Edward Snowden interview

[Dylan]

[exploited]

@Dharma What things changed, and why did they necessitate a revolution? You'll have to be more specific than that.

[The Dharma Bum]

[broken robot]

Whether or not Snowden is a "hero", he's done long-term damage to the national security state and opened up debates on transparency, which is almost always a good thing in my opinion. The US state in particular has an overwhelming concentration of power and there are few forces that can question it and spark major reforms. Snowden's pretty much left his entire normal life behind to continue this work, and since we can't get inside the man's head and address his motives, I'll just see it for what it appears to be: a commitment to changing society for the better.

I don't know all the facts of the case but I'd like to see evidence if there is any of where he put American lives at risk. Moreover, the argument that he went to Russia and therefore is a "hypocrite" isn't actually reflective of his political loyalties, it's just him pragmatically manipulating the geopolitical balance of power. Any dissident is going to go to a place at least slightly hostile to their home country, which is why Eastern European dissidents during the Cold War would come to the US. Nothing inherent about "freedom" as a political principle in their decisions, it's a basic question of who's going to extradite you.

[The Dharma Bum]

[Professor]

[uebermann]

[Dylan]

From England's perspective? Absolutely

[uebermann]

Thats the thing though, you don't get to dictate the spoils when you don't win the war.

Snowden has nothing to gain by going to trial. Not only would the trial be a complete sham, they'd sentence him to the maximum amount of years and then put him in a dark hole where he'd never see the day of light again.

He did break the law, but he broke an unjust law, and did it in the manner in which he did because he knew he had no alternatives. Its like if the US government were to pass a law outlawing all protests - how do you protest against it if you cannot protest?

[broken robot]