The thing that upsets me about Wikileaks is the conflation between
whistle blowing and advocating transparency. Whistle blowing is a
"rule of law" action intended to bring to light _illegal_ or unethical
activities. Although there's usually a strong correlation, whistle
blowing is orthogonal to transparency. For this reason alone, I think
Wikileaks is a confused organization, which makes them untrustworthy.
They are mixing up their ideology.
But, having said that, I enthusiastically support them in their genuine
whistle blowing role, when that's actually the role they play. I'm
largely neutral on the release of the cables. And I definitely don't
support the way they edited and promoted the "collateral murder" video.
And it's fine to advocate for transparency when its other people's
secrets under consideration. Jochen's comment is spot on in this respect.
As usual, anyone who actually thinks about things will avoid coming down
in black-and-white manner with them or against them.
As for Amazon, they are behaving the same way AT&T, Verizon, et al did
with the NSA eavesdropping scandal. (I specifically contracted with
Qwest when we moved.) If you're happy with tight cooperation between
the government and corporations, then use AT&T. If not, then don't.
But be ready to confront the contradiction at some point. (I love it
when I hear my lefty iPhone wielding friends bitching about the loss of
privacy and rising corporate personhood.) But they're a for-profit
corporation and, in this country, if they can do something and get away
with it, well, that's just the way this country works. The same is true
with Paypal, Visa, and MasterCard. We don't have a choice. We'll keep
paying AT&T, Amazon, and Paypal because we're cheap, lazy rubes who
value convenience over values.
--
glen
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