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.
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.
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.
Not a fan of his personal views but he did do a good thing at the very least
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.
I approve of what he did, but I don’t approve of his ideals.
Yes
Of course not. He’s a criminal. What did leaking that data do to improve the lives of Americans? Now, how much more advanced did our foreign enemies become in attacking our intelligence? He was an extremist that made us more vulnerable to threats based on his own personal value system.
Alright, so you are for more spying on actual innocent Americans. Great…
So you were fishing for confirmation rather than looking for opinions? Don’t ask a polarizing question if you can’t stomach the answers you don’t agree with.
What if they were?
Then it doesn’t belong in no stupid question.
You don’t get to decide that.
No, I am just pointing out how ridiculous that comment actually is, lol.
It wasn’t my comment. And if it was, my point still stands. Don’t ask questions if you don’t want to hear opposing answers.
I meant “that” comment. What? am I not allowed to respond to it on my post? Get over yourself.
You didn’t just respond. You immediately went feral. Like I said, you weren’t looking for responses, you were looking for confirmation of your views. When you didn’t get it, you lashed out like a child.
You can respond however you want, but actions have reactions, and this is that.
Granted they could’ve responded a little better but as someone else said, your reaction is very out of proportion.
How is this feral “Alright, so you are for more spying on actual innocent Americans. Great…”
You don’t know how I think, look at you assuming. I posted on here, of course I expected other views. And you acting all high and mighty is disgusting.
No one went feral. You’re overreacting.
It may seem like not much changed, but it was one of the motivating factors for the big push for TLS everywhere after it was revealed that PRISM was tapped into and mirroring unencrypted communications. Also Signal probably wouldn’t be as popular as it now, with people still using unencrypted communications.
One of the NSA’s missions is to protect all of the federal government’s computer networks from cyber-terrorism. You could argue that in light of what Snowden revealed, the increased focus of security and encryption did more to protect all of the federal government’s computer networks from cyber-terrorism than any other NSA initiative ever.
Username checks out.
made us more vulnerable to threats
How so?
It’s giving away our intelligence apparatus to every other nation. What do you mean how.
I’m sure it was no secret to these other countries that the US was spying on their own citizens.
Every other nation’s intelligence services already know all of that stuff. All he did was reveal it to the American people. Intelligence classifications are meant to keep YOU from knowing
Is there any particular piece of information that he revealed which could have been used by anyone really to… I dunno… bypass defenses or take advantage of people or whatever in some a way that could actually hurt people?
I dunno. Everything I’ve heard is that everything that he leaked that has been released was super innocuous militarily (not that the military is a bunch of knights in shining armor or anything) or national-defense-wise. It is (or at least should be) very embarrassing to the U.S. “intelligence apparatus”. And it’s clearly good reason to believe that Uncle Sam clearly doesn’t have our (American’s) best interests at heart. But what could possibly have even hypothetically been used to cause any harm?
(And, I don’t know, maybe you know something I’m unaware of, but it really seemed like he went out of his way to avoid any harm to anything but the reputation of the intelligence industrial complex. And maybe a few presidents.)
He didn’t sanitize names, addresses, or active locations of the individuals involved in the work he was exposing. He made each of them a direct target.
Most people who are critical of him from an educated place instead of one based on feels do so because of that. That wasn’t necessary to get his point across, it was sloppy and reckless, and completely unnecessary. People who call him a terrorist usually are the ones who believe there’s no way you could be so reckless and instead attribute it to malicious ulterior motives of trying to get people killed.
And this is how cowards look.
Absolutely.
He was in 2013. And that’s what counts.
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.
Yes. Unequivocally.
yes, much like chelsea manning(who also dated grimes whom Musk hate) before the transitioned, he went to prison for releasing some damning evidence although top secret about how much was going on.
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.
Permanent Record was the first book I ever read (apart from the ones in school and college), and I loved it. His story does inspire me.
In my eyes, he is!
The Enemy Of The State movie from 1998 really woke me up in the past. You should watch it immediately.
