Social Question

freguarUK's avatar

Do you feel solidarity with Julian Assange?

Asked by freguarUK (362points) August 12th, 2022

The French called journalists the fourth power, they also gave us the Statue of Liberty. Modernity celebrates the myth of freedom of speech. Who is the greater friend of citizens and jelly ? Establishment representatives or brave journalists? Can an ordinary person feel solidarity with the desire for publicity, the expression of spiritual will and faith in pure justice?

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

If we have the concepts of a journalist, then Julian has this vocation to the highest degree. When someone like that comes along, a visionary, whether a religious leader or a statesman or a saint or just an ordinary person with a good heart and common sense, when someone like Julian Assange comes along, we need to fight for him. Not for his sake, but for ours.

Julian Paul Assange Samuel:
“The fact remains that we have a very irresponsible god.”

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9 Answers

SEKA's avatar

WTF you talking about?

kritiper's avatar

No. He is clearly a traitor.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Maybe he and Trump will be cellmates.

ragingloli's avatar

Regardless of any personal failings they may have, Whistleblowers, like Assange, Manning or Snowden, are true heroes, no matter how much their heroism is vilified by propagandists.
Remember, Serpico and Hugh Thompson Jr. were vilified by their “peers” as well.

Zaku's avatar

I haven’t studied Julian Assange in detail, but my impression is that he was an Australian who founded WikiLeaks (all good, IMO), which then published leaks (what WikiLeaks should do) leaked by Manning (who I think was brave and well-intended, and I wish would be released). And I approve of his leaks of Democratic Party favoritism against Sanders in 2016, and the CIA leaks, and I have believe that the CIA considered assassinating him, and that they absolutely should not have even considered that.

That all seems good and brave to me.

I tend to expect that the changes against him in Sweden may have been dubious, but I have not dug into that to feel like I have an educated opinion.

I also haven’t researched why the US thinks it can charge him with crimes if he’s Australian.

I agree in any case with news agencies which protested that as a journalist, he shouldn’t be prosecuted for espionage in any case. I would add, nor should whistleblowers, when the government is doing shitty asshattery.

I side with Manning and Assange and Snowden and other whistleblowers and leakers, that in cases of egregious anti-democratic acts such as were leaked, they should be leaked, and the whistleblowers and leakers should be pardoned.

jca2's avatar

Not at all.

elbanditoroso's avatar

Assange is stale bread. Yesterday’s news. Irrelevant now.

If I have any sympathy for him, it’s because he had an opportunity to a lot of good things and screwed it up, rendering himself irrelevant.

Extradition, jail, – it makes no difference. He could have been a contender. But he simply doesn’t matter any more.

freguarUK's avatar

@elbanditoroso.
The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure, or a solitary success.
Yes, he had the opportunity to do a lot of good things.
I think he might again. He’s a difficult boy to get rid of.
According to Heraclitus, we cannot step into the same river twice. In the flow of time, he argued, an opportunity lost is lost forever.
But if I shouldn’t believe in a person who created a missed opportunity to do a lot of good things, then how can I believe in myself as a person without a beginning?

I know that a person should believe only in himself. But if this aspect is comprehensive then I feel profound sadness.

Demosthenes's avatar

Yes. As @ragingloli said Whistleblowers, like Assange, Manning or Snowden, are true heroes. It’s amusing to me the way one side of the political aisle praised Assange when he exposed the misdeeds of the military (while the other vilified him) and the exact reverse occurred when Assange released material damaging to Hillary Clinton. Opportunism at its finest. Assange’s personal character is questionable, no doubt, but he did something important and I stand by him for that. The state power coming down against him for his action is reprehensible and I will continue to oppose it. There aren’t very many who take a stand to challenge such power, but I admire the few who do.

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