Wikileaks the Lone Beacon of Hope in an Otherwise Bleak 2010

I realize that my post yesterday recapping 2010 was perhaps a bit on the pessimistic side.  Although 2010 was a pretty horrendous year, there was one bright spot in an otherwise uninterrupted stream of gloom:  WikiLeaks.

This is an issue about which I’ve written quite extensively but, at the risk of seeming obsessed, I feel it’s worth revisiting.  Overwhelmingly, 2010 was another year in which the ordinary masses were crushed just a bit more under the weight of the corporate heel.  The year was notable perhaps only in that the utter disdain for democracy and progressive values became so painfully obvious; it seemed to be a year in which the corporate elite just did away with all the facades and just openly admitted, “We’re soulless bastards on the hunt for maximum profits, so go fuck yourselves.”  Granted, their charade of superficially respecting the principles of democracy has always been paper-thin, but this year they really seemed to outdo themselves in terms of their open contempt for us lowly plebes.

The year seemed devastatingly grim in most respects.  Our “liberal” president unequivocally revealed himself as the corporate tool he has always been, and, inexplicably, the nation swung even further rightward during the disastrous 2010 mid-term elections, courtesy of the absolutely ridiculous Teawads and their ignorant ilk.  The repeal of DADT, while obviously a welcome development, felt more like a slap in the face than a genuine achievement for the progressive movement.  It seemed like a carefully contrived political move to appease those “purist” lefties, at precisely the moment when the veil had blown off the Democrats’ face and revealed a money-grubbing elephant with dollar signs for eyeballs.  But really, what had we expected?