Explaining WikiLeaks to a friend who is not online...WHOA.

Sharing the vision of WikiLeaks to people who aren't online?

WHOA...

I spent an hour talking to a fellow business entrepreneur named Kevin, who owns one of the last remaining video tape/dvd rental shops in St. Louis.

I asked him if he knew about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. He said yeah, and I asked him what?
"He published a bunch of US military secrets right?"

Well, sort of...I added to that, bringing up US cables between ambassadors and video of human rights violations.

"But he did some kind of espionage to get them right?"

(Sigh) No, and I explained how all media is submitted to WikiLeaks via the internet, and then I asked him if watches FOX NEWS.

"Well sure, but that's because when they get their facts, they'll show you a book where they got it from and say, 'if you don't believe me, read it here,' so I usually like hearing what they have to say, trusting that they are doing good fact finding."

It turns out he get his news from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch too (which he considered the "liberal" newspaper) and occasionally listens to NPR, but they are often more "socialist" than he likes.

Anywho, I let him know more about the facts behind WikiLeaks, including Julians' history of breaking into the US DoJ computers a decade ago (which he had read about, but did not know it was Julian) and then evolving into a people driven, whistle blowing, multi-media publishing organization that specialized in "Free Press activism" (suggesting it was a decision based on all the secrets he had found out about, but was unable to do anything about...by himself anyways).

After that, Kevin had some interesting questions:

"Why am I not hearing about that in the papers or the magazines I read?"
"Why don't the news programs I watch include anything on WikiLeaks?"
"Why do I feel as if my political views (conservative) aren't spoken about or considered by the Republicans?"
"How come I don't get much information from the media I pay attention to?

That question was the overall gist of what we talked about for the last half hour. He felt as if all sorts of shit was going down around the world, and every time he searched for it, he could only find out in a library or from friends "in the know".

HE COULDN'T GET MUCH FROM THE REGULAR MAINSTREAM MEDIA...and that was obvious and frustrating to him.

I told him to get online and just go to youtube and start searching topics that interested him (especially since he's a movie guy...who's NEVER BEEN ONLINE). I mentioned he would find lots of propaganda from the right wing and the left wing, but if he kept looking, he would also find TONS of documented info that was true and valid and incredibly apropos to what's going on. I also implied he might find out why he's experiencing such an underwhelming feeling of being left in the dark.

I would ask everyone who's volunteering for WikiLeaks to remember to talk to EVERYONE about the importance of getting online and seeing for themselves what they believe. Mainstream media is too contrived now with too little information for anyone to feel satiated, especially for many of these older generations who have come to trust their usual routine of doing things.

I really enjoy asking people, "so what do you know about WikiLeaks?"
The rest is...an apocalypse.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• WikiLeaks
• printed word
• censorship
• withholding news
• Julian Assange
• Media ethics

[outled]

.....but back to wikileaks, well i try spreading the word about assange and his past which is pretty easy to find out about, even partially through wikipedia. Theres no way his links to the oz cult can be ignored but the internet is doing its best to sway people towards assange the activist instead of operative. Even if people did know i dont see what difference it makes, govts swaying of public opinion is an unecessary formality, the people rise up when theyre told to, its a ceremony.

[JonathanToth]

@outled Gotcha. I humbly accept your opinion and respectfully disagree.

I want Amnesty for Transparency...any military, government or big business associate who wants to blow the whistle on corruption within these systems should be free from prosecution, so the public can find out what's really going on. The more whistle blowers who step up, the sooner we will learn how to fix our world and live better with each other.

[JonathanToth]

Wouldn't it be nice to party together?

[outled]

Wikileaks is cia/mossad operation, assange is an mkultra style cult member of the great white brotherhood, if its on tv then its zionist. Wikileaks is reaping the outdated and sowing the seeds of the nwo. Just like the 'revolutions' in the middle east. Its all kicking off , i just cant wait for the holographic ufos to show up next after the zion king becomes crowned. Only technology can enslave us, erm i mean save us. its all perple cows and sleeping sheep. But wait there is no truth to share.

