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Snowden's Big Truth: We Are All Less Free
chicksdaddy writes "In the days since stories based on classified information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden hit the headlines, a string of reports and editorials claim that he had his facts wrong, accuse him of treason – or both. Others have accused journalists like Glen Greenwald of The Guardian of rushing to print before they had all the facts. All of these criticisms could be valid. Technology firms may not have given intelligence agencies unfettered and unchecked access to their users' data. Edward Snowden may be, as the New York Times's David Brooks suggests, one of those 20-something-men leading a 'life unshaped by the mediating institutions of civil society.' All those critiques may be true without undermining the larger truth of Snowden's revelation: in an age of global, networked communications and interactions, we are all a lot less free than we thought we were. I say this because nobody has seriously challenged the basic truth of Snowden's leak: that many of the world's leading telecommunications and technology firms are regularly divulging information about their users' activities and communications to law enforcement and intelligence agencies based on warrantless requests and court reviews that are hidden from public scrutiny. It hasn't always been so."
Bruce Schneier has published an opinion piece saying that while Snowden did break the law, we need to investigate the government before any prosecution occurs. (Schneier's piece is one in a series on the subject.) Snowden himself said in an interview today that the U.S. government has been pursuing hacking operations against China for years.
Yes. The reason why he's angered the US government so badly, is because he's divulged sensitive information that has damaged American interests. By telling the Chinese and the world that the US spies on them and leaking important details, he has empowered our enemies. Furthermore, he fled to China to escape US justice, and then did a weak post-hoc justification of fleeing to an enemy country by saying "well, they believe in free speech"(China! Free speech!).
I stand by what I said. He's knowingly committed suicide by doing this. He's shit on the country he was supposed to be serving, and has betrayed their interests. That's low.
You can always tell who the mentally handicapped people are by their belief in freedom.
Intelligent people know, that as long as there is a power disparity, the weak will never have freedom.
"Freedom is the illusion that rich people give to middle-class people to enslave the poor" - Howard Zinn.
Rich people LOVE giving the middle-class that artificial sense of power. Why do you think you're allowed to have guns? To defend against a tyrannical government? =^D
We liberals have been telling dumbass conservative/libertarian for years, that, sorry, no freedom for you. They never seem to listen, probably because they have a lower-IQ, like this high-school dropout Snowden guy. "WHAT? WE HAVE NO POWER? THAT CAN'T BE! I THOUGHT WE WERE AWESOME?!"
Sorry you 14-year-old libertarians, but you don't get to do what you want in this life, because you do not have power. I'm sure it's nice and all to have so much faith and belief in oneself, with such a high sense of precious-snowflake self-esteem, but you know who's more awesome than you? THE PEOPLE WITH MORE POWER.
Intelligence is knowing your personal weaknesses, and libertarians are the LEAST intelligent members of society.
You libertarians need to do what we liberals do, that is, know your weakness, and operate within society from there.
Don't EVER be a libertarian. Publicly saying you have "freedom" is basically telling a liberal you are clueless.
And yet the Tea Party thugs were demanding government "do whatever it takes" post-9/11... now they're crying about what they demanded.
I'm not saying they're wrong to be crying now, I'm saying they were hypocritical fools when it really fucking mattered in the first place and they were the cause. We'll have to see if they can get their shit together enough to be a part of the solution or if between the racism, sexism, antigay bigotry, and general adherence to a 2000 year old bound volume of toilet paper they turn out to just be a distraction.
Are you nuts?
What he did, is not something a rational person would do. How can a kid of that age, with a shit-kicker job, have the maturity and mental capacity to understand the slightest thing about the issues he says he's addressing by committing this act?
To be honest, I think he deserves about as much sympathy as somebody dumb enough to try and cross a 12-lane motorway on foot. He doesn't know WTF he's doing and -- guess what? -- he's going to get ploughed.
"A few things scare me about this topic so far "
Let me sum up what scares you more simply: "Not everyone agrees with me on an issue that is a lot more nuanced than I portrayed it."
What has the government actually done wrong?
Do you REALLY think the US intelligence community -- who employ the smartest people in a nation of 320 million people -- be stupid enough to invest billions of dollars setting up a surveillance operation if it could be trivially be proven to be illegal?
Occam's Razor applies here. The simplest explanation applies here -- what the government has done is perfectly legal, and the popular opinion that the US government has some something open-and-shut illegal is very likely mistaken.
They are not "autonomous" at an international level. They are identified as "Chinese", and there is no external agreement to continue to operate them as SARs. China does so because it is in their best interest to make stuff in China, "smuggle" it to Hong Kong, then sell it from there, as if that's somehow different.
Learn to love Alaska
I don't think we can say which way they'd vote at this point. Well except for Scalia, who is easily spooked if someone says "omg terrorists!" and starts wetting himself (and voting in favor of whatever argument violates our rights while claiming to offer "security.")
Its really all about America's one true God capitalism. Any other system is hunted down and destroyed or made to look like boogeymen thanks to our all too willing media (content cartels). Congress didn't spend all that money on spying without a return. I bet at least one of these 'contractors' is porting a lot of data to high freg trading computers. Heck we already know that the super rich get consumer data 15 min's before us little folks. Just look how rich congress people get while in office and just after. All the data mining is for one thing and it ain't security ITS MONEY! Want to know why no one does anything about pay TV rates? Easy almost everyone that can do anything about it have stock in the pay TV co's! To cut this rant short as long as Americans worship money over all else nothing will ever change.
The spelling and grammar police can kiss my ass
only good thing this BS has done: Make mainstream media aware of how much access (unaccountable) contractors like Booz/Allen have to gov't data...
Snowden's inadvertent message we should ALL heed: Dorks like me have access to shit we have no business accessing
**everything else** about this is ridiculous.
Snowden himself is an idiot. He has used internet-troll level logic and a dork's understanding of social movements to completely screw up his life for no gain whatsoever.
If he wanted to 'start a conversation' he should have leaked this anonymously. The fact that he revealed himself, espcially given the content of his revealations (gov't spying program)...its' just the height of stupidity.
He broke the law, I hope he goes to Federal Prison.
Let Bradley Manning out and throw this guy in instead...done.
Thank you Dave Raggett