[aardvarkr]

I hate this so much. The nsa’s spying on everyone in 2010 was “legal” and I can only imagine how much worse it is now with AI to follow your digital footprint around everywhere. Too bad we don’t have any more whistleblowers like Snowden

[lukan]

"Too bad we don’t have any more whistleblowers like Snowden"

Probably because most don't want to end up in russia?

[Imustaskforhelp]

I feel so sad about snowden sometimes. I tried reading his book's first few pages on how when he was growing up, he could be anyone in a forum and there was this sense of anonymity and at the same time, just freedom. And later on when he saw just how much the overreach of govt. was etc., he did what others couldn't.

It wasn't as if there weren't any other contractors like Snowden, but there were no other whistleblowers like Snowden

and where'd that leave him? In a country far away from his motherland and being worried about his safety. Being called god knows what by the country at home and most general people don't even care.

Snowden didn't do it for the money, he did it for what he felt was right and that's so rare.

Its so sad how when I searched up on Snowden on youtube, the first thing I found was ex CIA agent claiming Snowden wasn't innocent and how he had to befriend russia but at the same time, that was only because US would have literally killed him and made an example out of him to whistleblow about such a large-scale mass surveillance

“What kind of asshole reveals the fact we’re the assholes, then doesn’t let us kill him!” is one heck of a comment I found.

Also, We will charge the whistleblower with death but we will not take any action against the act which was whistleblown in the first place (:

[Departed7405]

I agree. What people forget is Snowden didn't intend to end up in Russia. He wanted to go from Hong Kong (where he tought he would be safe, but realised extradition still was an option) to Ecuador. But he feared US would intercept his plane if he went over US/US allies sky. So his plan was to go from HK to Russia, then to Cuba and finally Ecuador.

Russia stopped him because US had cancelled his passport.

[veidr]

That fear proved well-grounded. While it probably doesn't seem as big of a deal now — in this era when we just serially assassinate heads of state we don't like without any pretense otherwise — the US indeed did direct its European allies to intercept the plane of Bolivian president Evo Morales, based on the (incorrect, as it turned out) suspicion that Snowden was on board.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident