Here’s Why Julian Assange Is the Most Annoying and Arrogant Person in the Whole World
blogs.telegraph.co.uk
Julian Assange: the internet age’s Carlos the Jackal
Julian Assange is an arrogant so-and-so, isn’t he, ensconced in the Ecuadorian embassy, no doubt entertaining himself with self-flattering fantasies about being the internet age’s Carlos the Jackal. I wonder how he got to be so cocksure? It’s probably because for much of the past three years he was treated by liberal opinion-formers and vast swathes of the international media as a Mother Teresa-like spectral saint of the computer age, as the sole possessor of The Truth about everything in the whole world. Assange’s self-encampment in the Ecuadorian embassy and point-blank refusal to answer allegations made against him are infuriating some liberal observers. But for the source of his supreme cockiness, they should look close to home - for it was their embarrassingly teenage fawning over Assange that imbued him with that self-possession that borders on superciliousness.
Aside from a few saddos who have managed to peel themselves away from Warcraft long enough to wave “Free Julian!” placards outside the Ecuadorian embassy, there aren’t many Assange fans left in Britain. It is now de rigueur to sneer at the white-haired Wikileaks weirdo and to wonder: how did he come to be such an enormous and annoying twit? I know the answer to this question! It’s because before his crazily effusive supporters in the world of journalism decided to turn against him, he was flattered to within an inch of his life, elevated by the international media from a computer-bound spouter of conspiracy theories (which is all he ever was, and remains) to what New Yorker magazine called a “rail-thin being who has rocketed to earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth”. I mean, just listen to what Nick Davies of the Guardian once said to Assange: “We are going to put you on the moral high ground, so high that you’ll need an oxygen mask.” And they did - not just the Guardian but loads of serious publications, and just about every activist on the Left, all of them pushing Assange farther and farther up the mountain of morality so that not only did he need an oxygen mask, but he also no longer needed to explain himself or his actions to us mere mortals down below, including the Swedish authorities.