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I expect some will label me a “shitlib” for describing WikiLeaks as possibly doing more harm than good. Because sometimes secrets are necessary, and too much transparency dangerous.
--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: October 4, 2006--
Julian Assange is almost certainly a piece of shit. You don’t get that many accusations of sexual assault, molestation, and rape without there being truth to it. Let’s instead focus on his founding of WikiLeaks on October 4, 2006.
WikiLeaks publishes news leaks and classified material sent by anonymous sources, and it has released a shit-ton of material that others would rather have not been made public. Exposing corruption and fuckery is important, such as what journalists Woodward and Bernstein did in breaking the Watergate story and ending Nixon’s horrible presidency. But the problem with WikiLeaks is the lack of control or consideration for the potential damage in a quest to mass publish, potentially putting lives at risk in the process because who gives a shit about consequences?
Sometimes fictions are important, like telling your grandmother how much you love that butt-ugly sweater she gave you. Other times it’s a massive disinformation campaign to ensure the D-Day landings to help defeat the fucking Nazis were successful. If Assange had been there, he might have told Hitler that Normandy was the real landing location. Do you want all your secrets made public?
There certainly is filthy-dirty laundry in need of airing. WikiLeaks exposed the U.S. Army manual for operating Guantanamo prison as well as a video of an American Apache helicopter firing on Iraqi civilians. It revealed other civilian deaths caused by U.S. military actions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It also made videos of unrest in Tibet available, getting around Chinese censors, and gave away the secrets of the cult of Scientology.
As a history writer who loves to expose the nasty shit humans are capable of, I am conflicted as to whether WikiLeaks has been a good or bad thing for society. The issue is that humans are an unruly bunch, and there is no such thing as natural rights. We have only achieved the level of civilization that exists, such as it is, through laws we are able to enforce. There are those who wish to burn down all the institutions that create the order we have, but it’s pretty clear we can’t handle that much freedom. We need the freedom of your right to swing your fist to end at the tip of my nose.
That being said, it’s important that those in charge of keeping important secrets do so in a way that is to the benefit of humanity; that they are trustworthy. I know there are damn few governments and organizations that fit that bill, but the solution isn’t to make absolutely everything public. The solution is to hold the secret holders accountable and expose the corruption that needs exposing, not blast every door wide open.
In an ironic twist, Wikileaks helped get the orange anus elected by publishing Clinton campaign emails, but then during Coppertone Caligula’s reign of error the CIA discussed assassinating Assange.
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"There are those who wish to burn down all the institutions that create the order we have, but it’s pretty clear that we can’t handle that much freedom." Ah, Libertarians, who smugly promote anarchy from the safety of their suburban homes on weekends, hypocritically demanding the dissolution of the very things that made it possible for them to blabber on and on from the comfort of their living rooms and smartphones.