Tag: freedom of speech

Quite the opposite.

Everyone pretty much knows who I am and where I stand…umm…quite literally.

But one day. Today. I think I might agree with being Anonymous.

There was a time when I thought these guys might end up fighting the wrong fight, but I was wrong. As they’ve grown they have evolved into a group that stands for some of the more basic rights we hold as living beings, and were among the first to publicize all that was very obviously wrong with the Church of Scientology.

So it’s been a while, and Anonymous has focused on a new strategy. They’re going to get us all to agree with them, here’s how. They’ve begun a push to start have people gather for “Freedom of Speech” days.

Freedom of Speech is something every living being on this planet is entitled to.

So why am I reading THIS. Apple – in their infinite wisdom, has chosen to pass judgement on Wikileaks, before any government can even legitimately prove or covict anyone of any wrongdoing…

But wait…there is more. With complete disregard for due process and international law, Bank of America suspended all payments to WikiLeaks, and alongside of them, eBay (they own Mastercard and PayPal) decided with no legal precedent order to stop all transactions with WikiLeaks.

As much as some people may not like it…WikiLeaks is a news publisher and whistleblower…not a terrorist organization. They publish documents that make headlines. If a government is going to resort to corporate and social assassination just to save itself from a little embarrassment…then that I think our government might actually be failing to represent it’s citizens’ interest accurately. By our governments actions, and by that of key American financial companies, we announce to the world that our freedom of speech is only for those that don’t speak out against us.

Enter Anonymous. With many people clearly (and quite vocally) offended that corporations were taking action before any semblance of proof was even gathered against WikiLeaks, Anon came in and immediately took action, seems they DDoS’ed PayPal, MasterCard, Bank of America, and eBay.

The argument was posed attacking Anon stating that deliberately bringing down those sites was blatantly ignoring the rights of those organizations rights to free speech as well. Anon clearly explained that their “goal is to raise awareness about WikiLeaks and the underhanded methods employed by … companies to impair WikiLeaks’ ability to function.” I can make this even easier. The financial companies took action first without legal precedent (but I pet money they had one hell of a lot of encouragement by the US political community, none of which will admit they did any such thing).

The bottom line is not that WikiLeaks is right…or that they are wrong. The bottom line is that corporate America didn’t bother waiting for legal precedent…they just said “fuck you Julian” and stopped giving him money that was by all rights his. This isn’t legitimate business, it’s theft.

You might be wondering where I am headed with all this, considering the top of the page says “I am not Anonymous.”

It’s simple. I feel that both corporate America and the US Government are not acting in the interests of the citizens of the US. I think they are acting at the behest of our government in the interest of saving face and embarassment over the mistakes those leaks might reveal. Revealing those mistakes is not a crime, people.

If those leaks reveal incidents whereby people have breached our own laws or those we’ve agreed to abide by others, it’s justice – pure and simple.

Again, I say I am not Anonymous…but after everything I’ve read today…I sure as hell agree with them.

Please let our government grant those other countries/organizations those ineffable human freedoms we so violently declare our support for.

Rant over, have a great evening everyone.

-Tony

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