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Ask HN: Have We Abandoned Julian Assange?
The most influential journalist ever, his reputation smeared and possibly being slowly murdered.
- 55555 7y agoIt seems like it, but how much power do we have to help?
- peter_retief 7y agoI feel so sad and powerless, what can we do against these forces of disinformation?
- missdizzy 7y agostart with informing yourself. think and open your mind. write emails, letters, petitions. question your politicians, colleagues, yourself. leave traces of your opinion everywhere. Every one step is a step, however small. Good luck. At least you're not indifferent.
- sgammon 7y agoit's not disinformation when a handful of countries all agree he's a criminal and a fugitive i don't know why you feel like expending heatfelt energy protecting a russian intelligence asset
- AustinHook 7y agoStart by being brave enough to display youir support publicly. It's not like we don't have the power. It's that we are not trying anything at all.
- lucd 7y agohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/22/mueller-report-confirms-it-assange-is-not-whistleblower-or-journalist/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/22/mueller-r...
- peter_retief 7y agoThats a very hard indictment against him, opinionated and wrong
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- js8 7y agoMy personal theory is that Assange is just a too big a rebel. He is too radical, so radical, that we cannot understand him, he is out of Overton window. Perhaps to the point of being a hypocrite, by necessity. Compare him with Edward Snowden. Snowden has moderate opinions compared to Assange. With that, he is much more readable than Assange by general public, and so he is better shielded.
- peter_retief 7y agoIs the truth radical?
- jstewartmobile 7y agois this a glowpost?
- larnmar 7y agoIt certainly does seem that he had a lot of fair-weather friends who only liked him when he was pissing on one side of politics, but not the other.
- CM30 7y agoYeah, I'd agree 100% with this. Sadly, it's not unique to Assange. It's a problem with a lot of society, with politics, etc. No one seems to have the moral integrity to treat their side and the others equally, and to stand up for those who do the same. If they did, Assange may not be in jail, or awaiting possible extradition to the US.
- Paraesthetic 7y agoLooks a lot like it. Its sad really. I had a lot of respect for him, but that's getting harder to admit out loud in public.
- Nursie 7y agoI think perhaps it's a stretch to say he's the most influential journalist ever here. He's a divisive character and seems to have been a divisive character amongst those that knew and interacted with him, as well as the general public. What's happened to him was all too predictable. The US was offended by him, so one way or another they were going to get their hands on him. They tried all the usual tricks - deny it, get their allies to do their dirty work while also denying it. And now they have him. I expect him to turn up dead or otherwise just disappear.
- AustinHook 7y agoHe's far less divisive than the current POTUS. So what has divisive got to do with it? In any case , it's not him that is divisive so much as all those who are employed to smear him.
- lostmsu 7y agoWho is more influential?
- buboard 7y ago> most influential journalist ever here. The narrative is that Assange put Trump into the world's most powerful office. The only parallel in history is Nixon's resignation. He may not be #1 but , if we are to believe the narrative, he's #2 (pun not intented) Or we can conclude that he did not put trump in office. <insert tough decision meme here>
- ned7 7y agoJulian Assange has offered humanity a lot more than what humanity can offer him at anytime. I wonder why the hell would someone get jailed for revealing the truth.
- peter_retief 7y agoWhy is no one asking that question?
- missdizzy 7y agonobody questions US.. US questions you..
- missdizzy 7y agoSo very true and so to the point. He did not only get jailed. He got put in a solitary cell in a high security jail.. And mentally tortured. And almost nobody cares..
- whamlastxmas 7y agoNo one cares because there was maliciously fake news about how he's a bad house guest and didn't scoop his cat's poop and two women in Sweden wanted to contact him to tell him to take an STD test and then the police took it upon themselves to want to question him (not even charge him) about sexual assault. Assange is going to get Epstein'd
- buboard 7y agoi know you 're joking but to be clear (and because apparently there are a lot of misconceptions abotu the cases) he hasn't been charged with anything like rape and the allegations are about nonconsensual removal or condom, outlined in detail here: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/4/12/18306901/julian-assange-arrest-wikileaks-rape-sweden-embassy https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/4/12/18306901/julian-ass...
- wrnr 7y agoIt's what John Milton wrote about in Paradise Lost: To serve in Heaven or to rule in Hell. Milton backed the republicans during the English revolution, and saw his beloved revolution be usurped by the Cornwall dictatorship, and ultimately the restoration of the British monarchy. He had to flee for his life and was effectively banned from all public life. Whereas he used to serve in prestiges jobs, at the end of his life he was marginalised, broke and blind. Survivorship-bias gives a wrong impressions of rebels, most end on the outskirts of society. Milton dictated the verses of Paradise Lost to a scribe, as he put it, to justify the ways of God to Men. Substitute an all-powerful God for an all-powerful government, and it get a hole new meaning. IMHO it's still one of the best poems in the English language. There is a wise lesson here, I don't like it, but I can't say it's not true.
