WIKILEAKS’ UNFORGIVABLE LIBERALISM

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Echeverría, M. (2018). WikiLeaks’ Unforgivable Liberalism. Libertarian Books – Sweden. Stockholm/Bergamo

archive.org/details/WikiLeaksUnforgivableLiberalism

This is an online-friendly (2.3mb Baskerville/Caslon) version published/uploaded by Darkshape. The official version was published by Libertarian Books – Sweden / Psychiatry Doctor Marcello Ferrada de Noli (87 mb Minion). For more information, please see tweets by Mr. Assange & WikiLeaks.[1]

This book is an independent part of the project Democracy-Adapted Power which focuses on informal ways of exercising power under democratic restrictions.

– INTRODUCTION

For more information, please see tweets by Mr. Assange & WikiLeaks.[1]

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/977123824176164864;
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/976978056425410562;
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/976505390153248768;

Firstly, this contribution is one of the most comprehensive analyses of Swedish media in the Assange case to date. The empirical section departs from Herman & Chomsky’s Propaganda Model. It is my understanding, that few or no serious applications of the model had previously been conducted in a Swedish setting. Results show an astonishing homogeneity in journalistic opinion in support of the official state line. One of the more spectacular findings is the prevalence of fact-resistant behavior among journalist and experts. Associated bias gave rise to a wide range of remarkable empirical regularities. The most intriguing of these are fractal patterns in the data.

This book shows that journalism on the Assange case in the Swedish nation-wide press is propaganda.

– INTRODUCTION

One of the main methodological and theoretical contributions is a game-theoretical treatment of journalistic opinion. I show that it is in principle possible to give a very accurate compressed description of reality, to the extent still-life modelling of reality is feasible (usually not my cup of tea), with a simple graph consisting of a few links and nodes. The reason is that thoughts and opinions are a part of social reality when expressed ‘in print’. It is in principle possible to break down arguments and represent them in a finite list of possible interpretations. Homogeneity further restricts the list of possible readings. Thus what seems to be a ludicrous claim becomes a realistic possibility. One of the most intriguing aspects, is that the assessments and predictions are about the future. Off-sample applications are straight forward and promising.

The second main theoretical contribution is a critique of versions of the Propaganda Model which solely rely on situational explanations. Departing from the tenets of the theory, it stands to reason that it is absurd to exclude intention.

The Assange case is a schoolbook example of the contradictions in Western democracies.

– ARBITRARY DETENTION BY MEANS OF ARBITRARY RULINGS

Theory, analysis, arguments and critique are valid in their own terms, but also consistent with the facts at the time and subsequent disclosures – even supported by scoops in the mainstream press just before publication.

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Remark: complex models with unintuitive, and virtually untraceable conclusions can be motivated, e.g. in machine learning settings. Moreover, such results may be telling us something important about theory, underlying reality or both.

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[1] Relevant documents of the proceedings are accessible at the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/witnessstatementofgoranrudling; archive.org/details/expertopinionofsvenerikalhem  archive.org/details/witnessstatementofbjornhurtig; archive.org/details/mariannenysstatement040211