4 ms·

As a person I find Assange to be detestable

• the_af 12y ago
  Not trying to be snarky, but why does it matter whether you find Assange detestable "as a person"? Your opinion on WikiLeaks (and surveillance, and whistleblowers, and illegal wars) is what's important. It would only matter if you found WikiLeaks ethically compromised because of something Assange did.
  • dmix 12y ago
    When people can't attack the topic they love attacking the characters behind it. Humans are much weaker than ideas and much easier targets for motivated (or paid) attackers. As we've seen with the attempts to discredit Snowden with his past as a college-dropout.
    • deciplex 12y ago
      > As we've seen with the attempts to discredit Snowden with his past as a college-dropout. I haven't heard that one, actually. It's probably the same anti-intellectual assholes who will praise e.g. Gates or Zuckerberg, et al, for dropping out of college to do some 'real work' too, rather than staying in the ivory tower or whatever.
    • jevgeni 12y ago
      <sarcasm>Way not to go all passive aggressive there and not to ironically succumb to your own criticism.</sarcasm> Let me help you off your high idealistic horse and say, that it could be the case, that people do not actually want to attack the topic, but care for it. It might be the case, that these people see Assange as a liability to actual whistleblowing and a useful idiot for more authoritarian players out there.
  • jevgeni 12y ago
    That's exactly the point. For whistleblowing Assange shouldn't matter at all. His personality shouldn't be front stage like that. He centralised whistleblowing in the public's mind, whereas it should be decentralised by definition.