> Maybe he's been a sexist asshole at times. The flesh is weak, no doubt. But I don't get how that can be a criticism of Wikileaks. That's the halo effect http

> Maybe he's been a sexist asshole at times. The flesh is weak, no doubt. But I don't get how that can be a criticism of Wikileaks. That's the halo effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect Any quality, good or bad, will affect the perception of other qualities. If people come to believe Assange is a sexist asshole, they will trust Wikileaks less, even if the two have little to do with each other. Another example would be Hans Reiser. Does killing one's wife makes one a worse programmer? Probably not. Still, I bet many people would be reluctant to trust him on file systems stuff, because, well, he killed his wife!