The Deep State: Snowden Vindicated

if he beat 2/3 of his charges, he might be out already.

I don’t know. You can shoot someone without being a slave the government, so maybe that. Or maybe I would enlist. Did I call out some Ukrainian for volunteering to fight? Is that something that happened here?

well ironically, if he didn’t also steal foreign intelligence documents, he probably could have secured asylum in other countries, but there were literally no other embassies left to turn. even starting from a perfectly admirable goal, he could have made better choices. like releasing the documents through a reporter.

you probably realize that i didn’t agree with say Navalny returning to russia to be publically jailed. even more so that besides abstract things like democracy, i am left of Navalny on practically every issue. but i respect what he is currently doing inviting harm to himself, rather than snowden. especially since the third guy in the story is one and the same fucking dictator.

i’m just pointing out that there is also that scenario tangled into the same subject.

I had no idea what you thought about Navalny and had no opinion on him myself. If he thinks getting arrested will help other people, then props to him. But I wouldn’t hold it against him if he just didn’t want to get arrested or worse and stayed away. Props to the monks who lit themselves on fire in protest of the war in Vietnam as well, but I’m not saying that was something I expect of or would ask anyone to do.

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This is actually not the case. He could not claim asylum in those countries because he had to be present in them to do it.

The reason he sought asylum in Russia was because his passport was canceled as he was transferring through Russia (on his way to Cuba I think) and he was stuck in the international transfer area at an airport in Moscow. He didn’t choose Russia. He was left without a choice.

Snowden is genuinely a hero. The guy had a six-figure salary, crazy job security, a cute girlfriend and was a homeowner. He could have stuffed his moral qualms down and lived a pretty awesome life. He gave all of it up knowing that it could result in his imprisonment and loss of all of that.

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i don’t want to deliberate the nuances on his asylum. he gave all of it up knowing that it could also result in exile or prison in a hostile country with far worse secret police than what the doj he was fleeing.

Isn’t this kinda what he did? Didn’t he turn everything over to Greenwald at the Guardian and say you choose what to reveal because I might be biased? I’m now wondering if there isn’t a huge part to this story that I missed or misunderstood

there is a burn victim in russia right now, who lit himself up protesting mobilization. does he deserve your respect?

the video is horrific, even though very grainy

does anything snowden has tweeted or substacked since the war started deserve your respect? because he’s currently insinuating that ukraine is a CIA proxy war, while he is literally prevented by the russian state from saying anything discrediting the russian army.

it would be great if snowden actually was an internet freedom fighter. or maybe he was a self-pronounced whilstleblower, who did not make all the right choices, did not want to take a principled stand, and fled the consequences.

I guess. I’m not looking into it.

I don’t recall reading any Snowden tweets, though I’m sure I’ve seen a few. Shrug, I don’t really care.

And I don’t care if he’s a freedom fighter or not.

The NSA is a fucking monstrous part of a fucking monstrous government and I’m nothing but glad that 1000000 documents were exposed. And it’s completely fascist, totalitarian, authoritarian of the government to pursue Snowden (along with Reality Winner, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning) the way it has and I’m against that regardless of his tweets or anything else he’s done since. I don’t have to respect him to love freedom.

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i will await snowden’s fsb documents dump on how they surveilled an entire country in order to go to war with ukraine under false pretenses. i am sure it’s coming any day now that he is awarded citizenship by the tsar’s own decree, is of military service age, and the country prevents that cohort from leaving the country at all.

You’ll wait for it until what? Like “when Snowden does this, I’ll…”. Are you waiting for it until you admit that the NSA sucks?

VFS just more pure of heart than the sickening tankies orc scum.

nsa sucks, but not as much as the kremlin at this time.

out of time to wait for snowden (or anyone) to condemn the regime here, before i would call him a “good” citizen. or a “good” russian citizen. he is currently a collaborator. and accepting past favors from the kremlin reflects poorly on him.

“Collaborator” is a word you use about people you want shot.

it is a word for people i’d want to stand trial, even just in public opinion. he did a bit less since the war than, say, Darya Dugina. unless i don’t know something. did he help bring about Izyum? if so, i want him on actual criminal trial. if he picked up a gun and didn’t surrender, well then, i guess he’s going to avoid federal supermax after all.