4 ms·

Is Assange the only one using the wikileaks twitter account? Because it's batshit crazy at times https://heatst.com/politics/wikileaks-posts-and-deletes-anti-se

Is Assange the only one using the wikileaks twitter account? Because it's batshit crazy at times https://heatst.com/politics/wikileaks-posts-and-deletes-anti-semitic-tweet-as-it-does-putins-bidding-for-trump/ https://heatst.com/politics/wikileaks-posts-and-deletes-anti...

snovv_crash 10y ago
If anything, that website you linked is batshit crazy. At least Wikileaks had the sense to delete the tweets.
neves 10y ago
The guy is locked with Ecuadorian TV and English food. It is completely plausible that he goes batshit crazy at times. :-)
- thingexplainer 10y ago
  While I agree that Assange has been under an incomprehensible amount of stress for such a long time, he is getting increasingly radical and less journalistic, such as his (edit: alleged) vendetta against Clinton.
  - imron 10y ago
    He has repeatedly stated that he would happily release information on Trump and the Republicans if someone would leak it to him.
    - thingexplainer 10y ago
      I'm sure he would, that doesn't make it appropriate to use leaked information to carry out a vendetta. edit: getting source
      - imron 10y ago
        Is it really a vendetta though (genuine question, I'd be happy to see a source), or is it just that the people leaking information to him are doing it at this time, and he's releasing it for 'maximum impact' which has been what Wikileaks always tries to do?
        thingexplainer 10y ago
        Wikileaks should not serve the agenda of it's sources in reporting information, but of the citizens of the world who need more transparency that they claim to represent. Here you are: https://theintercept.com/2016/08/06/accusing-wikileaks-bias-beside-point/ https://theintercept.com/2016/08/06/accusing-wikileaks-bias-... People talk a lot about how Putin is an opportunist. I think he saw how bitter Assange was becoming and understood if he gave him the documents, he could step back and let him carry out his vengeance against a woman who had a huge role in forcing him to ground in the embassy ("can't we just drone this guy?"). I'm told this is a Rule of Power. But that is speculation.
        imron 10y ago
        Note the key phrase from that article 'led to speculation that...' In any case, here's Assange himself discussing this exact thing recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mARUrPtXk&feature=youtu.be&t=5019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mARUrPtXk&feature=youtu.be... Doesn't seem like much of a vendetta according to him.
        thingexplainer 10y ago
        It'd been a while since I'd read the article, and you're right, I oversimplified in my memory. I appreciate the counterpoint (though I can't watch it at the moment).
        imron 10y ago
        Here's part of his answer: "There’s been a lot of misquoting of me and WikiLeaks publications. In this particular case, the misquoting has to do with that we intend, or I intend, to harm Hillary Clinton or that I don’t like Hillary Clinton. All those are false. They come about as a result it seems of this campaign and those who are trying to personalize our publications."
thingexplainer 10y ago
At the risk of sounding naive, what do the brackets and sunglassses (edit: they're just glasses) mean and how is it anti-semetic?
- paulmd 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_parentheses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_parentheses No idea on the glasses. Maybe a reference to the stereotypical g-man? i.e. he was trying to say that Jews control the government? Regardless, the parentheses are pretty straightforward.
  - thingexplainer 10y ago
    I misread the tweet, they said "black-rimmed glasses" rather than "sunglasses". So it seems to boil down to, "It seems like most of our critics are those upwardly-mobile Jews." Another sad chapter in the descent of WikiLeaks from a journalistic organization that was a reason to hope for humanity into a the Daily Mail for the Kremlin instead of GCHQ.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - ryanlol 10y ago
    >Regardless, the parentheses are pretty straightforward. They really aren't, as the tweets hint they've recently been some sort of an anti-anti-semitism symbol, with lots of jewish people on twitter putting them around their names.
pessimizer 10y ago
It was pretty clear that the account was referring to the trend of Twitter users surrounding their own names with parens as a protest. "Not only the denigration of the ((())) symbol but also the use of the term ‘tribalist’ to imply Jews is, of course, base racism, a particular racism that Putin shares." The idea that the "denigration" of an anti-semitic symbol is itself "base racism" is bizarre. Saying that he's using the word "tribalist" to refer to Jews is just incorrect, because the vast majority of the people who surround their names with parens are not Jewish, just doing it in sympathy. Using this accusation to associate him with Putin is just propaganda. I think the tweet was a bit of pointless adhominem after noticing that a lot of their prominent critics seem to be a monoculture of very similar types of people. It annoys me when Wikileaks tries to act cute and smartassy (which is often), and this tweet bit them in the ass. It was this same hubris that made Assange think he had suddenly become a hot guy when he was in Sweden. Watching the video of him dancing, you can see a guy who thinks that he's finally turned into a butterfly.
- notahacker 10y ago
  Sneering at people who make public gestures of opposition to anti-Semitic tropes as "establishment climbers" sounds like pandering to a particular form of base racism to me, assuming you do so intentionally. I'll concede that it's possible that Assange or whoever tweeted that was unaware of what the parantheses symbolised in a way that someone tweeting "Tribalist symbols for establishment climbing? Most of our critics have pink triangles in their avatar" or worse "Tribalist symbols for establishment climbing? Most of the our critics have yellow stars in their avatar" really couldn't claim (I bet most people not involved with political Twitter are clueless about the parantheses' meaning). But conflating a Jewish symbol with the age old conspiracy theory that the "establishment" is run by people that suck up to Jewish interests by accident is certainly unfortunate.... And it gets even harder to defend the @Wikileaks Twitter account from pandering to anti-Semitism after looking at several of the other tweets unearthed by this search... https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Awikileaks%20jewish&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Awikileaks%20jewish&src=t...
  - undersuit 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

snovv_crash 10y ago

If anything, that website you linked is batshit crazy. At least Wikileaks had the sense to delete the tweets.

