I personally do, he actually risked his life to release information about the government spying on people. And there are for sure more advanced ways now. Even your phone is listening.
What Snowden did was objectively good, and he did so at great personal cost, but you should be cautious about making any living person your hero. His politics seem to lean closer to libertarian nut-job than anything else, and it’s very possible he will disappoint you in the future. Case in point, Glen Greenwald broke the Snowden leaks, and I considered him one of my heros for a time,.but these days he sounds more like Tucker Carlson than anyone else. The point is, admire heroic actions, but don’t make people your heroes.
He did a good thing. Don’t know enough about the man to pass judgement.
And after all, the guy that killed Hitler (undoubtedly a good thing) was very much an asshole.
Bit of a nuanced take, a trimmed down copy-paste from another comment of mine prior. Tl;Dr: he’s a product of the system that left the system.
Snowden was an individual that worked in the intelligence community in the mid-2000s. In this era, the American populace was so afraid of terrorism they signed away freedoms for national security. In this post 9/11 world, patriotism was a given, almost nationalistically, if you were American. It’s fair to say that a highly nationalistic media and culture can influence the individual to embrace those mentalities more… even if it perverts your true best interest. Snowden likely viewed service to the NSA as patriotic, and in support of his fellow Americans. While he started off supporting it, he soon saw immorality, and decided to resist against them with what I see as an effective measure. I feel that for most whistleblowers, this logic applies. I wanna say “Good job, but still shame on you for taking the job to begin with,” yet this system we’re in can cause us to support things we otherwise wouldn’t like.
Looking to modern issues: The manipulation of individuals, mass surveillance, leveraging of government by powerful. Critisizim of these was always there, but where it was pointed at and pursued sure felt a lot different after Snowden.
I mean I have no idea what this guy’s like, outside of what he’s broadly known for, but I definately approve of what he did in regards of informing the greater public about the level of intrusion they are actively seeking to have into everybody’s life.
He could have been, but his actions and words since has made me feel he had ulterior motives from the start.
I approve of what he did, but I don’t approve of his ideals.
Yes
No, his behavior shall be average, not an exception. However we have to fight the repression that target him, like every other one that stand against repression
I still like the fact that he released so many documents that when the newspaper tried to open the file it broke Excel, so he had to come in and fix it.
Not a fan of his personal views but he did do a good thing at the very least
A hero is a concept and since people are much more than concepts, the question is invalid.
Isn’t she a woman now?
Yes. Unequivocally.
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before the transition* or before they transitioned* (not sure which one you meant to write)
And before SHE went to prison, I see no reason to say he other than being a anti-trans shit stain. The timing of the transition doesn’t matter at all, a person who is transsexual should be called the gender they know they are independent on if someone is talking about before their public transition. A person is the gender they feel they are and should be called so for any time in their life unless they have specifically said that they want to be called their biological/sexual gender when others talk about them before their transition.
Transgender is the preferred term fyi.
Was going to write these exact words.
Damn right he is. He risked his safety and his life (and still does) to make sure we all know more about how the feds are spying on their own citizens.
He’s a true hero of the American People, that one, make no mistake.
And Europeans, even though many don’t know him, he’s shown how much the US spies on us too.
I consider him a true American patriot.
Nothing is more patriotic than wanting your country to do better.
Implementing drag net surveillance was a terrible decision, and exposing it was truly heroic.
Sadly, Snowden is now in the clutches of Russia who can and does use him as their pawn.
It is easy to say that this is where the EU should have stepped up and given him sanctuary, but that would have been less than ideal for him.
- Europe and the US have close ties with police and law enforcement, while no EU nation would hand their own citizens over to the US, they would absolutely hand over a US citizen to the US if requested.
- During the war on terror, Europe was complicit in plenty of illegal renditions of their own citizens to the CIA, they were then sent to illegal black sites and tortured, plenty of these persons have since been proven innocent.
Given the high profile of Snowden’s leak, the US still want’s him back, and back then even more so, had Snowden gone to the EU, he most likely would have been extradited, kidnapped or even assassinated.
By staying in Russia that was a far lower risk to him.
while no EU nation would hand their own citizens over to the US
Europe was complicit in plenty of illegal renditions of their own citizens to the CIA
Make up your mind.
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“The west should have protected him from the west.”
Unironically true. Wish we lived in the timeline where war crimes mattered and those war criminal bastards were rotting in prison. Now because the USA let their own war crimes slide, it’s made autonomous killing systems permissible and civilian casualty rates nearly completely ignored as the horrible precedent of today and on. I hate warfare with a passion
Eh, the EU makes a big deal of freedom, and has stood up to the US in the past, but here there are actual laws and regulations to follow, and if we stop extraditing US citizens to the US, the US would stop extraditing our citizens to us.
Countries in the EU are still occupying Africa. Settler shitheads.
It appears that I am out of the loop on this…
Here’s one example: https://www.pulse.ng/story/7-ways-france-still-controls-its-former-african-colonies-2024072617033075753
Don’t feel bad. Many are out of the loop. The west spends a lot of money ensuring most are clueless to what’s actually going on in the world.
That article made me vigorously expel air from my nose.
What’s the #1 way that France still controls its former African colonies?
“1. These countries must officially speak French”
Did you know England controls the United States? How? England makes the US speak English. I’m super serial! This isn’t a laughing matter, so stop laughing at this matter.
Oh, I had no idea about this…
The colonial tax seems especially evil.
Luckily it seems entirely fabricated like many other claims on that post in Pulse Nigeria’s Food and Travel section
You are answering to someone from a tankie instance, expect their views to be aligned with authoritarian left and take them with many grains of salt. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
Hey, thanks for telling me, I know about tankies, as well as the instances they run, though I don’t check every user to see where they come from.
I’ll tag him accordingly.
What exactly have I said that wasn’t true?
That countries in the EU are controlling countries in Africa. What else is there you could’ve said that’s not true?
I don’t generally dwell on the libshits like yourself, some will never learn the art of thinking critically, but I would like to point out that the best way to control the population is to divide it. You’re either a fed or unknowingly lending them a hand.
The irony of calling someone a “lib-shit”, over what is, in the grande scheme of things, a minor quibble, in the literal same sentence they talk about how people are dividing the population intentionally to control them.
Lmfao, you’re the one dividing the population you unselfreflective dipshit. Grow up.
He’s at lower risk from the US, but speaking out about Russia would probably be riskier. It’s an unfortunate situation for him to be stuck in Russia and not some other safe country.
I think the Swiss should have offered him assistance in an embassy or Vietnam or somewhere other than Putin’s Russia (which we knew was bad even back then).
Really though, Obama should have pardoned him.
Nothing is more patriotic than wanting your country to do better.
Is being patriotic and wanting your first world country to do better something heroic?
