Julian Assange Trying To Raise Nearly $200k For a Statue of Himself 171
Rei writes Julian Assange, from his refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, has recently taken to Twitter to try to raise nearly $200,000 for a life-size bronze statue of himself. The statue would have him standing front and center between Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning (with Manning pictured as male); the art piece would be then shipped around the world on tour.
I'll donate some onions for the cause... (Score:1, Insightful)
Christ, what an egomaniac.
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I hope Snowden sends a note telling Assange to leave him the hell out of his egomaniacal delusions. God, how embarrassing it would be to be associated with that guy for all eternity - and literally as his "right hand man", of all things?
Re:I'll donate some onions for the cause... (Score:4, Insightful)
hell no (Score:2)
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I recently visited the lookout tower in germany built by my great, great grandfather. He put a bronze of his head up with his name, profession, hometown and date of construction. It's a cell tower now.
Building monuments to yourself looks very strange to American eyes. But places are different and times change. Perhaps it was advertisment. Germans still like to just give their small businesses their names (e.g. 'HornWumpus Troll Service')
And men will ask why... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps someone should introduce Julian to Marcus Porcius Cato.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:And men will ask why... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:And men will ask why... (Score:4, Funny)
I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see some love for Cato the Elder. (I'm writing my PhD thesis on him, and yet when people ask what I'm studying and I tell them, no one ever knows who he is).
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In contrast, I think he was a hidebound asshole whose dedication to making money helped destroy the middle class of the time and hence the Roman Republic. He had the traditional Roman virtues in spades (like honesty and endurance), and so got away with it.
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You're making a lot of assumptions there that are on quite shaky ground. That the mid-Republic *had* a middle class, that the destruction of that middle class lead to the fall of the republic, that it was the pursuit of money that did so, that Cato was in favor of that...?
What you're missing out a lot on is how much Cato was outside the traditional power system in Rome- he's a lot closer to that 'middle class' (that didn't really exist) as a non-Roman (as in he was Sabine) pleb, and he built most of his car
Huh (Score:1)
I don't think there's a statue of a horse's ass anywhere.
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http://www.funawards.com/trophies/horses-rear-award.asp [funawards.com]
http://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/product-p/1600-obama.htm [whitehousegiftshop.com] Note, appropriately, that this is SOLD OUT
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Those are trophies. I'm asking if there's a statue of a horse's rear! Maybe the Assange statue will be the first one?
I did find this however: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wpyK... [blogspot.com] It's close but not quite right.
Re: Huh (Score:1)
The Trojan Assange (Score:2)
The Assange part of the statue will, of course, be hollow and when the thing makes it's way to Venezuela - out pops Julian and
That THAT Mi5 !
Re:The Trojan Assange (Score:5, Funny)
If he would have used a Trojan, he wouldn't be in the trouble he is now.
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You can commit rape with, or without a condom.
But if it is consensual conditional on the use of a condom and then none is offered, or it breaks and you don't pull out when prior authorization is rescinded .....
Flamebait headline, TFA says different (Score:5, Informative)
TFA says the statue is being donated, the money is for transportation.
More accurate headline: "Artist proposes, donates personal time and money to make statues, Assange hosts fundraiser to transport and display works."
Maybe Assange would have been more circumspect to remain completely out of the mix. But that's his call, maybe he liked the idea.
Maybe all the flamers here would like the idea too if someone offered to make a bronze statue of them. But no-one did. ;)
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No.
No No No No No No No.
He agreed to have his visage transported around the world for everyone to see. Everyone who knows of wikileaks already knows his name. Agreeing to a dick move like this is nothing but egotistical.
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Since both Slashdot and the Independent pointedly avoid linking to the Kickstarter page in question, here it is:
https://www.kickstarter.com/pr... [kickstarter.com]
It would be a nice irony if this story helped the project get funded.
