkles. Whenever one of his defenders emerge to declare he’s done nothing wrong I know they don’t know what they’re talking about.
I think that’s a very interested and entirely salient point… they demand full transparency from government (which, fair enough), but they can do the same? Plus, their releases tended to be just dumps, with no forethought as to what problems they could cause for people on the ground.
Aw man, I love that show.
These people tried to warn the Ecuadorians:
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