As Julian Assange enjoys his first weekend of freedom in years, there appeared to be no question in the mind of his wife, Stella, about what the family’s priorities were.

The WikiLeaks co-founder would need time to recover, she told reporters after they were reunited in his native Australia, after a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents.

What comes after that is one of the most intriguing questions for anyone familiar with how the site he founded in 2006 utterly changed the nature of whistleblowing. Will it return to its original mission?

James Harkin, the director of the London-based Centre for Investigative Journalism, (said) “In retrospect, it’s striking that everything WikiLeaks published was true – no small feat in the era of “disinformation” – but the tragedy is that much of its energy and ethos has now passed to blowhards and conspiracy theorists. Perhaps, in the light of our tepid new involvements in the Middle East and Ukraine, we need a new WikiLeaks.”

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Ah, celebrating the freedom of a rapist who escaped charges by playing on his fame.

    Fucking wild.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It’s insane the lies people will tell to defend a rapist. I don’t know why so many people are just fucking alright with rape if it’s ‘their guy’ doing it.

        The rape charges literally were not dropped by the person claiming it happened, but any lie is acceptable to defend a rapist, it would seem.

        • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
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          4 months ago

          Point out where he was charged with rape. Because if we’re basing an accusation of rape as actual rate then Biden is guilty of the exact same thing. Don’t assume that just because someone is critical of one white old senile piece of shit that they support the other white old senile piece of shit.

            • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
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              4 months ago

              Can you not even read? Preliminary investigation is not the same thing as charged. If that’s how we are defining charged, then again Biden has been charged with rape

              • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                I don’t play games with rape apologists, so you’re on your own from here on out.

                • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
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                  4 months ago

                  Tara Reid has entered the chat.

                  you’re on your own from here on out.

                  After saying it two times I doubt you are serious.

        • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
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          4 months ago

          He was accused of rape never charged with it. Kind of like Biden was. So if we’re holding that same standard up for assange you need to hold that same standard of rape for Biden

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    4 months ago

    I am not in any way going to defend what was done to Julian Assange, because it was abhorrent.

    But, based on what he’s done in the past, I’m guessing ‘everything’ will be far more Biden-focused than Trump-focused.

    • demonsword@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      The man has every reason to hate the USA. Helping getting Trump to power would surely be some sweet revenge, since another Trump presidency will be undoubtely be divisive and harmful

        • demonsword@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          That really is not an excuse for his relationship with Russia.

          The enemy of my enemy is a short-term ally, that might be how he thinks, who knows. I have no side in this fight since I’m not a Assange fanboy and I have nothing but contempt for the USA.

            • demonsword@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              In 2016 he had already spent years hiding inside an embassy. It’s not that hard to conceive that hatred tends to build over time.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                4 months ago

                Okay, but you said it was short-term. That is not short-term. And as far as I know, Wikileaks is still very easy on Russia. So how long is this favoritism of his going to last? Why should that be what Wikileaks is about?

                • demonsword@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Okay, but you said it was short-term. That is not short-term.

                  It was just a conjecture of how Assange might have thought about. I never said that there really is any link between him and Russia. And it was long ago, when he was still hiding inside Ecuador’s embassy, when the hypothetical link between him and Russia was new.

                  And as far as I know, Wikileaks is still very easy on Russia. So how long is this favoritism of his going to last?

                  I doubt he still runs wikileaks. Assange was in jail for years.

                  Why should that be what Wikileaks is about?

                  I don’t know and I don’t really care.

    • anticolonialist@lemmy.cafe
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      4 months ago

      If I had dirt on someone that speculated about drone killing me, I would have no problem releasing that dirt. WikiLeaks has never had to retract a story or cables because of bad information, even the DNC couldn’t refute the authenticity of the DNC cables.

  • kerrypacker@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    He’s an Australian hero and all of you salty yanks can get fucked, you persecuted him for exposing your government and he’s finally free.

    • hark@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It takes surprisingly little for people who claim to support journalists to turn around and hate on a journalist for exposing corruption. The “national security” angle never seems to fail.

        • hark@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          “Domestic” billionaires interfere with our elections far more to the point where it makes what Russia does look like nothing, but you decide to focus on a journalist who exposed information, a fraction of which is information that you think might have helped Russia. I wonder if it’s because of the billionaire-backed media machine telling you to care about this particular instance.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Whataboutism + claim of motivated reasoning.

            You buddy need a basic class on logic. It will prevent sad displays such as your last post. Maybe it will make you less likely to support a Russian spy in the future.

            • hark@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Logically we should care more about the ones who have more influence on our elections. If you actually cared about election interference, you’d want to address the primary source of it, i.e. billionaires. Just because Assange revealed information which might have damaged Hillary’s already garbage campaign, doesn’t mean he’s a Russian spy.

              • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                That’s nice. Now did he tease more data dumps against Clinton a month before the election yes or no?

                Little honesty test. Can you tell the truth?

                • hark@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Assange’s hatred of Hillary existed long before the election. He’s not a Russian spy. Just because goals overlap, doesn’t mean they’re allies. It also doesn’t invalidate all the other insightful leaks he helped publish. You speak of honesty yet ironically frame a question in a dishonest manner.