7 ms·
I have no idea why this is getting downvoted. Odd.
by cheez 7y ago
I have no idea why this is getting downvoted. Odd.
- Traster 7y agoProbably because every time this comes up, it's the same one guy making asburdist claims like Assange's completely self-enforced time in the Ecuadorean embassy was illegal detention by the UK government.
- Kim_Bruning 7y agoFor something to be self-enforced, doesn't one have to be able to walk away freely if one so chooses?
- xkemp 7y agoNot if there's a warrant out for your arrest, no.
- 101404 7y agoNo idea if its "the same guy", but this is a link to an interview with the UN special rapporteur on torture about his investigation into Assange.
- ryanlol 7y agoThat doesn’t sound too different from many prisons. Is it not detention if it’s “easy” to escape?
- k1m 7y agoThe "same one guy" is one way of describing Nils Melzer, here's another: > The problem for the propaganda system targeting Assange is that Melzer is not just someone blogging on the internet; he is the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. In addition, he is a professor of international law at the University of Glasgow and holds the Human Rights Chair at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in Switzerland, where he has been teaching since 2009, including as the Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law (2011–2013). Melzer even speaks fluent Swedish. In other words, it is hard to imagine anyone better qualified to comment on the Assange case. - https://www.medialens.org/2020/burned-at-the-stake-the-un-special-rapporteur-on-torture-demolishes-the-fake-claims-targeting-julian-assange/ https://www.medialens.org/2020/burned-at-the-stake-the-un-sp...
- Traster 7y agoYou might want to address the issue that his claims are absurdist nonsense rather than his CV.
- k1m 7y agoThat's your opinion. If you're aware of who Melzer is and his credentials (calling him "same one guy" suggested you weren't), maybe onus should be on you to explain why you think Melzer's claims are absurd. Have you read/watched interviews with him where he's answered many questions about the Assange arrest and detention?
- 93po 7y agoYeah, the threat of being illegally and immorally extradited and potentially facing a death penalty and being stripped of human rights really makes his asylum "self enforced"
- black_puppydog 7y agoWell, Assange does stir emotions in many. That makes him such a hard topic to discuss, even if from a (human and press) rights perspective, the whole thing is pretty cut-and-dry.
- runarberg 7y agoIndeed. Assange is an asshole. A lot of people that have tried working with have conformed that. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been successfully smeared (he has), or that hes contribution to journalism should be ignored (it shouldn’t)
- buzzkillington 7y agoAssange isn't an asshole. Assange is a victim of torture.
- black_puppydog 7y agoFalse dichotomy. And being a victim of torture can in no way be defended by "he's an asshole."
- rcMgD2BwE72F 7y agoWhen being or not being an asshole became something of importance regarding the issues at stake? The dichotomy might be false but you're missing the whole point.
- runarberg 7y agoI don’t see “being an asshole” to be the issue at stake here at all. It is for sure an issue for people that are trying to work with him. It is understandable that people bring it up when conversation revolve around him. But it is completely irrelevant when we are talking about his contributions to journalism being censored.
- 101404 7y ago
- fernandotakai 7y agofor some reason, a LOT of people here do not like assange/wikileaks anymore. which is super weird imho.
- drpgq 7y agoI would assume some associating it with Trump is behind it.
- kyralis 7y agoI suspect it's a result of the apparent politicization of Wikileaks. When it first appeared it seemed fairly neutral, but that neutrality appears to have vanished somewhere along the line.
- fernandotakai 7y agobut wikileaks was always political. i mean, we all remember collateral murder and the amount of stuff leaked re: gwb and the iraq war.
- clutchingstraws 7y ago>When it first appeared it seemed fairly neutral, but that neutrality appears to have vanished somewhere along the line. Wikileaks has always been as neutral as reasonably possible, given that it consists of human journalists and their human sources, not emotionless impartial machines. They have an excellent accuracy rate. The only thing that changed is that their honest reporting became embarrassing to wealthy and powerful people closely associated with the Democratic party. The DNC leadership loved Wikileaks' reporting on governmental malfeasance prior to late 2008. What changed in late 2008 was not Wikileaks' demonstrated neutrality towards reporting on governmental malfeasance, but the color of the lawn signs of the victorious president. I suspect there's also some deep resentment from the traditional J-school cohort, who have spent over a decade being embarrassed by outsider Assange and his colleagues. Wikileaks has consistently make them look like obedient stenographers to the powerful, not principled journalists willing to speak truth to power. Wikileaks has publicly exposed many in the media as being too afraid to break real stories for fear of government legal pressure and a reduction in corporate advertising dollars. Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, and Boeing don't advertise their military hardware on the cable news networks because they're trying to sell cruise missiles and fighter jets to the folks at home. They do it to hold something over the cable news networks' execs' heads when embarrassing stories might come to light. Combine the collective resentment of the leadership of both major American political parties and their connected donors, the national security apparatus, the military-industrial complex, and every mainstream journalist who's getting scooped by an Australian ex-black-hat and his friends who (gasp!) never even attended Columbia, and we end up with a vicious and unfounded anti-wikileaks narrative festering within the politically-acceptable conversation today.
- cambalache 7y agoIt is downvoted because Assange became the enemy of many people in the so-called American "left".
- ryanlol 7y agoWhich is bizarre, Assange just hates the US in general. Of course he’d want the least competent people running the country. He’s much further left than any US democrats.
- steveeq1 7y agoProbably bots.
- Kim_Bruning 7y agoPlausible.
- 93po 7y agoMore likely mindless people who are still bitter about the DNC being full of scumbags and getting called out for it