He's dead until proven otherwise
He's dead until proven otherwise
When Belarus forced a Ryanair plane en route from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk in order to detain opposition activist Roman Protasevich, this act of piracy was met by global condemnation. However, we should remember that Western powers did exactly the same in 2013, when the plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to land in Austria. It was done under order of the US, which had alleged that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board, trying to get from Russia to Latin America. To add insult to injury, Snowden was not on the plane.
Against his will, Assange became a symbol of this dark side of Western democracies, a symbol of our struggle against the new digital forms of control and regulation over our lives which are much more efficient than the old “totalitarian” ones. Many Western liberals point out that there are countries with much more brutal direct oppression than the UK and US – so why such an outcry about Assange? True, but in those countries oppression is open and obvious, while what we are getting now in the liberal West is the oppression which largely leaves intact our sense of freedom. Assange brought out this paradox of non-freedom experienced as freedom.
When Belarus forced a Ryanair plane en route from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk in order to detain opposition activist Roman Protasevich, this act of piracy was met by global condemnation. However, we should remember that Western powers did exactly the same in 2013, when the plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to land in Austria. It was done under order of the US, which had alleged that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board, trying to get from Russia to Latin America. To add insult to injury, Snowden was not on the plane.
Against his will, Assange became a symbol of this dark side of Western democracies, a symbol of our struggle against the new digital forms of control and regulation over our lives which are much more efficient than the old “totalitarian” ones. Many Western liberals point out that there are countries with much more brutal direct oppression than the UK and US – so why such an outcry about Assange? True, but in those countries oppression is open and obvious, while what we are getting now in the liberal West is the oppression which largely leaves intact our sense of freedom. Assange brought out this paradox of non-freedom experienced as freedom.
(post is archived)