Tell Me More About This Assange Rape Conspiracy, It Sounds Fascinating! by Alex

Trigger Warning for description of sexual assault.

It makes me laugh my fucking face off imagining shadowy representatives of various governments sitting around brainstorming about ways to get to Julian Assange. They're all sitting there – old chinese takeout containers are strewn about, the floor around the waste paper basket (with a basketball hoop attached, natch) is littered with crumpled up ideas, all the men are well past a five o'clock shadow – then someone is like, "I've got it! We can trump up some rape charges!" And while the mood has definitely shifted, more optimistic?, they're not all sold. Could the public believe that Assange was a violent rapist? "Hear me out! It won't be the kind of attack that people usually associate with rape, he won't have left bruises or broken bones. There won't have been a knife or a darkened alley. It will be the other kind of rape, when the rapist knew their victim. No less serious, no less prosecutable, that insidious rapist who takes advantage of trust. That rapist who doesn't respect the loved ones, friends, dates, acquaintances they rape enough to ask. Enough to stop at no." By now everyone is nodding (give or take a couple still thinking a made up tax-evasion charge is the way to go), simultaneously excited by the possibility of a solution to their problem and sickened by the existence of sexual assault.

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One Thought on Julian Assange Before I Lose My Goddamn Mind and Start Weeping in a Corner Because Preserving Rape Culture is More Important Than Anything, EVER by Alex

Perhaps I am still too much of an optimist, or something, too naive maybe, but if the message of Wikileaks is that transparency must and will exist in government and military communications and operations, and freedom of speech, and democracy, and accountability, and the people vs the man, then isn't it a bit hinderance to place so much importance on Julian Assange alone? Will Wikileaks fall if he's tried and found guilty of rape? Does the organization consist only of him? I realize that he is the director and founder and editor-in-chief, but is he completely irreplaceable? Is he completely above the law? What if he was brought up on murder charges? Pedophilia? What is the line?

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