WIKILEAKS IS THE NEW FEAR
Dec. 17th, 2010 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: The “WikiLeaks Is War” fear meme has taken root in the public consciousness – at least according to a Washington Post poll, which finds that close to 70% of the American Peoples™ think that WikiLeaks is harming the US by exposing its secrets, and almost 60% think the US govt ought to arrest Julian Assange for spying or something.
You know what they say about polls, of course. But it’s also worth noting that the anti-WikiLeaks sentiment is strikingly bipartisan – Republicans are more likely to see WikiLeaks as harmful, but a majority of Democrats and independents feel the same way. Only when you look at the 18-29 demo does WikiLeaks seem like no big deal.
Otherwise, most people agree with Mitch McConnell at this point: WikiLeaks is dangerous (even though there’s no evidence whatsoever that it is), and Assange should be arrested for espionage (despite there being no legal basis for doing so – not yet, anyway).
So there’s another Big Dumb Fear meme sold. And why not? Most people stopped evaluating threats rationally after 9/11. Why should WikiLeaks be any different? We’re probably lucky most of the same people don’t think Saddam Hussein is behind WikiLeaks.
And all this should make for Big Fun if everyone gets their wish and Assange is indicted under the Espionage Act – especially since that will mean that anyone who has read, written about, commented upon, tweeted, spread links by "liking" on Facebook, shared by email, or otherwise discussed any info released on WikiLeaks can also be arrested under the same law.
According to this guy, anyway:
Which means if yr reading this, you should start thinking about moving to Paraguay.
Ha ha. I’m kidding, of course. The DOJ isn’t going to arrest all of you. Just as many of you as it takes to make its point that we are At War and the US Govt will not stand for this “WikiLeaks is the press/Dude yr overdoing it with the secrecy” crap. Probably just Assange and his sources will be enough to feed that beast.
Still, you might want to keep an overnight bag packed. Just in case.
Yr no fun anymore,
This is dF
You know what they say about polls, of course. But it’s also worth noting that the anti-WikiLeaks sentiment is strikingly bipartisan – Republicans are more likely to see WikiLeaks as harmful, but a majority of Democrats and independents feel the same way. Only when you look at the 18-29 demo does WikiLeaks seem like no big deal.
Otherwise, most people agree with Mitch McConnell at this point: WikiLeaks is dangerous (even though there’s no evidence whatsoever that it is), and Assange should be arrested for espionage (despite there being no legal basis for doing so – not yet, anyway).
So there’s another Big Dumb Fear meme sold. And why not? Most people stopped evaluating threats rationally after 9/11. Why should WikiLeaks be any different? We’re probably lucky most of the same people don’t think Saddam Hussein is behind WikiLeaks.
And all this should make for Big Fun if everyone gets their wish and Assange is indicted under the Espionage Act – especially since that will mean that anyone who has read, written about, commented upon, tweeted, spread links by "liking" on Facebook, shared by email, or otherwise discussed any info released on WikiLeaks can also be arrested under the same law.
According to this guy, anyway:
"By its terms, [the Espionage Act] criminalizes not merely the disclosure of national defense information by organizations such as Wikileaks, but also the reporting on that information by countless news organizations. It also criminalizes all casual discussions of such disclosures by persons not authorized to receive them to other persons not authorized to receive them-in other words, all tweets sending around those countless news stories, all blogging on them, and all dinner party conversations about their contents. Taken at its word, the Espionage Act makes felons of us all."
Which means if yr reading this, you should start thinking about moving to Paraguay.
Ha ha. I’m kidding, of course. The DOJ isn’t going to arrest all of you. Just as many of you as it takes to make its point that we are At War and the US Govt will not stand for this “WikiLeaks is the press/Dude yr overdoing it with the secrecy” crap. Probably just Assange and his sources will be enough to feed that beast.
Still, you might want to keep an overnight bag packed. Just in case.
Yr no fun anymore,
This is dF