- peter_retief 7y agoThanks for the excellent reply. I plan to read Paradise Lost now, I failed at a previous attempt.
- buboard 7y agohe s dangerous to the world and needs to be locked up because reasons until trump is out of office. That's what people are supposed to think.
- peter_retief 7y agoIts important to hold politicians accountable, however is in office.
- dariusj18 7y agoI think Wikileaks were a novel concept, but they needed to remain ideologically pure to remain viable. Unless all the evidence of conspiracy is manufactured, the organization become political.
- buboard 7y ago> evidence of conspiracy is manufactured What evidence? Of conspiracy to do what?
- dariusj18 7y agohttps://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/930228239494209536 https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/930228239494209536 https://theintercept.com/2016/08/06/accusing-wikileaks-bias-beside-point/ https://theintercept.com/2016/08/06/accusing-wikileaks-bias-...
- buboard 7y agois this evidence of conspiracy to get Sanders elected?
- dariusj18 7y agoI would say it is conspiring against Clinton at the least, and conspiring for Trump at worst. The main point is that they involved themselves directly in politics. They weren't just being an outlet for leaked information, they timed their releases for effect and coordinated with others (ex. Stone) to help amplify that effect.
- hopesthoughts 7y agoLol, most people think it goes in the opposite direction.
- AmericanOP 7y agoPre-2016 Assange, or after 2016 Assange?
- buboard 7y agowhich one deserves to rot in prison forever?
- sgammon 7y agoYes, And Good Riddance
- buboard 7y agonot all of us agree
- mattbgates 7y agoThree types of people in the world: those who expose the truth, those who cover up the truth, and those who remain blissfully ignorant of the truth. It's been a blow to our freedom that Julian Assange was betrayed, as Wikileaks could've let us know exactly what we needed to know for 2020, but... refer to #2 of the three types of people in the world, and #3 for those who vote based on knowing only what they want to know.
- mattbgates 7y agoWhoa downvotes... which agency is trying to silence me? Haha. FREEDOM [OF SPEECH AND HUMAN RIGHTS]!!! Just remember: Whistleblowers are heros.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- DoreenMichele 7y agoWe mostly don't care about either people or justice in this world. There's so much prosaic callousness and awfulness that people simply don't even bother to notice. It really shouldn't come as some kind of surprise that people are mostly "fair weather friends" and you can assume they won't have your back when the chips are down.
- tootie 7y agoThat's an extremely generous description. For one, he's not really a journalist. All he does is publish leaked information. In that regard, he's not unique at all nor has he published more quantity or quality than MSM sources. James Risen on the NY Times broke the mass surveillance story. Sy Hersh of the New Yorker broker My Lai and Abu Ghraib. Glenn Greenwald published the Snowden leaks. Assange is best known for Cablegate where he actually mishandled that info. He's also best known for the DNC email leaks which we now have evidence on the record showing that he coordinated this leak with Roger Stone at the behest of the Trump campaign and probably received the info from professional Russian hackers. He has absolutely debased himself. And he's been far less influential than he believes himself to be.
- Gustomaximus 7y ago> we now have evidence on the record showing that he coordinated this leak with Roger Stone at the behest of the Trump campaign.... He has absolutely debased himself. I dont understand this view. So the logic being presented is if a journalist (or other) is presenting information of public interest, but it comes from a source that has a political (or other) motivation behind it they should then bury the story? I would understand this view if Assange also received information critical of the Trumps/Russia and refused to publicise it, but what was his alternative? > he's not really a journalist Then what is he? His format and method are different but essentially he is broadcasting news.
- tootie 7y agoThe source of his information was a deliberately malicious government agency. The release was coordinated to cover up the news cycle of the Access Hollywood tape. That means he is suborning espionage and he sat on it until it helped Donald Trump. And he lied about it repeatedly. He had also promised a trove of leaks about Russia in the past that never materialized.
- MuricaFYeah 7y agoThe amount of grey comments in this post (most of which are in support of Assange) is pretty impressive. Good job Crazyhorses!
- throw51319 7y agoDude he's not a good guy. If he was being fair, he would expose China and Russia too. But he was just leaking US secrets. They never expose China or Russia because they know what will happen in very short notice. The US is the only one of the 3 that has a true due process.
- stillbourne 7y ago> The most influential journalist ever, his reputation smeared and possibly being slowly murdered. Journalists don't edit source material to fit their narrative. I long ago lost faith in Assange when he released edited footage of journalists being shot by a US military helicoptor with an edited audio track. The video with the original audio was damning enough, editing the video prior to release was the beginning of the end for Assange in my eyes. Since then rather than releasing any and all information Julian started to "curate" what was released. It's one of the many reasons many of the original members of wikileaks left the organization.
- hopesthoughts 7y agoThe answer to the question is unfortunately yes. What I dreamt in 2010 is coming true, just in a much different way. I actually dreamed that Assange was executed by lethal injection. It's still happening all be it much slower.