[bandofthehawk]

My memory is that Hacker News comments were even more anti-Snowden at the time, but I could be mistaken. I would have thought people here would be very supportive of his whistle blowing, but I think a lot of people on this site unfortunately have a strong loyalty to the government organizations that were exposed.

[DamnInteresting]

This was the main thread about Snowden on the day his identity was revealed:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5850590

[mistrial9]

https://hn.unlurker.com/replay?item=5850590

[bnjms]

> You need to have been convicted to receive a pardon, the petition should be not to prosecute.

Hahaha / I’ve made myself sad

[raxxorraxor]

The critics weren't ever the brightest lights in the sky, but this was horribly naive even for that time. It is as if you took the whole lot of human literature, took a dump on it and honestly believe you would know better.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

Oh! That's a cool site I didn't know about. Bookmarked.

[GuinansEyebrows]

i think a lot of people on this site work on the same types of projects snowden worked on and blew the whistle over, for the same organizations, and feel good about it. i wonder how many users here are happily employed by booz allen hamilton?

[nasaeclipse]

unrelated, but I recently saw an ad by booz allen that proudly said "Stopping Fentanyl" as part of their mission. Like, really? Are people really that gullible to believe that?

[blitzar]

The line tested wonderfully with the focus groups.

[DANmode]

The people that didn’t know the name before the ad?

Yeah.

[jdycbsj]

Even if they do, they are not the people who shape policy or have any Power. When is the last time you saw someone with real wotld power show up and comment on HN? So its like worrying about what farm animals think about how the farm runs. What Snowden/Assange/Panama Papers/DOGE teaches us is that it doesnt matter what info about the farm is public, there is a pecking order. If you want to change something about how the farm works and how the farm animals are treated then you have to learn how to be a farmer. No free lunch and shortcuts just because you access info.

[GuinansEyebrows]

> Even if they do, they are not the people who shape policy or have any Power.

i am comfortable making this statement: anyone in the middle of the venn diagram of "booz allen hamilton employee" and "hacker news dot com reader" has the "Power" to work literally anywhere else that produces technology products.