Sympathy for the Devil?

"An organization with a sterling reputation for providing the public with accurate information about secret government and corporate activities was used to launder conspiracy theories that helped elect a racist, sexual predator president of the United States."

To some, Julian Assange is a martyr in the cause of free speech. To others, those who have watched his antics over the past two years, he's the grand corrupter of his own creation, WikiLeaks.

For years I backed WikiLeaks and Assange but, in the last presidential election, it became apparent, in fact brutally obvious, that Assange was bent and WikiLeaks with him. I did easily eight or ten posts about my growing doubts about Assange, his credibility and what he was really up to. Most of those elicited angry criticism from people on the Left who rallied to his defence, accusing me of being pro-Hillary. Just search the blog for "Assange" if you're interested.

Since then emails have emerged leaving no doubt that Assange colluded, collaborated with the Trump campaign to influence the outcome of the election. It proved, as I had argued, that Assange was bent through and through and no "honest broker" of journalism. I can only wonder what my critics think now that the truth is out.

The Intercept's Robert Mackey has written an interesting expose, "Julian Assange's Hatred of Hillary Clinton Was No Secret. His Advice to Donald Trump Was." It's not an exhaustive account of Assange's interactions with Team Trump but it lays out the gist of Assange's deceit and his betrayal of his own creation, WikiLeaks. Here are some excerpts.

Before his private messages to Trump Jr. were leaked, Assange himself had categorically denied that he or WikiLeaks had been attacking Hillary Clinton to help elect Donald Trump. “This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election,” he wrote in a statement released on November 8 as Americans went to the polls.

Even though Assange had by then transformed the WikiLeaks Twitter feed into a vehicle for smearing Clinton, he insisted that his work was journalistic in nature. “The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks — an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself,” Assange wrote. “Millions of Americans have pored over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us,” he added. “It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment.”

...

WHILE WIKILEAKS HAS undoubtedly facilitated the release of information that is both true and important, it is Assange’s Trump-like willingness to traffic in such unsubstantiated rumors, conspiracy theories, and innuendo not supported by evidence that undermines his claim to be a disinterested publisher, not a political operative.

This willingness to traffic in false or misleading information was very much in evidence during his work on behalf of Trump, and it is a consistent feature of Assange’s advocacy for other people and causes.

...
In the final months of the 2016 presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter feed promoted not just its new publications, but also frequently referred to tabloid rumors — like old chestnuts about Hillary Clinton’s supposed “role in the death of White House counsel Vince Foster” — and wild conspiracy theories about her campaign chair taking part in bloody satanic rituals.

...
Despite the constant claims from Assange and the Trumps that the emails stolen from Democrats implicated Clinton in scandal and corruption, it is important to keep in mind that the WikiLeaks method of encouraging Trump supporters and Reddit trolls to scour the documents for evidence of malfeasance did not, in fact, uncover any such evidence.

Instead, the hacked emails were used to reverse-engineer preposterous conspiracy theories, like the imaginary pedophilia scandal called Pizzagate, which WikiLeaks was still treating as real two months after the election.

...This is the real tragedy and menace of the public and private collaboration of WikiLeaks with Trump. An organization with a sterling reputation for providing the public with accurate information about secret government and corporate activities was used to launder conspiracy theories that helped elect a racist, sexual predator president of the United States.

That might be a terrific result for people like Julian Assange, who see a dysfunctional, discredited White House as a way to undermine what they see as the real evil empire. For Americans condemned to live under Trump, particularly the most marginalized who, as Noam Chomsky has observed, will suffer the most from his cruelty, it is a far more troubling outcome.