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Anyone else sick of articles implying that anyone who doesn't want to support Wikileaks is "bowing to pressure" from some unnamed "they" (probably Republicans)?
by endtime 16y ago
Anyone else sick of articles implying that anyone who doesn't want to support Wikileaks is "bowing to pressure" from some unnamed "they" (probably Republicans)? Wikileaks very much seems to have an anti-US agenda and I can totally understand why an American company would want nothing to do with them.
- quanticle 16y agoThey doesn't necessarily mean Republican. Remember, the one documented case of pressure we have in this whole saga was Joe Lieberman (a Democrat) pressuring Amazon. As to your second point, corporations aren't patriotic, no matter how much you want them to be. If a corporation drops an account, its because the costs of holding the account are outweighing the benefits. Lieberman's pressure raised the costs of hosting Wikileaks to the point that Amazon was unwilling to continue hosting them.
- locopati 16y agoMinor correction - Lieberman is a former Democrat, elected as an Independent after losing the Democratic primary, who happens to caucus with the Democrats, though for the life of me, I cannot understand they put up with him, since he often sides with the Republicans.
- randallsquared 16y agoStances regarding Wikileaks cross party lines. The current Democratic administration is against them, and I noticed some attempts by narrative-seeking media to pigeonhole support for Wikileaks as being the province of Tea Partiers. But lots of the US left like Wikileaks, so that doesn't work well. A slightly better division might be that the extremes of both the Left and the Right like Wikileaks to some degree, and the middle mostly doesn't. But support on the Right seems to be scattered throughout the span of extreme to moderate, possibly based on whether they think of Wikileaks primarily as attacking the Obama administration (them) or primarily as attacking the US (us).
- hugh3 16y agoI don't think you'll find many folks on the right supporting Wikileaks on the grounds that they're attacking the Obama administration. But you'll probably find some supporting them on the grounds of radical libertarianism. It is very much an us-and-them-ism issue though. I find that to a great extent it breaks down upon whom you consider to be "us"; a funny-looking geek with bad hair and some kooky political ideas, or the United States Government. It's a sad reflection on my own consistency that I'd be much more inclined to support Wikileaks if Assange weren't so damn creepy-looking. Something about him just makes me want to flush his head in a toilet.