Nothing like a good Assange bashing (Score:5, Informative)
.....so I truly regret drawing your attention to paragraph 7 of the article:
"The idea for the statue came from Mr Dormino and Charles Glass, an American author, journalist and broadcaster. British journalist Vaughan Smith, with whom Mr Assange stayed while he was on bail in 2010, is organising the Kickstarter campaign."
Furthermore, Mr Smith added:
“If you look at the statues we do have, they’re mostly of people who've done various things during our past in conflict and killed rather a lot of people. I think it’s refreshing to have a statue that’s perhaps owned by the public a little bit more.”
Shame...........um Assange. Shame.
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That'll be the county-estate owner and multi-millionaire Vaughan Smith that started the kickstarter fundraiser, yeah?
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Yep. But apparently he doesn't want to do it with his own money. Hence the need for Assange to use the Wikileaks twitter feed to promote the kickstarter.
Something tell me... (Score:2)
This story is not going to be covered by Valleywag.
I think Julian is starting to crack (Score:2)
How long has he been holed up in that embassy? I know I would be losing it by now.
He is not doing it out of vanity (Score:1)
Flame-bate (Score:5, Interesting)
How does one vote the OP as flame-bate? Julian isn't raising the money, he isn't even promoting it. He just re-tweeted about it. This has to be the most purposefully misleading post I've ever seen on slash dot.
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Right, because using the official Wikileaks feed to tweet a kickstarter page whose goal is to build a statue of him isn't in any way, shape or form trying to raise money to build a statue of him?
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Yes that's right, you finally figured it out, well done.
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The statue is already build, they are raising money for transportation. Maybe you should get your facts right before posting misleading opinions.
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From the kickstarter page:
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This has to be the most purposefully misleading post I've ever seen on slash dot.
Oh please. There have been far more misleading posts on Slashdot. This one is bad, but not even close to the most misleading.
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I considered posting a link to the wikileaks article specifically about the CIA plan to discredit wikileaks through ad-hominen attacks against the organization and the individuals running it but then I would have been labeled a conspiracy theorist.
I'll believe it when I see it (Score:3)
My first reaction was, too, "my, how much of an ego can one single man have?"
Then I was pondering who we're talking about. And who he pissed off.
And then I was pondering whether I can actually trust anything I hear about him. I mean, if I was a country with more funds than dear God himself, would I be above slander?
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My first reaction was: how many stupid slashdoters would label Assange as egomaniac, rapist and criminal based on totaly misleading informations in summary, how many slashdoters would rather side with opressive practices of U.S. (and other) governments instead of Assange and wikileaks, which are trying to fight it?
The answer is predictably and unfortunately: quite a lot.
But why? (Score:1)
Aren't there enough statues of him already:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
http://www.cracked.com/article... [cracked.com]
Life-size (Score:2)
That's supposed to mean the size of his body, or the size of his ego?
I am also trying to raise (Score:1)
Bye (Score:3)
Obligatory Futurama (Score:2)
A Pharaoh to Remember [wikipedia.org].
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Shut the fuck up!!!!
-J.Assange
Re:class act (Score:5, Informative)
"Classy. I'm really glad for wikileaks and all, but christ, what an asshole."
Nice job on getting the first comment (score: 4).
Too bad it means you didn't take the time to look into what's actually going on.
Then you would've found out The Independent is just making stuff up.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/542760505082142720 [twitter.com]
sums it up:
@Independent A retweet by WikiLeaks does not equal Assange "spear heading" a funding drive--but you knew that.
And, of course, Slashdot 'retweets' this, because it gives lots of clicky-di-clicks (= ads = money).
Move along, nothing to see here.
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FTFA:
The idea for the statue came from Mr Dormino and Charles Glass, an American author, journalist and broadcaster. British journalist Vaughan Smith, with whom Mr Assange stayed while he was on bail in 2010, is organising the Kickstarter campaign.
