Conspiracy theorists lost in darker regions of the Web
Re: “US a failed democracy and global predator”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
Clara Holzer backs up JC Wilcox’s latest claim that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being “persecuted for telling the truth”. He isn’t being persecuted, he’s failing to abide by the law, hiding himself in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London after skipping bail. A district judge in London this week emphatically dismissed his request for the charges to be dropped, saying that Assange seems to consider himself above the law. As Wilcox has told us umpteen times, there can be no democracy without the law, so why does he support a lawbreaker? The US wants to extradite Assange to face charges for revealing state secrets, but as the judge pointed out, he can challenge that in the British courts.
Clara Holzer is right to claim that the US has caused chaos by intervening in other countries, and could also have pointed out that the USSR, Russia and China have done the same. However, the US is neither a failed state nor a failed democracy. US politics is going through a turbulent time, there is discord, division and claims and counterclaims, but the independent institutions under the Constitution provide checks and balances. Incidentally, the five largest companies in the world by market capitalisation are all in the technology sector, and they are all American. As ever, the US buzzes with energy and innovation. It will get over its current tribulations.
Clara Holzer regurgitates the conspiracy theorists’ claims that the mainstream media tells lies and only serves its corporate backers. Rubbish! Britain’s Daily Telegraph revealed the expenses scandal in parliament, the BBC’s relentless reporting from Myanmar has revealed the appalling extent of the violence against the Rohingya minority, and Reuters correspondents are currently in jail there for doing the same. There are many more similar examples of the independent media doing their job.
I do begin to wonder whether Wilcox, Holzer, Johnsen and a few others are actually the same person. They all certainly sing from the same conspiracy theory song sheet, and probably spend far too much time trawling through the darker regions of the Web instead of getting out more and enjoying life.
Robin Grant
Bangkok
