Here’s where (my share of) the pushback against the Assange thing is coming from:

My “support” for assange isn’t really support for Assange. It’s wariness at any effort to attack the fundamentally free and open nature of the internet in order to stop people like Assange.

You can’t stop this kind of thing without changing the nature of the internet fundamentally, and to do so to stop Assange would be like fighting mosquitos with nuclear bombs. Walter’s comment hinted at what I am most afraid will come of this.