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Conspiracy has a bad canotation. You can have a conspiracy to overthrow some government, you can also have a wacky belief into something which has no base in an
by Ardit20 16y ago
Conspiracy has a bad canotation. You can have a conspiracy to overthrow some government, you can also have a wacky belief into something which has no base in any reasonable doubt to believe. The latter being the way the word conspiracy theory is used.
There is however no conspiracy here. A national government, the most mighty power in any nation, seeks to arrest a man and makes such intention known to the entire world. A man this is about who we have read only recently by certain people asked to be arrested in defiance of international law and without having committed a crime, a man who was accused by the US government for having blood on his hands for leaking information which apparently has nothing new to say, a man of whom people are speculating as to how the government will be ridden of, the preferred choice of the speculators being to kill him.
A conspiracy is something which has no base in reality. This is beyond that. In this instance there is no base to not believe in the "conspiracy".
Also, it is telling that only hours after an article was submitted here which did not make the front page of HN, an article by CNN on a blog on CNN, asked whether this is a smear campaign that the Associated Press reports that the warrant is withdrawn.
I for one have no reasonable doubt. I wish not to engage in any games of thought. I would rather see this for what it is, an absolute disgrace by a democratic government who is conspiring against its people and their will.
- tptacek 16y agoThe notion that the US endeavors to arrest Assange is itself a conspiracy theory, as there is no direct evidence to support it. What crime would he be charged with? When you build a narrative on a premise like that, you're already heading off into tinfoil hat country. People routinely assert --- far more credibly --- that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have blood on their hands. Note also that the current headline on CNN is "Rape ccusation dropped against WikiLeaks founder", and the first story under that is "Is Assange target of smear campaign". Of course, this is neither here nor there; the CNN home page is engineered to maximize page views, not enlightenment. Would you like a screenshot?
- Ardit20 16y agoI did not say the US government. I said: "we have read only recently by certain people asked to be arrested in defiance of international law" Why would I want a screenshot? This was written at 8:30 US time http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/21/smear-campaign-suspected-in-assange-arrest/ http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/21/smear-campaign-suspecte... That might be irrelevant. My point was that a conspiracy theory is something which has no base in reason. The entirety of these events however cries out for an explanation.
- jacquesm 16y agoIn the case of sealed warrants there doesn't have to be any evidence for it to be true though. And if I were Julian Assange I wouldn't put America very high on my places to holiday list. Why take the risk if you don't have to? Possible crimes he could be charged with? No idea but I'm sure that the word 'interstate wirefraud' will pop up in there somewhere ;)