4 ms·

Julian Assange would like a word about exposing American war crimes.

by pydry 2y ago

paulryanrogers 2y ago
That's one extreme example, Assange has literally leaked the raw footage and names of operatives. Plenty of people speak out and oppose the government in the US and have for a long time, all without going to jail. In Russia opposition leaders are jailed and die. Even ordinary citizens are jailed for speaking publicly. The US has also gone through several transfers of power replacing the head of state.
- pydry 2y ago
  He leaked raw footage of a war crime. Thats it. Thats all. Did the US put the war criminals in prison? Fuck no. They put the guy who leaked the footage of the war crime in prison. Ive met plenty of Putin supporters and they downplay and excuse these kinds of abuses in exactly the same way you just did. It's two sides of the exact same coin.
  - paulryanrogers 2y ago
    My argument is that it's a false equivalence. Both are bad. Yet Assange breathes and is finally free. Navaly is dead. People who merely attended his funeral risked prison time.
    - pydry 2y ago
      It's a matter of degree, not overall nature. They're both imperial powers. Russia tends to be more brutal towards internal dissidents; America overthrows more democracies and is generally more invasion happy. Navalny was also pretty obviously a western stooge with western backing, made popular by western propaganda, pushing a pro western agenda, whereas Assange was just a dissident who exposed a war crime whom western imperialists tried to paint (really pathetically) as a Russian spy. It's like arguing over whether the crips or the bloods are different because one had a lower body count this year or something. The westerners who protest navalny or get incensed about Russia's human rights record remind me of the multitude of Soviets in the 1950s who used to protest Jim Crow and lynchings in America.

4 ms·

Julian Assange would like a word about exposing American war crimes.

by pydry 2y ago

Julian Assange would like a word about exposing American war crimes.

paulryanrogers 2y ago
That's one extreme example, Assange has literally leaked the raw footage and names of operatives. Plenty of people speak out and oppose the government in the US and have for a long time, all without going to jail. In Russia opposition leaders are jailed and die. Even ordinary citizens are jailed for speaking publicly. The US has also gone through several transfers of power replacing the head of state.
- pydry 2y ago
  He leaked raw footage of a war crime. Thats it. Thats all. Did the US put the war criminals in prison? Fuck no. They put the guy who leaked the footage of the war crime in prison. Ive met plenty of Putin supporters and they downplay and excuse these kinds of abuses in exactly the same way you just did. It's two sides of the exact same coin.
  - paulryanrogers 2y ago
    My argument is that it's a false equivalence. Both are bad. Yet Assange breathes and is finally free. Navaly is dead. People who merely attended his funeral risked prison time.
    - pydry 2y ago
      It's a matter of degree, not overall nature. They're both imperial powers. Russia tends to be more brutal towards internal dissidents; America overthrows more democracies and is generally more invasion happy. Navalny was also pretty obviously a western stooge with western backing, made popular by western propaganda, pushing a pro western agenda, whereas Assange was just a dissident who exposed a war crime whom western imperialists tried to paint (really pathetically) as a Russian spy. It's like arguing over whether the crips or the bloods are different because one had a lower body count this year or something. The westerners who protest navalny or get incensed about Russia's human rights record remind me of the multitude of Soviets in the 1950s who used to protest Jim Crow and lynchings in America.