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Watch the Republicans claim Wikileaks is anti-republican, the democrats claim they're anti-Democrat... Yet when the entire primary source is published the only

by harry8 9y ago

Watch the Republicans claim Wikileaks is anti-republican, the democrats claim they're anti-Democrat... Yet when the entire primary source is published the only bias is between your own ears. Corruption on all sides is rife. You should be worried about that.

joshuamorton 9y ago
>Yet when the entire primary source is published the only bias is between your own ears. This is only true if there is never any editorialization with regard to which primary sources are published.
- travmatt 9y ago
  Wikileaks is famously silent when it comes to Russia: Assange famously bragged about ‘kompromat’ they held and planned to dump on Putin, kompromat which never materialized - then subsequently censored Syrian leaks to hide evidence of Russian bank transfers. I wonder if this attitude has anything to do with the TV deal Assange signed with Russian state media. Others, like Pussy Riot, have confronted Assange on these facts and he was conspicuously quiet.
forapurpose 9y ago
I think this idea is a serious, highly consequential error (when broadly accepted). It's the corrupt and criminal who say, 'everybody does it'.[0] If you study the professional practice of propaganda, you'll find that they use this argument too - it covers for them and attempts to paralyze their targets (which is commonly the true aim of propaganda - confusion and paralysis). There are very important, consequential differences between people and between organizations; some should be trusted, some supported, ignored, opposed, shunned, and some should be jailed. It's all the difference between a just, functional, prosperous and free society on one hand, and on the other hand a corrupt one where such things are despairingly accepted as inevitable. We can do and have done much better than that. [0] To avoid any doubt: The parent commenter is not a criminal; the ideas are the same.
- harry8 9y ago
  The point is not whether criminals are democrat or republican, the point is to weed them out either way.
gramstrong 9y ago
Yet when the entire primary source is published the only bias is between your own ears. This was true, up until the point Julian Assange started providing political commentary every day on Twitter. There are also other ways of being biased..

by harry8 9y ago

joshuamorton 9y ago

>Yet when the entire primary source is published the only bias is between your own ears. This is only true if there is never any editorialization with regard to which primary sources are published.

travmatt 9y ago
Wikileaks is famously silent when it comes to Russia: Assange famously bragged about ‘kompromat’ they held and planned to dump on Putin, kompromat which never materialized - then subsequently censored Syrian leaks to hide evidence of Russian bank transfers. I wonder if this attitude has anything to do with the TV deal Assange signed with Russian state media. Others, like Pussy Riot, have confronted Assange on these facts and he was conspicuously quiet.

forapurpose 9y ago

I think this idea is a serious, highly consequential error (when broadly accepted). It's the corrupt and criminal who say, 'everybody does it'.[0] If you study the professional practice of propaganda, you'll find that they use this argument too - it covers for them and attempts to paralyze their targets (which is commonly the true aim of propaganda - confusion and paralysis). There are very important, consequential differences between people and between organizations; some should be trusted, some supported, ignored, opposed, shunned, and some should be jailed. It's all the difference between a just, functional, prosperous and free society on one hand, and on the other hand a corrupt one where such things are despairingly accepted as inevitable. We can do and have done much better than that. [0] To avoid any doubt: The parent commenter is not a criminal; the ideas are the same.

harry8 9y ago
The point is not whether criminals are democrat or republican, the point is to weed them out either way.

gramstrong 9y ago

Yet when the entire primary source is published the only bias is between your own ears. This was true, up until the point Julian Assange started providing political commentary every day on Twitter. There are also other ways of being biased..