Revisiting Julian Assange's Excellent Talk, His First Talk Since 2019 (Tactful and Almost Invulnerable to 'Cheap Shots')
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WebM: WikiLeaks founder on a deal with the US Justice Department
TODAY we're publishing a shorter video. It's only the "core" talk of Julian Assange - a talk he gave on the first of the month, i.e. only hours before Iran fired hypersonic missiles (one blind spot of Wikileaks has long been the rogue role in world affairs outside SIX-EYES).
7 years ago I cautioned Julian Assange that he made it seem like Wikileaks was sympathetic to Iran/Russia (or Hezbollah, which by then was already widely regarded as an Iran-leaning proxy). Julian Assange called it "fearful nonsense" and when Hezbollah's leader (for over 3 decades) got killed Wikileaks again promoted its proximity to this man. Julian Assange believed that self-censorship for fear of bad association wasn't excusable. Well, he managed to make it a lot easier for his enemies to present him as an ally of the Trump family, Russian media etc.
Why do this? Several Russian channels (including RT) invited me, but I didn't even respond, which is the best way to turn one down.
Julian Assange didn't get in trouble for the 2016 election leaks, the 2017 CIA leaks etc. The reason he was put in confinement all these years was the batch of publications from 2010 - the prime of Wikileaks. In other words, that had nothing to do with Russia (nobody alleged back then that Manning or Assange were "agents" or "useful idiots" for Putin).
When we first shared the Assange talk (later a transcript) we focused on the contents on what he had said (having likely 'prepared it in his head' for years already).
I already wrote in the past about the time Wikileaks offered me to volunteer for them. I wasn't interested because of the legal ramifications at the time (I cited a new - at the time at least - report from The Register about Britain planning to pass a new law criminalising the passage of sensitive information), set aside the problematic connotations the site had, especially in connection to the Trumps and the Russians (even it that's untrue but still harmful public perception).
In his latest talk Assange was careful not to make controversial statements, including politically-sensitive things that can be misinterpreted or distorted to call him "transphobe" (in relation to Manning), Russophile, Trump supporter etc. (he actually made fun of MAGA in relation to Pompeo and Barr)
Assange need not be politically-correct or self-censor*; having said that, some tact can help him make it harder for his enemies/adversaries/haters leverage stereotypes, e.g. the stigma of being right wing (which he clearly isn't).
Maybe the "new Assange" will speak slowly and carefully consider, before uttering out answers, how they can be used against him later. Some questions are traps/bait, albeit not from the audience he spoke to this week (those were friends). █
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* There tend to be ways to express things in a "tight" way that's generally harder to distort, take out of context, or latch onto dog whistles. The same ideas can still be expressed but using words that aren't politically loaded. The meaning of words can change over time, e.g. "gay", "deep state", "escort" (depending on who uses them and how).