Tuesday, December 14, 2010
by digby
Some people seem to be surprised at this, but I'm not:
The American public is highly critical of the recent release of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks Web site and would support the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by U.S. authorities, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.
Most of those polled - 68 percent - say the WikiLeaks' exposure of government documents about the State Department and U.S. diplomacy harms the public interest. Nearly as many - 59 percent - say the U.S. government should arrest Assange and charge him with a crime for releasing the diplomatic cables.
Why wouldn't they think this since virtually everyone on TV, including journalists, is acting as if telling the truth about the US Government, even when it's done in league with reputable newspapers, is going to kill us all in our beds? It's not as if they are being told the truth --- even about that.
And frankly, it's clear that under the stress of rapid social change and economic insecurity, America is morphing itself quite comfortably into a police state, yearning to believe that it is under the most serious threats mankind has ever known (well, except for the real ones like climate change, which they increasingly believe is a hoax)in order to justify putting themselves into the hands of people who say they are protecting them. Like those lab rats who repeatedly shock themselves for rewards, they are so overstimulated that they are excitedly eating up the fearmongering and demagoguery, just so they can watch the authorities use their power to make it stop.
It helps them feel safe to believe that these allegedly mortal threats can be banished when the police incarcerate and punish a single "evil" man. It also means protecting the very people who are really making them so terrified --- but that's how authoritarians roll.
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digby 12/14/2010 01:00:00 PM
Steve
This is a great post except for one cognitive disconnect: the caveat about the threat of global warming. Global warming and terrorism both exist, but both are equally still the subject of fear mongering and police statism. To declare as demagoguery the Right's fixation while ignoring the pet fears of the Left is the pot calling the kettle paranoid.
This is a great post except for one cognitive disconnect: the caveat about the threat of global warming. Global warming and terrorism both exist, but both are equally still the subject of fear mongering and police statism. To declare as demagoguery the Right's fixation while ignoring the pet fears of the Left is the pot calling the kettle paranoid.
AlcibiadesSlim
Pop Authoritarianism. It protects you and makes you feel exceptional. Better than any pill or soap. Consumer cultures breed infantile minds.
Pop Authoritarianism. It protects you and makes you feel exceptional. Better than any pill or soap. Consumer cultures breed infantile minds.
Jose Chung
America is morphing itself quite comfortably into a police state
Love the cold sober analysis
America is morphing itself quite comfortably into a police state
Love the cold sober analysis
shermhed
So refute Digby's statement, otherwise it is just more of the same from you.
So refute Digby's statement, otherwise it is just more of the same from you.
Guest
Confinement of civilians and foreign nationals without trials? Check.
Endless state of war; only proper use of tax dollars is on "defense." Check.
Largest number of prisoners in the world? Two-tiered system of justice? Biased and ineffective propoganda instead of actual press? Etc. You know it's true.
Confinement of civilians and foreign nationals without trials? Check.
Endless state of war; only proper use of tax dollars is on "defense." Check.
Largest number of prisoners in the world? Two-tiered system of justice? Biased and ineffective propoganda instead of actual press? Etc. You know it's true.
johnny
For the most part, Americans believe what they are told to believe.
For the most part, Americans believe what they are told to believe.
Sam Simple
Great post digby, but what a depressing article! So, 68 percent of Americans think being lied to by your government is O.K. and that people who want to publish the truth should be punished? Boy, we are more fucked than I realized when a full two-thirds of Americans are that far down the rabbit hole!
Great post digby, but what a depressing article! So, 68 percent of Americans think being lied to by your government is O.K. and that people who want to publish the truth should be punished? Boy, we are more fucked than I realized when a full two-thirds of Americans are that far down the rabbit hole!
Terrrier
I'm not going to hold my breath. We have no institution left to speak the truth and the intertubes will be a poor substitute once they are stolen and commoditized. Horse transportation may yet save us! (Damn little else can.)
I'm not going to hold my breath. We have no institution left to speak the truth and the intertubes will be a poor substitute once they are stolen and commoditized. Horse transportation may yet save us! (Damn little else can.)
The Oracle
If U.S. AG Eric Holder uses the Espionage Act against Assange if Assange is extradited to the U.S., then Mr. Holder will have to also use it against all the former Bush/Cheney administration officials who traitorously participated in the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, the biggest national security breach since the 1950s and the Cold War.
Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA identity was highly compartmentalized at the CIA. Very few people at the CIA, a handful at most, even knew that she was a covert non-official-cover CIA agent, and no one OUTSIDE the CIA was privy to this ultra-top-secret information...unless someone started digging...like top Bush/Cheney administration officials did in July 2003, apparently spurred on by Veep Dick Cheney's office.
Somehow this ultra-top-secret information about covert NOC CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson LEAKED out of the CIA and into the top echelons of the Bush/Cheney administration, where her name and CIA employment started getting tossed carelessly around.
