Yeah, I’ve got to hold that we, as a people, are more secure when we’re aware of the ways our government is violating our founding documents.
So if you tell one person a secret, everyone else has the right to know your secrets - after all, at least one other person knows your secret now. Piss poor logic, mate, try again.
Yes, the state should have power, but it should not have the power to violate people’s privacy without oversight. Having oversight, having the ability to review the shine the light on the conduct of agencies we trust with that power is our insurance policy to make sure that they don’t abuse it. What were the Pentagon Papers? Who were the whistle blowers at My Lai?
Empowering a government to operate in secrecy inevitably leads to an erosion of governmental accountability to its stakeholders. I don’t mean this as a personal attack, but you are espousing authoritarian views, just as many of the people from John Brennan to James Clapper have, and now ironically express concerns about the dangers of having an authoritarian like Trump in power. This is exactly why Snowden was concerned, and Trump is exactly the sort of authoritarian that he feared could use the extraordinary powers of the executive against his critics.
Maybe not, but a president’s legacy can remain years after his departure.
I certainly have no objection to any of that, but there should always be mechanisms for oversight, and that should include people who have direct dog in the fight.
None of the information Snowden leaked documents any such violations.
Although Snowden exposed how the government of a ‘free’ nation, can spy on its citizens, his actions illuminated a far larger problem - privacy could soon vanish (and it may already be too late to resurrect it). Without privacy in communication, does freedom even exist?
Beyond simple lack of privacy, elections are meddled, a corporate guiding hand is empowered, civil discourse is weaponized, all in a manner chillingly akin to what Snowden has revealed about how the US government goes about its secret freedom-keeping business.
But above all, modern communications have created a world where the most powerful can be aware of - and suppress - all dissent. A world where the eye of the ‘leaders’ is everywhere and their grip is unbreakable.
Anyone would do well to read about the Uighurs or this piece about people visiting the Uighur province Xinjiang.
Snowden was a prophet.
Snowden was in a position of trust, and decided to use that position to steal as much information as he could to sell it to the highest bidder, purely for purposes of enriching himself. There’s nothing at all noble about that. And it turns out that the juiciest information he could get ahold of was the knowledge that the US government was doing exactly what we, through our elected officials, told them to do. Unfortunately for Snowden, nobody’s willing to pay very much to learn that government agencies are following the Patriot Act.
Yes, the people of the US needed to have their attention called to the fact of what the government is doing. A lot of folks tried to call attention to that way back when the Patriot Act was being passed. Those folks who tried to call attention to it back then deserve praise, and it’s not their fault that not enough people listened to them. Snowden doesn’t deserve more praise for the fact that when he tried to line his own pockets, people finally paid attention.
Can you elaborate please? Brother Smapti has also alluded to this.
Who did he sell it to, and how much money did he get for it?
Citation needed.
Well of course! If I found the government was doing something massively illegal, and nobody else was willing to expose it, I should be willing to sacrifice 20 years of my life to set things right.
Boy howdy, the notion of whistleblowing must be something that you hate.
And his alternative, other than allowing this massive illegal domestic surveillance program to continue, was…?
Oh yeah, 20 years in the slammer.
Sez you. :rolleyes:
I’ve spent time in both Hawaii and Moscow.
I can tell you right now, I’d rather have a 6-figure income in Hawaii, but have to go to work every day, than have a 6-figure income in Moscow with no job and few expenses.
Short answer: I thought Snowden was a hero then, and I still think he’s a hero.
So trying to stop something wrong from happening is praiseworthy but exposing an ongoing wrongness is not? Even though you agree the American people needed their attention called to it?
Bumped.
Putin shill. Along with Assange. What about the secrets of other nations? Only America is bad, what the fuck ever.
How come there’s no Wikileaks for Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and other crappy governments?
Because those countries actually do to their citizens the kind of things that people like Snowden fantasize about the US doing.
Nope, he did it because is America is good, or is supposed to be.
“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Snowden was trying to keep America great.
You understand that Snowden didn’t have access to top secret documents about Iran, right? He only had access to documents showing that the US was doing something shady, not for any other country.
Also, do you need Wikileaks to tell you China is corrupt and authoritarian? Google “Chinese Uiygars”and you’ll find plenty of articles about their on-going genocide. Same with Russia and Iran and all the other “bad” countries. There’s no lack of media coverage of the immoral shit these countries get up to, so I’ve for no idea where this “only America is evil” complaint of yours is coming from.
But where are the top secret or diplomatic Files released for non western countries?
I don’t have them.
Presumably, held by those countries? I’m not sure why you’re criticizing Snowden or Assange for not releasing documents that they don’t have access to in the first place.
I’m sure Snowden is living in Russia with the desire that America stays great /s
Anyone I would look up to stays and fights, they don’t run for protection from a hostile government that does worse shit. The fact that Snowden ran to Russia calls into question his original intent in my eyes.