[JonathanToth]

@outled So what's your solution?

[JonathanToth]

Anyone else notice how paper media is no longer representing much truth?

The two biggest propaganda moves from the mainstream media:

1. Inventing stories and/or embellishing upon factual information

-or-

2. Withholding information, so we don't have the whole picture

Both suck...be real people, what else is there to do with our lives?

[outled]

@slidinandridin06 good luck to you, dont believe the wests description of the poor primitive so called third world, and how they got in such a sorry state apparently, because this split earth concept isnt really how it goes. Iraq had better human rights record than the us, better welfare systems etc. We in the west are the ones in the sorry state. But hey we are on different squares on the chessboard, and we all have our own niche and language, we would overlap views on a lot of things. :)

[slidinandridin06]

@outled Well I disagree, you're looking at it from a narrow perspective that doesn't consider the reality of humanity's condition all across the world. In the developed world we have somewhat of a framework to "set our own rules"; this is something that isn't a luxury to others in third world countries.

[outled]

@slidinandridin06 we are all enslaved by systems, but they only exist because we play along, when we set our own rules the system has to modify itself. Its not about setting systems for many just yourself. We all have the answer to our own mental bondage, we do not have the answer for others. so yes a dictatorship is an illusion of control. As slaves we must recognise our enslavement and not ask permission to be released but to just take it. Servitude comes in all flavours and levels, perhaps 42

[slidinandridin06]

@outled Tell someone who lives under a dictatorship that systems are an "illusion of control". Are you suggesting that the enslaved must accept their enslavement?

[outled]

@slidinandridin06 i find that you wanting better guardians is throwing in the white flag, i however make my own rules, i dont wait for symbols of good mommy and daddy i know that it isnt real. I am the only one who can steer my ship in the right direction and keep it afloat. Freedom isnt granted its taken. History has enough cycles now to teach us that govts do not work and never could. Whereas the orphan duckling i pass every day on my walk has made it itself through winter, its inarguable.

[outled]

@slidinandridin06 whats with all the fighty talk anyway who said life was struggle and oppression anyway, i'll tell you who every 'guardian' youve ever encountered. Life is perfectly fair, systems however arent. They are an illusion of control because humans dont want fair they want more than fair, and thats not possible. The gleaming utopia your searching for was given to you as a notion in culture to get you to make richer people richer, make you strive make you itch, make you want.

[outled]

@slidinandridin06 i disagree that life is better now than before. also there is no truth to fight for. Your superhero narrative is programming. I am currently watching an indigineous tribesman scale an enormous tree to procure some honey from a hive, no-one in the developed world would or could do what he is doing. Albert einstein couldnt do it, yet he could get famous and make bold claims, and quite possibly steal all his most famous 'works.' I live in prison england.

[slidinandridin06]

@outled (Continued) For all of us who are concerned for peace and the triumph of reason and justice must today be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good-will exert upon events in the political field. But however that may be, and whatever fate may have in store for us, yet we may rest assured that without the tireless efforts of those who are concerned with the welfare of humanity as a whole, the lot of mankind would be still worse than in fact it even now is.- Albert Einstein

[slidinandridin06]

@outled (Continued) countries in the world. This personal happiness that you speak of would be inconceivable if the select individuals of the past who fought for truth and a better world had just said "Oh were screwed anyways". I think this comes down to a personal decision. Do you fight for the truth or do you throw in the white flag? I will leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein ---->

[slidinandridin06]

@outled Please provide evidence. Yes, I know, "just because you can't prove something doesn't mean that it's not true". According to your logic we are trapped in a catch 22. Therefore, we might as well just give up the fight and accept that we're ultimately doomed. Yes, it is true that our the govt. in America is infested with corruption. But don't forget, there is a reason that you (assuming you are a U.S. citizen) and I have that much more freedom than the citizens of various other -->