A CIA official twice warned Robert Novak about revealing her ties to the CIA before his column was published, with the CIA official not being able to say specifically why this would be bad, so Novak did it anyway, blowing Valerie Plame Wilson's cover in the process.
Other "journalists" were also involved (Tim Russert, Judith Miller), who were also told about Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA connections, all for the purpose of top Bush/Cheney administration officials getting back at her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson.
And it doesn't matter who started this treasonous chain of events (Richard Armitage, or so it's claimed). Anyone with this ultra-top-secret information about covert NOC CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in their possession, and then told others, violated the Espionage Act and should be tried and convicted, from George W. Bush on down...not just Scooter Libby.
And after top Bush/Cheney administration officials blew Valerie Plame Wilson's cover, they retroactively sought to declassify everything so that they could claim that they hadn't committed treason, hadn't violated the Espionage Act, hadn't revealed highly classified, ultra-top-secret information, hadn't blown a covert CIA agents cover for purely political purposes/vengeance.
So, Mr. Holder, do your job. Forget about Assange. Instead, go after the traitorous Republicans from the previous criminal Bush/Cheney administration and convict them for espionage, endangering our national security...which they definitely did.
If U.S. AG Eric Holder uses the Espionage Act against Assange if Assange is extradited to the U.S., then Mr. Holder will have to also use it against all the former Bush/Cheney administration officials who traitorously participated in the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, the biggest national security breach since the 1950s and the Cold War.
Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA identity was highly compartmentalized at the CIA. Very few people at the CIA, a handful at most, even knew that she was a covert non-official-cover CIA agent, and no one OUTSIDE the CIA was privy to this ultra-top-secret information...unless someone started digging...like top Bush/Cheney administration officials did in July 2003, apparently spurred on by Veep Dick Cheney's office.
Somehow this ultra-top-secret information about covert NOC CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson LEAKED out of the CIA and into the top echelons of the Bush/Cheney administration, where her name and CIA employment started getting tossed carelessly around.
A CIA official twice warned Robert Novak about revealing her ties to the CIA before his column was published, with the CIA official not being able to say specifically why this would be bad, so Novak did it anyway, blowing Valerie Plame Wilson's cover in the process.
Other "journalists" were also involved (Tim Russert, Judith Miller), who were also told about Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA connections, all for the purpose of top Bush/Cheney administration officials getting back at her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson.
And it doesn't matter who started this treasonous chain of events (Richard Armitage, or so it's claimed). Anyone with this ultra-top-secret information about covert NOC CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in their possession, and then told others, violated the Espionage Act and should be tried and convicted, from George W. Bush on down...not just Scooter Libby.
And after top Bush/Cheney administration officials blew Valerie Plame Wilson's cover, they retroactively sought to declassify everything so that they could claim that they hadn't committed treason, hadn't violated the Espionage Act, hadn't revealed highly classified, ultra-top-secret information, hadn't blown a covert CIA agents cover for purely political purposes/vengeance.
So, Mr. Holder, do your job. Forget about Assange. Instead, go after the traitorous Republicans from the previous criminal Bush/Cheney administration and convict them for espionage, endangering our national security...which they definitely did.
News Nag
Digs: "America is morphing itself quite comfortably into a police state"
America is ALWAYS morphing itself into a police state. America is a police state shape-shifter. It is either the greater or the lesser police state. Or actually the greater or the greatEST police state. It's only a matter of degree, and it's never close to NOT being a police state.
Digs: "America is morphing itself quite comfortably into a police state"
America is ALWAYS morphing itself into a police state. America is a police state shape-shifter. It is either the greater or the lesser police state. Or actually the greater or the greatEST police state. It's only a matter of degree, and it's never close to NOT being a police state.
jr
sheep waiting to be sheared
sheep waiting to be sheared
oh really
Jeez, it's not like most Americans really support freedom, or a free press, or open government.
No surprise here at all.
Jeez, it's not like most Americans really support freedom, or a free press, or open government.
No surprise here at all.
Jan in Stone Mtn
Americans, overall, don't like journalism, you know, the traditional bad news journalism, about corporate crime or bad news contradicting the glories of America. On a maturity level, overall, Americans are about age 13.
Americans, overall, don't like journalism, you know, the traditional bad news journalism, about corporate crime or bad news contradicting the glories of America. On a maturity level, overall, Americans are about age 13.
shermhed
Ding!
Ding!
Bob Soper, Jr.
"On a maturity level, overall, Americans are about age 13."
You are being far too generous. I would say it's more like age 5.
Apparently, a majority of Americans polled also support the Obama-GOP tax deal. I look forward to hearing their whiney protests when Social Security & Medicare are gutted like a dead fish as a direct result of said deal.
"On a maturity level, overall, Americans are about age 13."
You are being far too generous. I would say it's more like age 5.
Apparently, a majority of Americans polled also support the Obama-GOP tax deal. I look forward to hearing their whiney protests when Social Security & Medicare are gutted like a dead fish as a direct result of said deal.
