I wasn't arguing in the first place, I was expressing my anger and sadness about how gullible some people are, because they don't realize the shift in public op

I wasn't arguing in the first place, I was expressing my anger and sadness about how gullible some people are, because they don't realize the shift in public opinion and how it was manufactured (and partly also due to Assange's own behavior, no doubt about that). It's not a matter of opinion or one's political views whether Assange was the victim of an orchestrated smear campaign or not.