Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/11/what-it-was-like-ghostwriting.html
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There’s a line from The_Fifth_Estate that keeps coming back to me, every time Assange shows up in the news. He’s being warned about whats going to be done to him personally, and his reputation. He’s ill equipped to imagine the kind of character assasination campaign a state level actor can bring against him.
It feels like it may be about time to re-watch all 40 minutes of the Collateral Murder video in its entirety. Because Dick Cheney and his heirs would far rather we all be thinking about what a flaming asshole Julian Assange must truly be, than to think too hard about the incriminating evidence he recklessly published.
(Oh, and since they can’t touch Snowden yet, it’s all the more important we hate on this guy instead)
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Choosing to hate Assange vs. choosing to hate Cheney & Co. strikes me as a false dichotomy.
Also remember that Assange’s recklessness in terms of what information he chose to publish and how he published it is largely responsible for why Chelsey Manning was caught instead of remaining an anonymous tipster.
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First rule of the cult of personality: vilify anyone who questions the actions or character of the person in question by disingenuously framing them as pernicious or naive tools of a conspiracy.
Second rule: lots and lots of whataboutism.
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Chealsy Manning was caught because s/he chose the wrong person to confide in. Assange had nothing to do with that one.
And I have no doubt that Assange is genuinely creepy, not someone I would personally want to associate with. Without the war crime evidence,(that he handled badly, sure) I wouldn’t be invited to care what a jerk he apparently is.
Its not either/or. You get to hate on both. Just don’t drag additional misinformation into the 3 minute hate session, all right?
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What misinformation?
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Unless otherwise indicated by themselves, the considerate construction when referring to trans persons is to use the correct pronouns for their currently presenting gender even when referring to times prior to their coming out or transitioning. Just in case you were unaware of that.
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Hee, I know the Fifth Estate and the Fifth Element aren’t the same thing, but what if they were?
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There was a surprisingly confrontational exchange on NPR this a.m. between host David Greene and Glenn Greenwald when Greene intro’d Greenwald as a “long time backer and proponent” of Wikileaks and Assange. Greenwald fires back. Starts at 3:30.
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Now there’s a line from the Fifth Element that keeps coming back to me.
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She’s pretty clear on what her pronoun is.
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Did he pay you in Wiki-dollars? Asking for a friend…
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Seems like that should be called a Wikibuck.
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Probably all true, and none of it justifies charging him with a crime in the US.
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few people will cry over Julian, though the government manipulation of this is highly suspect and should be examined
HOWEVER
there is a toxic element to this in that all day on the news they are immediately, without hesitation or clarification or distinction in motivations and methods, simultaneously tying him to Chelsea Manning and then Snowden
all they they are trotting out the ex-military/cia types who immediately are bad-mouthing all three together, taking every opportunity to do so
if Chelsea is still in prison solitary confinement, she is definitely not getting out any time soon, they will hold her to testify against him in a secret court if need be
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More like Wiki-Peso, and its close cousin Wiki-Rubel, all equally useless and worthless.
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Or maybe use the time to do something productive instead? Perhaps research and publicize some of the other horrifying situations that played out over there.
That remains my biggest complaint about that particular episode of the Wikileaks show. It provided the perfect opportunity for people like Cheney to act like it was an isolated incident. The reality was that similar things were happening – multiple times – every fucking day.
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Wiki-Poo too?
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Wait, was he doing a “Geoffrey Rush portraying the Marquis de Sade in the end of Quills?”
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