It's a dumb idea on the face of it. And if the intention is to "honor" or otherwise commemorate the three, they're doing it wrong:
Mr Dormino faced a difficult decision over how to depict Ms Manning, who was known as Bradley Manning when convicted of espionage for passing classified documents to WikiLeaks. The former soldier will be shown as she appeared "at the time when the facts took place", the organisers wrote in reply to a question on the Kickstarter page. "This is also motivated by the fact that the artist could not get enough portraits of her actual look to make a realistic portrait."
What, as an artist he couldn't just extrapolate, or use the pic on wikepedia on how manning perceives herself?
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A statue on world tour of Manning, Assange and Snowden, should also likely include some random figures of 'Anonymous' as a greater indicator of behind the scenes efforts. The nature of the statue should of course be as irritating and annoying as possible for those who oppose the ideals of freedom of information and the need for the electorate to have full access to the truth when it comes to actions of it's government as well as those corporations and organisations who have a major influence upon the actio
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I don't particularly see how Manning "perceives himself" has anything to do with this. The statue is about how we perceive Manning, and it's as the man who released important information about US corruption to the world, no matter how insane Manning may have gone since being illegally held in solitary.
First, if the statues were to be about how we perceive the protagonists, the voting would probably have Assange cast as a horse's rear end.
Second, the American Psychiatric Association now no longer labels transsexuals as having a "gender identity disorder". Only took them 40 years to give transsexuals the same consideration they gave the rest of the LGBT. Also, even if this were not the case, there's a difference between having a mental disorder and being insane. Or do you consider everyone with Post-Tra
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Yes, they have a mental disorder and thus are classified insane.
Just because you take offence of the word doesn't mean it has changed or should change its meaning.
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Yes, they have a mental disorder and thus are classified insane.
Just because you take offence of the word doesn't mean it has changed or should change its meaning.
All people who are insane have a mental disorder, but not everyone who has a mental disorder is insane.
Look at any trial where they're trying to decide if the accused was insane, as opposed to just having a mental disorder.
Considering that 18.6% of adults have a mental illness in any particular year [nih.gov], you may want to reconsider your position. Even if we limit ourselves to serious mental illness [nih.gov], that's still more than 1 in 25 people. Serious mental illness does not equate to insanity. People with PTSD
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I suffer from some mental issues (agorafobia, social anxiety). And I do consider myself a little bit insane !
Neither of those mental disorders qualifies as insanity.
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There's legally insane. That's decided in court.
Then there is insane and unsane. Been a long time since I took psych, IIRC insane means you can't deal, unsane means you're nuts, but your bills mostly get paid.
Based on that standard I'd put the line between unsane and insane at if the heshe was paying for it's own insurance and out of pocket costs.
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Well, it's a good thing you didn't get a vote then. Assange is a hero no matter what you think.
...
He can still be a horse's ass, even if he is a hero, no matter what you think.
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Horses' asses can still serve important functions from time to time. Just ask a horse.
Of course, that notwithstanding, even a horse probably wouldn't want a statue of their ass made and sent on a world tour.
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I guess you haven't met many horses then. ...
They are totally asspeople !
Twerking all the time, subscribing to the Kim Kardashian mailinglists, reading popular proctologist media, etc
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Have you ever noticed that horses all get to have asses, but it's rare to find an ass with its own horse? #HorseAssEquality
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As opposed to victims of trannies, who consented to be with a person of a given gender and were tricked? Their consent doesn't matter in the slightest?
Depends on what you mean by "trannies", which is both ambiguous and derogatory. The way I see it, if the person is legally the gender they presented themselves as and you can't tell by looking at the private parts, their previous medical history is simply none of your darned business, and you have no basis to cry "I've been tricked." Same as they have no basis to say they've been "tricked" if you've had your teeth capped, dye your hair to look younger than you are, have had a knee replacement, been treated
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They weren't tricked. There is no surgery to fix man hands. Just closet cases.
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Go cry me a river - trying to relabel pedophiles as "pedosexuals" isn't going to change the reality that minors are not capable of consent.
Many adults are also incapable of consent from handicap or intoxication for example
And having sex with them is also illegal if their mental state is such that they cannot give consent. Or are you really Bill Cosby trying to "muddy the waters" on what consent is?
