Zinnia Jones: "My conversations with Bradley Manning," available for download

Zinnia Jones, the genderqueer YouTube vlogger who had an online friendship with alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning, has made their internet conversations available for download.

The only redactions that have been made are to remove the identifying information of certain individuals. I'm releasing these logs because, thus far, all that we've heard from Bradley himself is in the form of incomplete conversations from Adrian Lamo. That was during an exceptional time in his life, and it doesn't give the whole picture of who Bradley is. I knew him as an intelligent, motivated and ambitious soldier who was dedicated to doing the best for his country, and I believe his words reflect that.
Regardless of what we might think of his actions, I feel it's important that we develop a more balanced understanding of Bradley and his personal views. It's my hope that this will provide valuable insight into someone who has undoubtedly made history.

Here's the download link.

Bradley Manning's Army of One

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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querent

Did Manning have any reason to believe this Zinnia person was a minister?

Just kidding. :|
querent

Some of this has been posted somewhere before. Sorry for being daft, but where have I read this:

======
(9:02:45 PM) ZJ: when I get a new computer I might install linux on this one

(9:03:07 PM) bradass87: military is all f’d up… contracts with closed source developers with incompatible software… drives me NUTS

(9:03:29 PM) ZJ: that is ridiculous, it’s hard to ensure security when the source is unavailable

(9:03:53 PM) bradass87: yes, even worse its often lowest bidder…

(9:05:03 PM) bradass87: used to be the cream of the crop… now its outdated non-backward compatible suites of buggy software that were originally used for civilian purposes, then modified for military but not exactly thoroughly tested

(9:05:36 PM) bradass87: then they get contractors who dont know anything about computers to teach it…

(9:06:42 PM) bradass87: and its all OKAY, because we cant exactly complain out in the open because the software which bugs out is often times on machines which are stamped with big red SECRET stickers

(9:06:57 PM) ZJ: that’s pretty lame

(9:07:12 PM) bradass87: it is, it is
======
Anonymous

I’d never heard of Zinnia Jones and appreciate the extra contextual information. I think progress has been made when the comments shut up about it.
Palomino

It is an issue for me, it’s been my experience that genderqeer/transgender people are highly insightful, passionate, artistic and not diluted by gender rolls. The ones I know are all involved in high tech, aerospace, education and are ALL artistically inclined in one form or another.

I’m jealous of them, their limits are boundless but the’re notoriously blunt, they don’t have time to explain little things, they don’t have time for the one’s who just don’t get it because their mindset is too difficult to explain and its hard to explain something that comes natural to some people, “I don’t know, I just do it!”

Asimov has written about people like these, and their rolls in his novels are highly regarded.

A visit with my tranny (she prefers that term) friend: Gardening, riding dirt-bikes, fishing, repairing a chain saw, performing electrical work, playing in a band, building a guitar, refinishing hardwoods, interviewing apprentices, interviewing new band members, writing code, working in her dark room (her specialty is B&W images using a Vintage Polaroid Land Camera)and loads of other stuff.

I love her and wish I could be more like him.
- DoctressJulia
  
  ‘I love her and wish I could be more like him.’ Are you talking about two people, cuz you’ve used two pronouns.
  - Tim
    
    From her YouTube profile it would seem that alternating in a single sentence is fine with him:
    
    “BY REQUEST: GENDER PRONOUN INSTA-FAQ
    Call me ‘she’. Or ‘he’. Either is fine.”
april

What’s your real name, Bradley?
moniker42

Progress has been made when genderqueer isn’t a label that has to be pointed out, like, “Female Youtube vlogger” seems like too much information in the way you wouldn’t point out “Male Youtube vlogger”. “.”
- Xeni Jardin
  
  It is, in this case, relevant to the content of the post itself.
GreenJello

Seems distracting to me. I’ve seen some of Zinnia’s vposts, and they’re usually intertaining, and well thought out, but I don’t see where the genderqueer comes into things. I had to look up the term, and still don’t entirely understand it, or it’s relation to Zinnia, maybe I’m dense, I don’t know.
- Manny
  
  In this case, it is likely relevant if Bradley Manning is genderqueer. It would have an impact on how they related to each other and what Manning was willing to reveal.
  - randomguy
    
    I disagree. If it were relevant then it would have been something the blogger and Manning discussed during their conversations. Labelling the blogger as “genderqueer” brings absolutely nothing to the table apart from labeling the person and putting them in a proverbial box.
    - querent
      
      “If it were relevant then it would have been something the blogger and Manning discussed during their conversations.”
      