I remember seeing that film and thinking, “they wish they could do this.” They’ve tried pretty hard and somehow been more sinister about it.
What if they already had some tech like that, even back then?
I mean, there were definitely cameras everywhere but they werent part of a system(closed circuit and they looked awful). Hell, they still look like shit most of the time.
Hackman had MFs zooming in on people’s faces 100 yards out from atm cameras and stuff.
Obviously, the state wants this but it’s not there yet. If it was, it’d feel extra bad how many murders and other heinous crimes they just give up on.
Isn’t that the whole point of the AI push? To get us fully into that level of surveillance state, and to have it automated? Flock is doing its part but really they don’t need cameras to track people anymore.
I remember seeing that footage on 9/11 at the pentagon. It was like 1 frame per second.
Storage and bandwidth are expensive man!
As terrible as much of that movie is… It is a great movie overall and a recommended watch.
Not a terrible movie, has some great action too.
‘Hero’ is a term of social worship for those that enact change.
Do I think he did a moral act that aligned with his principles, motivated by compassion for others? Did he forsee what it would cost him and do it anyway because he believed it was the right thing to do, no matter how hard? Yes, and yes.
But he’d only be a ‘hero’ if anybody actually cared enough to do anything about it, making him a symbol of social change that people would be grateful for him instigating.
Instead, he falls victim to the same traps as those who self-immolate outside buildings to make their point: a spectacle of sacrifice, exchanged for confused apathy from those he claimed to stand for.
That really sucks. He was trying to make a real difference. He had to flee his home forever, because of the cost of him trying to save it.
I think you are being pedantic. If you went in risking your life to rescue a puppy from a burning house but the puppy doesn’t make it because of the fumes or you jump on a robber but he kills and leaves with the money anyway, do you stop being a hero because you failed to enact change? That’s ridiculous.
I think the difference in your hypothetical is that people would care that he tried. But inventing a scenario to put words in the mouth of a stranger has no relevance to the reality I’m commenting on.
Think of me as you wish. I answered the question in good faith, and that’s enough for me.
I don’t personally believe in ‘heroes’ and ‘villians’. I think it’s a very rudimentary way to view the world, as if through the lens of a storybook. We have deeply corrupt and selfish people causing harm, we have considerate and compassionate people fighting for their principles. Most people are some measure of both.
Reducing people to Hero and Villain frequently excuses us any responsibility of self-reflection, as we can simply call ourselves ‘Good’ and justify unethical acts in the name of Goodness. It reduces the world down to in-group and out-group binaries, and then devastates us when we learn that a Hero has, as a fallible human, also done harmful things. It also denies Villians any opportunity to change for the better.
If you believe that Hero is an objective trait one can achieve, but that social approval is not how one achieves it, we have very different views on humanity and ethics.
I wouldn’t imagine that OP meant the question as Snowden being permanently labeled a hero for all of his life actions, nor should anyone ever be labeled as such. We are judging a specific action he took many years ago and also in a context of people generally labeling his action as good or bad since then. We are also not talking about comic book characters that are consistently one way or another through all of their actions. We can agree that a convicted felon can be heroic and a puppy loving doctor can do villainous shit as well depending on circumstance, opportunity and personal moral beliefs.
But for this specific action of exposing a terrible truth and essentially losing his way of life and being forced to live as a refugee, I don’t think we should get into the pendatry of what a hero in theory is or if his action led to any actual change. Being suppressed by forces with way more weight than you doesn’t eliminate whatever label your actions deserve.
There does exist a strong privacy movement that replicates 99% of tech products that mainstream tech companies provide. I think part of the momentum can definitely be attributed to Snowden’s revelations.
Guy gave up his life to show Americans (and the world) the truth, and we as a society just ignored him.
Seeing how little we actually did, I often wonder if he regrets coming forward.
I don’t think you remember https before. Snowden’s revelations kicked off LetsEncrypt and the much broader deployment of https.
https://www.standwithsnowden.com/news/lets-encrypt-and-snowden.html