The LGBT community wants nothing to do with pedophiles, having had to fight the wrong notion that, for example, gay men are pedophiles. As a troll, you fail it.
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the LGB community didn't accept transsexual monsters just a few decade ago.
Sure they did. And not as "monsters" either. Quit making things up.
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Is there a significant difference between Assange and Wikileaks? There used to be but then there was a falling out and nasty accusations tossed around. If this were a corporation that decided it would be a swell idea to make a statue of the chairman of the board, one would think at the very least that there was a lot of ass kissing going on and probably that the CoB was in on the plan.
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It's not quite nothing--he did retweet it to give it some attention--but I thought it was iffy myself, and I am certainly no fan of Assange. I keep him on one of my Twitter lists just because his delusions amuse me (and because he sometimes posts something interesting). When something this unusual pops up, it's best to look into it a bit further.
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....But I am always seduced by Miss Information!
She is soooo irresistible that I can't control myself!
I believe everything she says because she says all of the right things!
And she wants me all the time....
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You'll have to excuse the grossly misleading headline and summary, I just noticed it's posted by Rei.
Rei turns up on Slashdot every time an Assange story turns up. She's mentioned before that she was a victim of assault, and so has basically decided to make it her life long internet crusade to ensure that any man accused of rape is determined to be guilty, and fuck the law and all that.
She likes to sound intelligent by throwing in random Swedish words like the Swedish version of "the accused" as if it someh
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The UK is not assisting Sweden. Both you and Sweden are assisting the US, which is trying to get revenge on Assange for exposing its dirty secrets.
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Ah, Xest, you grace us with your presence and personal attacks. Thanks for predictably showing up.
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If you can't even stop pretending that "Anklagad" and "Ã¥talad" are these weird mystical Swedish concepts when in fact they simply map directly to the accused (Aklagad) and charged (Ã¥talad), then what's the point even trying to debate the rest of your points directly? You'll only read what you want to read, twist what does suit how you want to twist. It's all pointless.
There's a certain irony that you feel that by digging back 2 years you've managed to find five whole posts on the topic o
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But when a prosecution can't even be bothered to determine that someone is one
The issue of whether Julian Assange is a rapist or not would have been settled years ago if he had not skipped bail. He would have been taken to Sweden and interviewed about the accusations. Maybe as a result of that, there would have been a trial and hopefully he would have been found guilty if and only if he did rape somebody.
Right now, he's a fugitive from justice, which makes me think that he is not confident that he would be acquitted of the rape allegations. You can talk about the danger of extradi
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In fact, he'd be safer in Sweden than the UK. EAW regulations require that extradition to a third party requires the sent of both the sending state (UK) and the receiving state (Sweden), rather than just the sending or receiving states alone. And Sweden has among the most restrictive extradition treaties in Europe, with a flat-out ban on extradition for intelligence or military crimes - which is why Assange was applying for a residence permit and moving Wikileaks' main base of operation there in the first p
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Then you would've found out The Independent is just making stuff up.
Independent isnt making anything up, their headline is actually accurate. If you havent figured it out yet, theres a 50-50 chance that any particular slashdot headline is utter nonsense. The game is to figure out which each headline is.
Either way its still not socially appropriate to encourage people to financially support a statue honoring yourself.
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It's worth remembering that during the Edward Snowden revelations, the Independent tried its hand at a bogus leak, lying to make it appear as if it had come from the Snowden documents and leaking the sort of information that could have had serious implications for people's safety (which the Guardian/Greenwald had taken care not to do). Greenwald at the time revealed that no such information had come from them, and the Independent were exposed with their pants round their ankles and their cock in the family
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IMO though, Chelsea should be depicted as a girl IRL. Also. I played a game with a nerd who use to go by the name Chelsea.
What I don't get is that she changed from a first name that was a surname to a place name which by definition is unisex in nature. It's like changing your first name from Davis to Islington.
