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    Re: Chris Hedges interviews Kristinn Hrafnsson of Wikileaks (video) Archived Message

    Posted by dovetailjoint on June 16, 2019, 7:06 pm, in reply to "Chris Hedges interviews Kristinn Hrafnsson of Wikileaks (video)"

    The fundamental, core problem with Wikileaks, is that Assange doesn't accept the premise that the West is the best and the state is, despite its faults, honest in heart and intent. Assange isn't loyal to any state, or the United States. He doesn't believe in patriotism as my country right or wrong, especially in wartime, when our criticisms stop at our borders and we must all support our troops, and our security services, who are there to keep us safe.

    By doing this, not supporting the state, Assange and people like him, become adversaries and not partisans, which in times like these, make them the enemy. Truth, of course, has become the enemy too.

    In contrast, the Guardian accepts the narrative that the state is there to protect us all, and not just the status quo and a tiny sliver of people at the top of society. We live, after all, in a liberal democracy, as the Guardian would argue, and not in an unrepresentative oligarchy, that's opposed to real democracy.

    For the Guardian and the people working there, who are so loyal and so silent about what's happening and why. Assange is a dangerous heretic with unacceptable views, views that undermine our faith in our institutions, but almost our entire way of public life, in our definition and practice of 'freedom' itself. These aren't trivial matters.

    One could almost see Assange as a powerful symbolic actor, like Martin Luther who challenged the Catholic Church's right to control the central texts and beliefs of Medieval society and started a cascade of changes that outlived him. Today things happen much faster, which makes Assange even more dangerous and a threat to the established order, especially the cosy relationship between the journalist preisthood and the state, where texts, information, is careful mananged and controlled, and why Wikileaks arose to challenge this order.

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