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Julian Assange vs Josiah Mizukami
DISCLAIMER!!! This article touches upon the drama of Josiah Mizukami who is being arrested at the moment for allegedly being a pedophile. I will say things that could upset you, by bringing them in this particular context. But that would be perfectly normal things to say in any other context. I think that this is a good type of drama to use for such deep philosophical analysis.
Imagine being locked up in prison for something that's legal. And not even merely legal. For something that is a human right. There is this very small human right, I don't know if you know about it, it's called the Freedom Of Speech. An ability to express your opinion without being persecuted for it. And it's more than essential. It's the cornerstone of things like Freedom in general. Sometimes though bad people that are trying to persecute you for this anyway - are smart. And they will look for any other way of shutting you up if this one is not available for them. Good example is Julian Assange. Not so good example could potentially be Josiah Mizukami.
"What did he do?" - asked the mother of Chloe. Sheiny and Chloe were at Chloe's house. They were looking at some stuff on a computer. And Sheiny was scrolling through the suggested section inside of FastLBRY-GTK. Chloe was looking at the monitor too. And she caught a glimpse of a video by @SomeOrdinaryGamers:a titled "The Biggest Creep On YouTube Got Arrested..." with a picture of Josiah Mizukami in handcuffs. Chloe exclaimed something along the lines of - "How dare they put him to jail for this?" and her mother quite curiously asked - "What did he do?".
A moment of awkward silence occurred. Her mother was not aware of Sheiny's little business. So both of them contemplated for a while of whether to say what Josiah Mizukami did. Because even knowing that, could be weird enough for the girls their age. But there was no necessity in telling anything, because the mother came over and looked at the screen herself. She read the title and waved at it as something that was deserved.
Mom: The lesson is, don't be creeps, I suppose.
Sheiny: Eh...
Chloe: Technically speaking he didn't do anything.
Mom: Well, if the police arrested him, he did something.
Sheiny: It was American police.
Mom: What's the difference?
Chloe: All he did was say things people didn't quite like.
Mom: Well, I guess, then it's not good to say things that people do not like.
Chloe: But... Ah... America is democratic.
Sheiny: Yeah, there is this right called the Freedom Of Speech.
The mother thought for a while. She wanted to impress the girls with a thoughtful answer.
Mom: Democracy is when most people choose what's good. Right? Like... ah... If he said something that most people didn't think was right. Then it was wrong.
Sheiny: You are confused. Democracy is just the best we can at moment to accommodate everyone in the country, politically speaking. Winston Churchill famously said - "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.". And you know what I mean by that?
Mom: Ah... No...
Sheiny: I mean that in order to give people total freedom, they have to be able to fork the law. But it's impossible in practice. Therefore we have the best system that is possible, which is democracy. And it's only in relation to the creation and approval of laws. Or in relation to representatives that do a micro-democracy for us to choose laws. But what we are talking about is not democracy but rather the freedom of speech. And you know what George Orwell said about that? He said - "Free speech is my right to say what you don't want to hear."
Mom: Well... Ah... All I could understand from this is that, apparently you are running for a president soon. And I'm voting for you. I have no idea what you just said, but it sounded very smart.
Chloe: She just said that Free Speech means to be able to tell unpopular opinions.
Mom: Okay, but what exactly did this creep say, then?
Sheiny: Why does it matter?
Mom: Well, what if he said something so outrageous...
Chloe: So what?
Mom: I mean... Isn't there supposed to be a line?
Sheiny: No! Free Speech means you have the right to say absolutely anything.
Mom: But then people would...
Sheiny: I know, I know! But that's the idea. People should be able to say anything they like to say.
Mom: What did he say?
Chloe: It's about sex, Mom.
Mom: Did he tell stories about it? I don't understand.
Sheiny: He claimed that Zoophilia, Incest and Pedophilia are natural and completely harm free. And that everybody should do that.
There was a shock that came over mother's face. Her eyes sank back and she fell into the closest chair.
Mom: Oh, well... That explains everything!
Sheiny: What does it explain exactly?
Mom: Well, people like him should go to prison and rot in hell there.
Chloe: For saying things?
Mom: For saying these things, yes.
Sheiny: Well, then we have no freedom of speech.
Mom: What does it have to do with freedom of speech anyway? He is a sick, creepy individual.
