#katblaque

So far, every time I’ve heard a bad story about Hillary Clinton or the DNC, I’ve felt really scared to look into it. But I’ve faced that fear. I don’t want to just live in a world where I accept the facts that are convenient to me and ignore the rest. I’ve taken time to read through articles from the left, articles from the right, and wherever possible source documents; the reports of independent investigators, the actual memos or emails or whatever else I can find. Every time, my support of Hillary has been vindicated, not in the sense that she’s perfect, but in the sense that the worst parts of the story are never supported, in the sense that she apologizes for her failings and tries to do better. I can look at her flaws and still feel that she will make a pretty good president.

This WikiLeaks scandal is no exception.

I’ve read no shortage of tweets and reblogs and headlines that say “DNC email PROVE that election was rigged,” or something of that ilk. I googled “DNC leaks” and read several of the major news stories on it. I also went to WikiLeaks itself and read the emails. Tell me honestly; if you’ve seen the news, have you done that? Or have you just skimmed the inflammatory headlines?

Here’s what you see if you go to the WikiLeaks. 20,000 emails, most of which are completely mundane. IHonestly, I read email after email that was just coordinating times and places that I had no context to make sense of. After a while my head was spinning from the sheer glut of information.

But hey, journalists have had a little more time to comb through the emails, plus it’s their actual job, so maybe they turned up something. Well, I read articles from left-wing and right-wing sources, and in every single article there was only one incriminating email named; the one where somebody said to ask “him” about his religion because if he comes across as atheist that could hurt him in a few states. Bernie Sanders isn’t named, although for the record I think it probably does refer to him. But that hasn’t been proven, and more importantly, there’s no evidence that anybody actually followed through with that suggestion. Don’t get me wrong; it was a shitty thing to suggest. But one person making an unbelievably shitty suggestion does not make for a conspiracy, if nothing actually comes of it.

There are also some people expressing frustration with Bernie, but those are all in response to specific statements he’s making, attacking Hillary or the Democratic party. Guess what? Bernie did run by attacking the mainstream party. He was within his rights to criticize it, but people are also within their rights to feel frustrated with that and let off some steam in private. This doesn’t equal a conspiracy unless there is evidence that they collaborated to act on that frustration. And there isn’t.

The investigation has been hindered by the sheer quantity of information released, and this raises a big question for me. Why release 20,000 private emails, most of which are completely irrelevant to the interests of the public? Why not comb through for the ones that are actually incriminating, and just release those? I can only think of one reason; because they know they have nothing, but tantalizing people with the idea that something might be found is going to generate chaos and speculation. If you have a smoking gun, you don’t bury it.

Which brings me to the most disturbing thing about these emails. They have personal information from donors. This information includes names, addresses, social security cards, credit cards and photos of checks, completely uncensored. That means that anyone can now drain their bank accounts or steal their identities.

Let me say that again; WikiLeaks patted itself on the back for releasing information about corruption, but instead recklessly endangered who knows how many ordinary people.

WikiLeaks is a site that has no accountability for fact checking, verifying sources or ensuring that the safety and privacy of individuals is protected, which is really ironic, given the outcry against the NSA for doing that exact thing. I’m all for holding the government accountable, but you need to do that in a way that prevents any innocent bystanders from harm.