Lock up your left-wing activist sisters; Julian Assange is back in town.

In a triumph for accused rapists everywhere, the Swedish prosecutors in charge of his cases have decided to drop the affair, citing a lack of reasonable prospects for bringing him to trial. Assange’s evasion of justice by hiding first in the English legal system and then in the Ecuadorean embassy being the principle bar to his prosecution, the decision should not be seen as anything other than what it is – a successful obstruction of justice by a fugitive alleged rapist and a tinpot authoritarian petro-regime known largely for being largely unknown and staunchly anti-American.

Been credibly accused of sexual assault? Not to worry! Just skip bail, hide behind the reach of the law and then when the warrant for your arrest expires claim vindication and repeat your assertions of victimhood.

Of course, Julian Assange is no more to be excused from rape charges because of his politics than Rolf Harris should be released for services to wobbleboards. But the rules are different when it comes to narcissistic liars and their enablers, so here we are.

That an accused sex offender rationalises and excuses their own behaviour is perhaps not surprising. That so many prominent and otherwise intelligent people go along with it is shocking and disgusting.

Assange was never at risk of extradition from Sweden to the US; he was certainly not at greater risk in Sweden than in the UK. The 1964 extradition treaty between Sweden and the US prohibits extradition for political crimes (as well as for crimes potentially carrying the death penalty). By contrast the 2003 US-UK extradition treaty is remarkably friendly to the US; in fact, prior to Assange’s case, it was heavily criticised by the UK Left for being too subservient to US interests. Google ‘NatWest Three’ for an example – now conveniently forgotten – of how this is so.

Assange’s paranoid claims of a global conspiracy against him and his errant phallus have always been a cynical manipulation of others’ ignorance of extradition treaties and of their anti-American bias to avoid answering serious questions about multiple alleged rapes.

Ask yourself this – if Julian Assange hadn’t been the creator of a website aimed at damaging US interests, and instead played half-forward for St Kilda, what would you think about accusations of rape against him, his dodging of the police and justice systems and his traducing of the women who accuse him?

Talk about rape culture.

As for the complainants themselves, both were well known and respected activists within the Swedish Left. (The Swedish Right resembling a meeting of the Lee ‘Rhiannon’ Brown chapter of the Australian Greens Party, one can only imagine just how left one would be required to go to join the Swedish Left). Assange at the time being a cause célèbre amongst kale-munching, fashionably US-hating progressive types, it is safe to say that neither woman is much of a candidate for CIA honeytraps or falsified allegations on the orders of Deep Throat. But as ever the facts mean little when there’s resentment to be stoked in the service of escaping a rape charge or two.

Speaking of resentments, the behaviour of the global Left when it comes to Assange is overtaken for sheer opportunism by those elements of the global Right who’ve latterly adopted our Julian as some sort of hero. That he opposed Hillary Clinton is true enough; that he has consistently proclaimed as his goal the destruction of the United States is just as true. For the pro-Trump elements of American conservatism to have converted to Assange’s cult is little short of disgusting, akin to Emily’s List campaigning for the release of Charles Manson on the grounds that his crime spree’s gender breakdown exceed female quotas.

The enemy of your enemy is sometimes your enemy too. But in the new world order of resentment politics, mutual hate supersedes anything approaching common values or objective fact.

Assange has long been open about his goal (the destruction of the United States) and his methods (the utilisation of information systems against that nation). His own essays, written around 2006 and still publicly available, state this clearly and unambiguously. His collusion with US rivals such as Russia and Iran, his heavy editing of videos like ‘Collateral Murder’, which then purport to be unfiltered revelations, his comparison of Guantanamo Bay with Auschwitz… all his public actions and private conversations should leave no one in any doubt what he means to achieve. One would think the only conservatives cheering him on would come from the traditionalist wing of Hamas, but sadly, the debasement of the Right outstrips the stupidity of the Left when it comes to Making Assange Great Again. Hating Hillary is no excuse for ignoring all this, now or ever.

Assange has displayed little concern for those he leaves in his destructive wake, be they Bradley/Chelsea Manning, his former colleagues at Wikileaks or his alleged rape victims. Such is the behavioural pattern of the classic narcissist. But for far too many willing dupes, Assange’s enemies are more important than his accusers or his actions.

Like O J Simpson or Donald Trump, for Julian Assange’s supporters he will always be innocent because his enemies are guilty. For the rest of us, his crimes against honesty, Western democracy and several unfortunate young women should be what really matter. The truth still counts to some of us out here.

Lock him up.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.