4 ms·

Thiel doesn't claim to be a nonpartisan advocate for privacy. Thiel's support for Trump is frankly baffling, and worth condemning. However, Assange spent years

Thiel doesn't claim to be a nonpartisan advocate for privacy. Thiel's support for Trump is frankly baffling, and worth condemning. However, Assange spent years claiming to be on the side of transparency and being above politics. Then, he intentionally timed new releases to be most impactful in the elections, almost certainly at the direction of Russia. Regardless of who you are voting for, he's lost all credibility as a transparency advocate, and has been revealed to be a propagandist.

xenadu02 10y ago
Indeed. If he were actually about transparency he'd have released all the info at once. For some reason he seems to have new releases ready right when Trump is taking a beating in the news. I doubt he is actively trying to subvert the election, but whoever is feeding him the information seems to be trying.
- nullc 10y ago
  Data dumps are not transparency, the fact that wikileaks is excessively data-dumpy is one of the major complaints about them by traditional media. Data is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Dumping a lot of data at once is how you bury it, not bring it to light.
  - the_watcher 10y ago
    He's dumped tons of it at once, on multiple occasions
  - cwilkes 10y ago
    That would be true if there weren't organizations or people that could go through that trove of data and publish articles about it. What you seem to be advocating for is that in order to release factual informaton it has to have an approved message associated with it first? Data dumps are transparency. Now it is up for others to make that into knowledge.
revelation 10y ago
Where did this Russia angle even come from? This is hilarious. I feel like in a bad Cold War flick. Can you dig in your brain and find out where you have picked up that piece of information? Fascinating. That aside, WikiLeaks timing releases is little more than the NYT picking between the story that goes to the front page with big picture and those on page 6. For that to be propaganda there needs to be some agenda other than "maximize attention" and I haven't seen that.
- nothrabannosir 10y ago
  A U.S. official involved in the investigation said that the classified information collected on the hack so far "indicated beyond a reasonable doubt that it originated in Russia." http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1051TD http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1051TD Covered far and wide in almost every form of media.
  - revelation 10y ago
    That says nothing about Russia puppeteering WikiLeaks release. It's also, you know, not actual information of anything, it's another claim.
- mcphage 10y ago
  > I feel like in a bad Cold War flick. You seem to be under the impression that the Cold War was fictional and not a conflict that lasted around 40 years...
- the_watcher 10y ago
  It's been covered to an extreme extent. If Assange isn't a Russian puppet, he's, at minimum, in direct contact with the Kremlin.

xenadu02 10y ago

Indeed. If he were actually about transparency he'd have released all the info at once. For some reason he seems to have new releases ready right when Trump is taking a beating in the news. I doubt he is actively trying to subvert the election, but whoever is feeding him the information seems to be trying.

nullc 10y ago
Data dumps are not transparency, the fact that wikileaks is excessively data-dumpy is one of the major complaints about them by traditional media. Data is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Dumping a lot of data at once is how you bury it, not bring it to light.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  He's dumped tons of it at once, on multiple occasions
- cwilkes 10y ago
  That would be true if there weren't organizations or people that could go through that trove of data and publish articles about it. What you seem to be advocating for is that in order to release factual informaton it has to have an approved message associated with it first? Data dumps are transparency. Now it is up for others to make that into knowledge.

revelation 10y ago

Where did this Russia angle even come from? This is hilarious. I feel like in a bad Cold War flick. Can you dig in your brain and find out where you have picked up that piece of information? Fascinating. That aside, WikiLeaks timing releases is little more than the NYT picking between the story that goes to the front page with big picture and those on page 6. For that to be propaganda there needs to be some agenda other than "maximize attention" and I haven't seen that.

nothrabannosir 10y ago
A U.S. official involved in the investigation said that the classified information collected on the hack so far "indicated beyond a reasonable doubt that it originated in Russia." http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1051TD http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1051TD Covered far and wide in almost every form of media.
- revelation 10y ago
  That says nothing about Russia puppeteering WikiLeaks release. It's also, you know, not actual information of anything, it's another claim.
mcphage 10y ago
> I feel like in a bad Cold War flick. You seem to be under the impression that the Cold War was fictional and not a conflict that lasted around 40 years...
the_watcher 10y ago
It's been covered to an extreme extent. If Assange isn't a Russian puppet, he's, at minimum, in direct contact with the Kremlin.