Australian Politician Compares Attempts To Silence Assange With Catholic Church Silencing Galileo

Via Glyn Moody we get this absolutely bizarre quote from an anonymous Australian Parliament Member who wants to have the Australian government help try to shut down Julian Assange and Wikileaks. When the reporter Ross Cameron pointed out that shutting down Wikileaks wouldn't work, the politician responded:

"The Catholic Church shut down Galileo for a hundred years. I think we can shut down Julian Assange.''

This statement is both bizarre and ignorant. It's bizarre in that it seems to think it was a good thing that the Catholic Church hid from and denied reality for a century and condemned those who helped reveal reality. It's not often, these days, that you hear a politician speak out in support of the Catholic Church's treatment of Galileo.

It's ignorant in that it assumes that Julian Assange is all that needs to be "shut down." This is a mistake that many are making. Even if you think that Assange is an egomaniac with serious issues, focusing on Assange is missing the point of what's happening. There are a lot of people and a growing number of new operations, who are stepping up to do more of what Wikileaks was doing. This is not a one man show, and the simple fact is that such leaking of information is going to keep happening. Targeting Assange may stop Assange, but it won't stop the basic idea of Wikileaks, even if the functionality moves elsewhere.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen Melissa George Cameron Richardson Chandra West