      I’m only about 10 minutes in, and it’s come up already.
    - Anonymous
      
      I suppose it makes a difference whether you hear “genderqueer” and think “oh, so they have something in common, and might understand some of the difficulties one another have faced” or “oh, one of that type.”
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Speaking of relevance, would you mind not making this thread be about you? Cheers!
    - Manny
      
      I counter disagree. People of the same marked group will interact differently than they would otherwise, even if they aren’t talking explicitly about that group. Trust, shared language and assumptions, etc. make a big difference. This is certainly true among the genderqueer. It is such a fundamental alienation, that runs from filling out the simplest form to a persistent feeling of being in danger.
      
      In this case, however, they do talk about it.
Cowicide

I wonder how most libertarians feel about this part?

Via Manning:

(9:41:48 PM) bradass87: im surprised you havent asked the usual question: why is a gay, libertarian, atheist, computer nerd in the army
- Teller
  
  Manning says “I’m a liberal” later, so maybe it’s a mistake over the meaning of libertarian or just mistyped. Reading the entire text, Manning seems like a pretty average person. Got recruited for having Intel interests, gripes about Army life, likes pizza, nothing that would lead one to say Ah-hah – that’s how this whole mess got started. Whatever happened that led to the alleged crime: some life-changing moment or a tendency to be sweet-talked for a “greater good”, it ain’t in those personal logs, which I felt kind of embarrassed reading since, while they’re just chit-chat, they were private.
  - Cowicide
    
    Manning says “I’m a liberal” later, so maybe it’s a mistake over the meaning of libertarian or just mistyped.
    
    Maybe a liberal-libertarian hybrid creature?
    
    I felt kind of embarrassed reading since, while they’re just chit-chat, they were private.
    
    Yeah, it’s crazy how his personal life is exposed wide open like a dissected frog and I feel a little shady reading it too. But, then again, I think he knew that was part of the risk in what he was doing and my hope is he was somewhat prepared for this.
    
    I really also hope he was prepared for torture, but unfortunately he probably had more faith in his country than to think they would do such draconian, dictatorial, fascist shit to its own soldiers or citizens. I hope he was more cynical and was prepared.
- Teller
  
  I haven’t read as you have, so maybe you could help out. Did he answer that rhetorical question, because I am interested in why he joined the Army.
  - Cowicide
    
    It’s in 2009-02-21.192749-0600CST.txt. I’m not sure you’ll find the answers you’re looking for there, but I feel more comfortable letting him speak in his own words.
    - Teller
      
      Tips hat
    - Teller
      
      hmmm. said Thanks.
Cowicide

Thank you for posting this, Xeni. And, or course thanks to Zinnia for letting the world see another side of Manning outside of sociopath Lamo’s filters.
randomguy

Yeah, identifying the person as a specifically “generqueer” video blogger seems irrelevant and extraneous.
Gulliver

I will have to think about whether I want to eavesdrop on a private conversation. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.

On a separate note: Thank you, Xeni, for the heads-up. I lost track of Zinnia after her YouTube channel got cut a while back. Glad to see it’s been reinstated. While I didn’t always agree with all of it, ZJ has good thoughtful stuff that’s interesting (when it’s not fruitless arguments with religious Fundies).
Anonymous

New to me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genderqueer
“..catch-all term for gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary and heteronormativity.”

There really should be a sex/ual issues blogger here on BB.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  There really should be a sex/ual issues blogger here on BB.
  
  You mean besides Xeni? And Andrea James and Susannah Breslin as regular contributors?
Anonymous

Zinnia Jones is known for vlogging on gender/genderqueer topics, and it is specifically because of those vlogs that Manning contacted him, so I would say Xeni is correct in using the term as immediately relevant to the content.