Powkat
These must bethe same idiots they interview in airports who all say some variation on, "Oh, well, it's what we have to do to be safe." Some day I want to see the person who says, "It's all theater, and do you know that only 1/3 of the cargo gets checked, while you can't take your shampoo on board?"
These must bethe same idiots they interview in airports who all say some variation on, "Oh, well, it's what we have to do to be safe." Some day I want to see the person who says, "It's all theater, and do you know that only 1/3 of the cargo gets checked, while you can't take your shampoo on board?"
iamdave
And this is surprising because......? The long term goal,defined 30 years ago is just about completed. 'Say goodbye to Hollywood'. 'My eyes could clearly see the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.' Sound taps. It is over.
And this is surprising because......? The long term goal,defined 30 years ago is just about completed. 'Say goodbye to Hollywood'. 'My eyes could clearly see the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.' Sound taps. It is over.
Hmmm
This is a good post by Digby. It captures perhaps the only plausible reason for public reaction: a nation cowed into being lovers of police state 'security' they imagine awaits them for the mere price of shutting their eyes and ears to every possible inequity committed by their government in their name. As the saying goes, "And they ain't seen nothing yet".
This is a good post by Digby. It captures perhaps the only plausible reason for public reaction: a nation cowed into being lovers of police state 'security' they imagine awaits them for the mere price of shutting their eyes and ears to every possible inequity committed by their government in their name. As the saying goes, "And they ain't seen nothing yet".
nogo postal
one of my faves..via peking Duck
"As China ratcheted up the pressure on Google to censor its Internet searches last year, the American Embassy sent a secret cable to Washington detailing why top Chinese leaders had become so obsessed with the Internet search company: they were Googling themselves.
The May 18, 2009, cable, titled “Google China Paying Price for Resisting Censorship,” quoted a well-placed source as saying that Li Changchun, a member of China’s top ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and the country’s senior propaganda official, was taken aback to discover that he could conduct Chinese-language searches on Google’s main international Web site. When Mr. Li typed his name into the search engine at google.com, he found “results critical of him.”
That cable from American diplomats was one of many made public by WikiLeaks that portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States.
Extensive Chinese hacking operations, including one leveled at Google, are a central theme in the cables. The hacking operations began earlier and were aimed at a wider array of American government and military data than generally known, including attacks on computers of American diplomats preparing positions on a climate change treaty.
One cable, dated early this year, quoted a Chinese person with family connections to the elite as saying that Mr. Li himself directed an attack on Google’s servers in the United States, though that claim has been called into question. In an interview with The New York Times, the person cited in the cable said that Mr. Li personally led a campaign against Google’s operations in China but that to his knowledge had no role in the hacking attack.
…Precisely how these hacking attacks are coordinated is not clear. Many appear to rely on Chinese freelancers and an irregular army of “patriotic hackers” who operate with the support of civilian or military authorities, but not directly under their day-to-day control, the cables and interviews suggest.
But the cables also appear to contain some suppositions by Chinese and Americans passed along by diplomats. For example, the cable dated earlier this year referring to the hacking attack on Google said: “A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level.”
…[T]he cables provide a patchwork of detail about cyberattacks that State Department and embassy officials believe originated in China with either the assistance or knowledge of the Chinese military."
one of my faves..via peking Duck
"As China ratcheted up the pressure on Google to censor its Internet searches last year, the American Embassy sent a secret cable to Washington detailing why top Chinese leaders had become so obsessed with the Internet search company: they were Googling themselves.
The May 18, 2009, cable, titled “Google China Paying Price for Resisting Censorship,” quoted a well-placed source as saying that Li Changchun, a member of China’s top ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee, and the country’s senior propaganda official, was taken aback to discover that he could conduct Chinese-language searches on Google’s main international Web site. When Mr. Li typed his name into the search engine at google.com, he found “results critical of him.”
That cable from American diplomats was one of many made public by WikiLeaks that portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States.
Extensive Chinese hacking operations, including one leveled at Google, are a central theme in the cables. The hacking operations began earlier and were aimed at a wider array of American government and military data than generally known, including attacks on computers of American diplomats preparing positions on a climate change treaty.
One cable, dated early this year, quoted a Chinese person with family connections to the elite as saying that Mr. Li himself directed an attack on Google’s servers in the United States, though that claim has been called into question. In an interview with The New York Times, the person cited in the cable said that Mr. Li personally led a campaign against Google’s operations in China but that to his knowledge had no role in the hacking attack.
…Precisely how these hacking attacks are coordinated is not clear. Many appear to rely on Chinese freelancers and an irregular army of “patriotic hackers” who operate with the support of civilian or military authorities, but not directly under their day-to-day control, the cables and interviews suggest.
But the cables also appear to contain some suppositions by Chinese and Americans passed along by diplomats. For example, the cable dated earlier this year referring to the hacking attack on Google said: “A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level.”
…[T]he cables provide a patchwork of detail about cyberattacks that State Department and embassy officials believe originated in China with either the assistance or knowledge of the Chinese military."
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