Conflation

Conflation is a favorite tactic in politics, blending together things that have no relationship and pretending that they do. Trump's sexual misconduct charges are a perfect example of this as he attempts to use Bill Clinton's past as an issue when it is Hillary Clinton he is running against. Then to illogically say that people should not consider allegations against him from ten years ago, then immediately ranting about Bill Clinton over events from forty years ago.

But there are other uses of conflation that are more disturbing. Throughout social media there are attempts to join together Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and whistleblowers in general. None of these belong in the same topic. I have written about my view of Edward Snowden, he released confidential information that he legally had access to and came to believe it's proof of wrongdoing should be released to the public. A gifted lawyer could certainly assert that Snowden's actions were those of a whistleblower, but he has opted to avoid his day in court.

Julian Assange is not a whistleblower. He had and has no legal access to any information that his conscience compelled him to make public. Everything he has released through Wikileaks is the fruit of a criminal enterprise. He or more likely other hidden forces hack into private information sources that they have no right to. The dump of emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign is just such an occurrence, but I don't care who it is that he is targeting, it is not being done for the good of the public. Assange is not an American, he is an Australian so shouldn't his focus, if purely motivated by noble intentions, be his own homeland which he targets.

Why is it that Assange has an overwhelming need to target the United States? Why is it he does not target Russia and it's allies? What is Equador getting out of it's sheltering of Assange in it's Embassy in London?

Too many people want to separate Assange the man from the criminal enterprise he is running. They want to say, well maybe his character is not good, but his work is good. That is an illogical conclusion.

I've asked before and I 'll ask again, where is Assange's funding coming from? He is not running a program where everybody works for free. Hackers know they risk imprisonment if caught and some certainly love the challenge but they also want a payday.

Where is the email dump of the Trump Campaign, oh that's right, the Russians haven't provided Assange with that, yet.