I don't usually write about stuff connected to daily political events, but this great piece of news is related to several of the topics we’re concerned with. If you don’t completely isolate yourself from the news you've probably heard that on the 24th of June Julian Assange was released from prison. He didn't descend the walls of the tower on a rope ladder baked into bread, but was actually let out of the dungeon gates by the turnkeys.
Source: Gabriel Miklós, Unsplash
The mainstream press tends to write about Assange in a very strange, pseudo-neutral style, suggesting some shady character involved in fishy dealings. We'll get to why our hero is so important in a moment, but first a very brief overview. Who exactly is this man?
Julian Paul Assange was born on Magnetic Island, Australia (a place visited recently by Sindbad, the traveler). From childhood he was surrounded by adventure, growing up among artists, rebellious and cult-member fathers, in a multitude of geographical locations and schools, before becoming a first-rate hacker, a kind of intellectual Robin Hood. He broke into every organisation, including the NASA and the Pentagon, without destroying anything, just publishing what he found. In 2006 he founded Wikileaks, a non-profit media organisation dedicated to publishing leaked documents.
Source: Wikipedia
Of course, no one has been held accountable for the mass murders committed by the US military, as well as the other magnificant deeds which Wikileaks has exposed, except for those who reported them. Assange was first accused of being a sex offender1. Sweden issued an arrest warrant for him, but he remained free on bail in Britain. He fled the modern witch-hunt to the Ecuadorian embassy, where he was granted political asylum. He hid in the London embassy for seven years, then, when a pro-American government came to power in Ecuador, the gates were opened to British police. Five years of solitary confinement and psychological torture followed during a legal wrangle over whether to extradite him to the US on espionage and other ridiculous charges. (Once they were no longer necessary, the sexual charges were quietly dropped by the Swedes.)
Fortunately, his fame mobilized a lot of people on Assange's side. Lawyers, protesters, journalists fought in his seemingly hopeless case. If you're interested in the detective novel-like details of this, I recommend the blog of Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Scottish patriot and freedom fighter. Had Assange been extradited to America, he would have faced not only life imprisonment but also horrific treatment and a possible “suicide” like that of Jeffrey Epstein. It was almost Australian cowboy go America when, to great surprise, he was released on a plea bargain.
Forrás: Jakartaglobe.id
Needless to say, Assange is completely innocent. His only crime was to have published some of the self-documented secret atrocities of our crumbling, demented superpower and other governments, armies and agencies. His conviction would have been a huge blow to the already badly battered freedom of the press, an ominous signal to journalists and reporters already censoring themselves. A message that real journalism, exposing the dirty deeds of the masters, has consequences. And that we shouldn't even think about what our overlords don't like.
It’s about time to realize that the overwhelming majority of the media has, by now, been completely transformed into propaganda. Hungary, Russia or China are by far not alone in this respect. Mainstream outlets calling themselves independent have long become mouthpieces of governments and other organisations in the so-called Free World, carrying out well-constructed campaigns disguised as news for the benefit of narrow groups. Journalists and reporters from the New York Times, the Washington Post and other outlets make a good living from serving their masters, not to mention the major television channels. Other media workers simply follow the prevailing thinking — after all, it’s so much easier to believe how beautiful the emperor's new clothes are than to become dangerous troublemakers. True, investigative, courageous journalists who risk their life to report on the misdeeds of the powerful have become as rare as white ravens.
Meanwhile, data collection by states and companies has reached anti-utopia proportions. Sindbad the sailor, who recently visited more than half a dozen distant countries, was quite surprised when he was fingerprinted and photographed at all of the borders except for one. If this had happened thirty years ago, he thought, we would have rebelled. Now we walk obediently, heads bowed, wherever we are corraled, like sheep. Huawei's alleged back door, through which the Chinese government has access to all data, is occasionally reported in our parts, but the logical possibility that this is but a copy of what’s happening with Facebook and Microsoft in the West is never mentioned.
Forrás: Claudio Schwarz, Unsplash
So I think real journalists play a very important role in our world. If we want to improve society, we need to know what's happening in it. In today's information chaos, which Daniel Schmachtenberger talks about, it's good to have people whose competence and honesty we can trust, even if their opinions come under necessary scrutiny. It makes no sense characterizing them as right-wing, left-wing, liberal, conservative, etc. They are are intelligent, professional, well resourced champions of the truth. I may be wrong, but I believe if you really pay attention to someone’s physical behavior, their voice tone, their eyes, you can tell how sincere they are.
Source: NITHIN KUMAR, Pixabay
So here are a couple of the friends of freedom, white ravens I think are worth reading or watching. If you don't consume any news, you're right. Keep up the good work. But if you do anyways, you might want to drink from clean sources.
Aaron Maté (son of the popular Hungarian-Canadian doctor Gábor Máté) is a regular on Judge Napolitano's show, for example. He spends a lot of time investigating the alleged Douma chemical attack by the Syrian government, the Gaza apocalypse and other juicy topics.
Glenn Greenwald's daily newscast on Rumble has half a million followers. (There’s too much censorship on YouTube.)
Seymour Hersh is a true veteran, informing about a range of issues from the covered-up atrocities of the Vietnam War to the blowing up of the North Stream.
It would be nice to find similar people reporting in other languages, such as Hungarian. At present it seems to me that journalists in this country are ideologically completely committed in one direction or the other. As for impartiality, it might be worth mentioning that the three journalists above are all North Americans of Jewish ancestry who are highly critical of the current government and army of the US and Israel. Analysts and thinkers abound, but of the fact-finder media warriors I’m presently familiar with, I consider them the best.
Now back to celebrations! Assange's case goes far beyond his precious person. We are glad that he is finally free, and that we can see the gaps in the wall. Exactly what in his case has become too unpleasant for the counts and barons is hard to tell. What’s certain is that, without a world-wide coalition, he would have been finished long ago. And if the most emblematic of rebels could come back from the lion's maw, anything is possible. It’s worth working, fighting for the causes we believe in. It’s worth persevering in seemingly hopeless situations. It’s worth standing up for our brothers and sisters in trouble. It’s worth learning and using whatever possibilities there are for change in this utterly corrupt and dysfunctional civilization we live in. Justice won a spectacular victory on the 24th of June. Long live Julian Assange! Long live freedom of the press! Long live optimism and a happy future!
Source: Edu Lauton, Unsplash
While since the case of Jeffrey Epstein, it is obvious to everyone that a good part of the upper ten thousand of the planet, including a British prince and several US presidents, are paedophile freaks.