Anyhow, the point of a statue would, I presume, be to depict what people remember and recognize. We don't see many statues of Rosa Parks, Elvis, Jo DiMaggio and Neil Armstrong from their latter years, for example.
Re:class act (Score:5, Funny)
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a large wooden badger was considered, but then rejected.
Re:class act (Score:5, Funny)
That's why most customs stations now feature a special security check. An agent taps lightly on every statue going through customs, whispers "we're here", and then waits a bit to see if anything happens.
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Obviously this is his method of escape. He will conceal himself inside the statue, and then it will be shipped to Russia, among other places.
First statue on Mars?
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Classy. I'm really glad for wikileaks and all, but christ, what an asshole.
He's basically been under house arrest for the last two years, I wonder if it isn't starting to take its toll.
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Sic semper stupratoribus.
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It's all so obviously political opportunism that people who take it seriously are just making themselves look stupid. He pissed off a "tyrant" in that one of the things he published makes Hillary look very bad, then suddenly he's seen as being worth dragging from country to country for questioning while bail skipping child rapists like Polanski are left alone.
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The entry listed on the EAW checked as rape:
He hasn't even been charged (Score:2)
On the other hand Polanski was found guilty by the court, yet was left alone for decades due to no political reason to get him.
You've been conned by the unscrupulous aiming directly for your emotions and making you blow up on this issue. Your final paragraph is irrelevant since most of it relies on supposition and
I'd better sum up (Score:2)
We are being played and the reality is somewhere under ten levels of highly crafted PR disinformation.
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It's like what Jeffrey Dahmer said to Chelsea Manning...
"Well, you gonna eat that?"
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Careful with your terminology - "rapist" means a conviction; you should use other wording. "Rape fugitive"? Yeah, that's accurate. "Guy with a court finding of probable cause of rape"? Yep. "Thin-skinned combattive prick who calls himself a god to women on his blog and can't even manage a chat with his ghostwriter without leering at 14-year-old girls and giving commentary on whether he thinks they're hot or not"? Yeah. But without a conviction, saying "rapist" is something that could get you sued for libel.
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Careful with your terminology - "rapist" means a conviction
Not at all. You can be falsely convicted of rape, then you are not a rapist. Or you can be wrongly set free, then you are still a rapist. "Rapist" is about the fact that someone has committed the crime. "Convicted rapist" is someone being convicted for the crime.
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well yeah, since nowadays if you out that one government branch is lying to another, then you're a traitor if you out that information.
which seems kind of fucked up - get your fucking agencies in a leash, you're bleeding money to fuckups who ruin your reputation and provide you with no service whatsoever.
Pleasing the unwashed masses is not my task. (Score:2)
This is great. The Crowd has the greatest pretense of all human things, and turning up your nose at it debunks its assumption of moral superiority.
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So using the official Wikileaks Twitter account to encourage people to donate to it is merely an "I won't sue you"?
Meanwhile, how about that Chelsea Manning defense fund [wired.com] after Assange milked the Manning case for fundraising for years....
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Right, such "constant surveillance" that when Assange left Sweden nobody bothered to tell the Swedish Prosecutors' office? And then when he jumped bail and beelined for the embassy of a country whose president he'd previously been chumming it up with on RT, nobody bothered to tell anyone to stop him, because...? Is this what you call "surveilance", and if so DAMN are spooks ever incompetent these days...
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*Whoosh*
The Swedish government had no force measures against him because they believed his attorney that he was still in Sweden getting ready to voluntarily come into the police station for an interview, up to several days after he had left the country, because apparently this "constant surveillance" didn't see fit to bother to mention to them that he was gone. They also believed his attorney's lies for about a month that Assange was getting ready to return to Sweden because this "constant surveillance" did
Assholes (Score:1)
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What he's "paying a high price for" is F*ing a sleeping girl to work around her repeated refusal to consent to his preferred form of sex, then running from the charges.
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Which is why he's surrendered to police custody and stood trial, right?