Sheiny: You are committing an Ad Hominem.
Mom: Chloe, translate to me what she said.
Chloe: I have no idea myself.
Sheiny: Ad Hominem. Ah... A logical fallacy when you focus on the messenger instead of focusing on the message. He could be any number of things. He could a rapist as far as I'm concerned. But he should still have the right to say what he wants to say.
Mom: But why?
Sheiny: Okay... What if he's right?
Mom: He?
Sheiny: Yes.
Mom: But he isn't.
Sheiny: Are you sure?
Chloe: Sheiny, it doesn't matter if he is right.
Sheiny: I know. But look at this, this way: We have free speech so ideas that could be revolutionary could surface up. Yes, with that a bunch of non-revolutionary, stupid ideas would surface as well. But if we close the pipe for, I don't know, stopping misinformation, or avoiding uncomfortable topics, we loose the chance to get anywhere. For example, Edward Snowmen revelations. They are essential! But they are frightening. For example the proposition of the theory of relativity to solve the little problems that were in the Newtonian model. What if the person could not talk about relativity because it would be "factually incorrect" or something, because the current view of the world involves the Newtonian physics? We should be able to challenge ideas. He just so happened to challenge our preconceptions about sex.
Chloe: Not only that, Sheiny, what about fiction?
Sheiny: Yes. Well.. Hell... I should be able to say that I'm a 25 year old man, even though it's obviously false.
Mom: Yeah, but his message is harmful.
Sheiny: How is it harmful? It's just words and ideas.
Mom: What if somebody will believe him and break the law?
Sheiny: What if I say - "Lets take drugs!" - and you take drugs. You are the stupid one. All I did was talk. And you took the drugs. Talking is not against the law. Taking drugs is.
Mom: But...
Sheiny: You know that the US government thinks publications of Julian Assange are a threat to the US national security? While all he does is journalism. Yes, an internet kind of journalism. But journalism.
Mom: Who is that?
Sheiny: You don't know nothing?
Mom: I'm just a Mom.
Sheiny breathed in heavily. She couldn't believe that she needs to explain literally everything.
Sheiny: There is this website called WikiLeaks which allows people to leak information about anything they see as worthy of publication. For example Edward Snowmen was helped by WikiLeaks to leak his revelations about the US government. And people like Chelsea Manning leaked there their Iraq files. Including a very gruesome video of US government bombing innocent civilians in Iraq. Anyway... The guy behind the website is this guy called Julian Assange. And he was arrested for the last couple of years without even being sentenced.
Mom: Well it looks like his site was highly illegal.
Sheiny: It wasn't. First of all both where he was and in the US there is the freedom of speech. On top of that the US also has a special second freedom of press. And on top of that Julian is not even a citizen of the United States. And he operated outside of the United States. So he could not by any chance violate any US law, which the US government claims he did, even if there was something they could charge him with, which they can't. This is by the way why he is in perpetual arrest, rather than in prison. You arrest people before they go to court. But what if the court cannot find the person guilty? But everybody involved really would like to find that person guilty... They just keep him arrested. Forever.
Mom: That does sound kind of scary.
Sheiny: It seems like, a similar tactic is used against Josiah Mizukami too.
Mom: Who's that, the creep dude?
Chloe: They hold him for words!
Mom: Yeah, but what he said, kind of puts him in the bad light.
Chloe: So what?
Sheiny: Don't get me wrong. This dude seems delusional. He claims that he is a god. And that some girl about our age is in love with him, or something. He behaves a bit strange. He is too calm. Probably a sign of psychopathy. But then again. All of those things he said, he just said. As far I know, he seems to be arrested for words. Which no matter what words were used, to be arrested for them, should be and is, on paper, a violation of human rights.
Mom: I believe most people will be happy for him to go to prison.
Sheiny: And they are! But we are not talking about democracy here. We are talking about human rights. Remember democracy is not a good system. It's just the best we currently have. Though with free speech, we can do much better than democracy. Let people yell. Let people use all the swear words on the dude that they can. Let people criticize. If somebody says something you don't like. If somebody says something you find incorrect. Instead of trying to remove him, add! Speak against him. Deconstruct and debunk him. Don't arrest him. What the hell is wrong with you, if you do?
Happy Hacking!
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