neves 10y ago

The guy is locked with Ecuadorian TV and English food. It is completely plausible that he goes batshit crazy at times. :-)

thingexplainer 10y ago
While I agree that Assange has been under an incomprehensible amount of stress for such a long time, he is getting increasingly radical and less journalistic, such as his (edit: alleged) vendetta against Clinton.
- imron 10y ago
  He has repeatedly stated that he would happily release information on Trump and the Republicans if someone would leak it to him.
  - thingexplainer 10y ago
    I'm sure he would, that doesn't make it appropriate to use leaked information to carry out a vendetta. edit: getting source
    - imron 10y ago
      Is it really a vendetta though (genuine question, I'd be happy to see a source), or is it just that the people leaking information to him are doing it at this time, and he's releasing it for 'maximum impact' which has been what Wikileaks always tries to do?
      - thingexplainer 10y ago
        Wikileaks should not serve the agenda of it's sources in reporting information, but of the citizens of the world who need more transparency that they claim to represent. Here you are: https://theintercept.com/2016/08/06/accusing-wikileaks-bias-beside-point/ https://theintercept.com/2016/08/06/accusing-wikileaks-bias-... People talk a lot about how Putin is an opportunist. I think he saw how bitter Assange was becoming and understood if he gave him the documents, he could step back and let him carry out his vengeance against a woman who had a huge role in forcing him to ground in the embassy ("can't we just drone this guy?"). I'm told this is a Rule of Power. But that is speculation.
        imron 10y ago
        Note the key phrase from that article 'led to speculation that...' In any case, here's Assange himself discussing this exact thing recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mARUrPtXk&feature=youtu.be&t=5019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6mARUrPtXk&feature=youtu.be... Doesn't seem like much of a vendetta according to him.
        thingexplainer 10y ago
        It'd been a while since I'd read the article, and you're right, I oversimplified in my memory. I appreciate the counterpoint (though I can't watch it at the moment).
        imron 10y ago
        Here's part of his answer: "There’s been a lot of misquoting of me and WikiLeaks publications. In this particular case, the misquoting has to do with that we intend, or I intend, to harm Hillary Clinton or that I don’t like Hillary Clinton. All those are false. They come about as a result it seems of this campaign and those who are trying to personalize our publications."

thingexplainer 10y ago

At the risk of sounding naive, what do the brackets and sunglassses (edit: they're just glasses) mean and how is it anti-semetic?

paulmd 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_parentheses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_parentheses No idea on the glasses. Maybe a reference to the stereotypical g-man? i.e. he was trying to say that Jews control the government? Regardless, the parentheses are pretty straightforward.
- thingexplainer 10y ago
  I misread the tweet, they said "black-rimmed glasses" rather than "sunglasses". So it seems to boil down to, "It seems like most of our critics are those upwardly-mobile Jews." Another sad chapter in the descent of WikiLeaks from a journalistic organization that was a reason to hope for humanity into a the Daily Mail for the Kremlin instead of GCHQ.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ryanlol 10y ago
  >Regardless, the parentheses are pretty straightforward. They really aren't, as the tweets hint they've recently been some sort of an anti-anti-semitism symbol, with lots of jewish people on twitter putting them around their names.

pessimizer 10y ago

It was pretty clear that the account was referring to the trend of Twitter users surrounding their own names with parens as a protest. "Not only the denigration of the ((())) symbol but also the use of the term ‘tribalist’ to imply Jews is, of course, base racism, a particular racism that Putin shares." The idea that the "denigration" of an anti-semitic symbol is itself "base racism" is bizarre. Saying that he's using the word "tribalist" to refer to Jews is just incorrect, because the vast majority of the people who surround their names with parens are not Jewish, just doing it in sympathy. Using this accusation to associate him with Putin is just propaganda. I think the tweet was a bit of pointless adhominem after noticing that a lot of their prominent critics seem to be a monoculture of very similar types of people. It annoys me when Wikileaks tries to act cute and smartassy (which is often), and this tweet bit them in the ass. It was this same hubris that made Assange think he had suddenly become a hot guy when he was in Sweden. Watching the video of him dancing, you can see a guy who thinks that he's finally turned into a butterfly.

notahacker 10y ago
Sneering at people who make public gestures of opposition to anti-Semitic tropes as "establishment climbers" sounds like pandering to a particular form of base racism to me, assuming you do so intentionally. I'll concede that it's possible that Assange or whoever tweeted that was unaware of what the parantheses symbolised in a way that someone tweeting "Tribalist symbols for establishment climbing? Most of our critics have pink triangles in their avatar" or worse "Tribalist symbols for establishment climbing? Most of the our critics have yellow stars in their avatar" really couldn't claim (I bet most people not involved with political Twitter are clueless about the parantheses' meaning). But conflating a Jewish symbol with the age old conspiracy theory that the "establishment" is run by people that suck up to Jewish interests by accident is certainly unfortunate.... And it gets even harder to defend the @Wikileaks Twitter account from pandering to anti-Semitism after looking at several of the other tweets unearthed by this search... https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Awikileaks%20jewish&src=typd https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Awikileaks%20jewish&src=t...
- undersuit 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

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