Erroneous Hurt.

In April 2019, Julian Assange was dragged out of the Ecuador embassy in London. Since then, he's been locked in a category A prison in the UK. Priti Patel, the home secretary has since approved his extradition to the US. Assange has appealed against it but, we all know what a bully the US is. Assange's crime was ensuring free access to information and cementing freedom of speech. He, via WikiLeaks, publicly published whistleblower accounts that completely dismantled the meta-narrative the powerful US had been imposing on its local events and international misadventures (read atrocities). The drama around holding Assange accountable has spread over a decade. However, no event was as tragic as the brief clip of a bound Assange being carried outside of the Ecuador embassy in London. Since then, his supporters have pushed for his release. However, the noise around it has barely been audible. No survey noticed an increased rise of WikiLeaks access the day Assange was scooped up, which is strange for the man who had basically been fighting to ensure the freedom and right to both speak and know. His project was a noble one: he allowed for a counter narrative in an arena that is congested with monotonic propagandas and prophecies. And yet, his arrest did not increase any interest in his project.

Let's jump forward a few years to 12th of August 2022. It's New York, and Salman Rushdie is on the stage. Suddenly, a man jumps on to the stage and does what he did. Today, Rushdie is recovering and off the ventilators. As I write these words, Hadi Matar is imprisoned somewhere by the security authorities. Today, 'The Satanic Verses' is trending as number one on amazon bookstore in both Literary satire Fiction and Contemporary British and Irish literature lists. Moreover, it is #7 most sold audiobook on audible. These customers, who are undoubtedly from the clumped-up category of 'the west', are now excited about the book. Or, maybe, which is a more probable case, they buy copies of Rushdie's books both as a protest against his stabbing as well as a sign of their solidarity with him. Satanic verses is popular once again. The fact that the west would react in this manner to Rushdie's stabbing and not to the tragedy around Assange's case is curious. If the reaction to the Rushdie incident is indeed to support freedom of speech towards a work of fiction, why wouldn't the west react similarly to a project that disseminates non-fiction, real-life accounts? The...

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