Thread by @caitoz

The Assange Case Explained Simply

"The Assange issue is simple. What makes it seem complicated is the lies people have been fed by the media class whose job is to manipulate the public into consenting to the agendas of the US power alliance."
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-assange-…

The Assange Case Explained Simply (Audio)

"One of the most common reasons I hear from people on their reluctance to wade into the Assange debate is that they don't understand it. It looks like a complicated issue to them, so they leave it to the experts."
soundcloud.com/going_rogue/th…

In reality, the complexity of this case is a complete illusion. It's very, very simple. It only looks complicated because many years of media distortion have made it appear so.

The US government is trying to extradite a journalist and prosecute him under the Espionage Act for exposing its war crimes, with the long-term goal of normalizing this practice.

That's it. That's the whole entire thing. So simple you can sum it up in a single sentence.

The most powerful government on earth setting a legal precedent which allows it to extradite any journalist anywhere in the world for exposing its malfeasance would have a massive chilling effect on journalism everywhere in precisely the area where press scrutiny is most needed.

It's not any more complex or nuanced than that.

The Assange issue is simple. What makes it seem complicated is the lies people have been fed by the media class whose job is to manipulate the public into consenting to the agendas of the US power alliance and its war machine.

Because of this mass-scale smear campaign, you will be told that Assange is "not a journalist" and should therefore not be defended as such.

You will be told that Assange "helped Trump win" with WikiLeaks publications that harmed the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, and should therefore not be supported.

You will be told that Assange is being prosecuted for "hacking" and not journalism because the US indictment alleges that Assange tried to help Manning crack a password while taking classified documents.

You will be told that Assange is a Russian asset because of still-unproven allegations by the US government that the Kremlin was behind the 2016 releases, but this claim is completely baseless and, again, completely unrelated to the 2010 Manning publications this case is about.

Do you see how that works? Do you see how what's actually happening with the Assange case is extremely simple and easy to understand, but all the narratives justifying his persecution make it necessary to engage in a bunch of complicated counter-arguments?

This obfuscation didn't happen by accident, which is why I refuted as many such distortions as possible in this long article written after Assange's imprisonment.
caityjohnstone.medium.com/debunking-all-…

The most powerful government in the world trying to lock up a foreign journalist for telling the truth about it is as insanely tyrannical an abuse as you could possibly come up with. It's as obvious as it gets.

The Assange case is so simple and so common sense it should be one of the most mainstream, normie positions anyone could possibly have, right up there with believing racism is bad and child molesters should be stopped. It's only because of imperial spinmeisters that it isn't.