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Except For Millennials, Most Americans Dislike Snowden

HughPickens.com writes: Newsmax reports that according to KRC Research, about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him. However 56 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 have a positive opinion of Snowden which contrasts sharply with older age cohorts. Among those aged 35-44, some 34 percent have positive attitudes toward him. For the 45-54 age cohort, the figure is 28 percent, and it drops to 26 percent among Americans over age 55, U.S. News reported. Americans overall say by plurality that Snowden has done "more to hurt" U.S. national security (43 percent) than help it (20 percent). A similar breakdown was seen with views on whether Snowden helped or hurt efforts to combat terrorism, though the numbers flip on whether his actions will lead to greater privacy protections. "The broad support for Edward Snowden among Millennials around the world should be a message to democratic countries that change is coming," says Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "They are a generation of digital natives who don't want government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their phone calls." Opinions of millennials are particularly significant in light of January 2015 findings by the U.S. Census Bureau that they are projected to surpass the baby-boom generation as the United States' largest living generation this year.

686 comments

  1. So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you rule out everyone who thinks Snowden's a pretty cool guy, you still can't make it to "all Americans hate Snowden"?

    Keep grasping for them straws, brownshirts.

    1. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm 64 and I like Snowden.
      I don't know if he's a snob, an asshat, a jerk or a nice guy and I don't care.
      What he did was a great service to the population and citizenry of the USA.

      I love my country, America, but I fear my Government.

      These frakking polls are bovine scat.

    2. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does the lost fight against the Alliance had to do with this?

      Oh, shirts. Playing the Hitler card on the first post, a new record.

    3. Re:So let me get this straight by zidium · · Score: 1

      Or you are just a rare 64 year old.

      --
      Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
    4. Re:So let me get this straight by zidium · · Score: 5, Informative

      he gave all the secrets to several newspapers and THEY became the judges.

      --
      Slashdot Valentines Beta Massacre: iT WORKED! The boycotts killed Beta!!
    5. Re:So let me get this straight by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Hey, Old Man - maybe you're a millenial, and didn't know it? I'm 59, and I fall just short of admiring Edward Snowden. If I were the sort to admire people, then I would admire the man. I just can't quite bring myself to the level of a cult fan, or groupie, that's all.

      So, from one aging Millenial to another, "How are ya!"

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    6. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Amongst the 60 plus demographic in my circle, Snowden is regarded as having colossal brass clangers, and a giant, throbbing, majestic....moral compass.

    7. Re:So let me get this straight by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      He is not

    8. Re:So let me get this straight by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      One has to admire the amount of free time a person has when that person has time to write a hate article.

      One concern I have for the data gatherers is that their data gathering could be used to help diagnose the sick; instead the data gatherers do nothing. The data gatherers could offer a service to play back a given phone call that could help the little guy, instead, the data gatherers do nothing.

    9. Re:So let me get this straight by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Could it be that the truth is setting the world free?

    10. Re:So let me get this straight by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      ...authoritarianism isn't as popular as they dream it to be...

      96% reelection rates over the decades says that it is...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    11. Re:So let me get this straight by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with Snowden is that he unilaterally made himself the judge of which secrets should be released and which should not.

      Bullshit!

      Snowden had no goddamn choice -- NONE WHATSOEVER -- because going through the quote-on-quote "proper channels" would have resulted in his whistleblowing being ignored or buried and nothing changing.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    12. Re:So let me get this straight by kilfarsnar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem with Snowden is that he unilaterally made himself the judge of which secrets should be released and which should not.

      You may dislike the current system, but it is system put in place by people we elect. If you have people arbitrarily deciding which parts of the system are invalid and which aren't then all you have is anarchy. I realize that many of you would like that. But the system is what prevents people that disagree with you from hunting you down and murdering you.

      So you either work with the system or you take your chances outside the system.

      No, no, and again, no. Ed Snowden released his information to certain specific news organization that he thought would be responsible in their reporting. That is, people who would expose what was happening but protect identities and not release information that would do more harm than good. So please get it straight before you get your back up about it.

      You say the System is what keeps people who disagree with me from hunting me down. Maybe so, to a degree anyway. But what do I do when the person who wants to hunt me down works for the System? What happens when I join a protest, or speak out against whatever ill-advised foreign adventure our leaders decide to get into next? Hell, what happens when I end a romantic relationship with one of them? You know that protesters and activists have been spied on and interfered with by the System, and that it has been abused for personal purposes. If the System protects me, why is it interfering with me exercising my rights? Where do I go when I consider the System to be the enemy because it is treating me like one?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    13. Re:So let me get this straight by Immerman · · Score: 2

      In the US most of those people got reelected with the support of not much more than 25% of the voters. And most of those were probably actually voting against the other guy. Funny definition of popularity you've got there.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    14. Re:So let me get this straight by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have a nuanced opinion about Edward Snowden. I think he's a patriot who may or may not have compromised national security but I also don't know if that's a bad thing or not.

      I do have a very low negative opinion of people who make Nazi allusions because of complex international security and policing issues.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    15. Re:So let me get this straight by Steve+B · · Score: 1

      The worst actual "abuse" they found was a couple of people spying on their girlfriends.

      Since you regard stalker behavior as acceptable, you really ought to be required to wear a sign expressing this belief so that potential girlfriends will be forewarned.

      --
      /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
    16. Re:So let me get this straight by clong83 · · Score: 1

      Mod Parent Up!

      This is what people don't understand. If I hold a clearance, I can disagree with some things that are deemed "classified". But it is not my place to choose to release it. Ask yourself if you think it would be okay for nuclear scientists to unilaterally decide that certain aspects of their work should not be classified and just released it to a newspaper? THere is a very good reason why doing so is expressly and hugely illegal. What he did is no different.

      I get that he is something of a whistleblower, and that the NSA programs are hugely controversial. I disagree with what they are doing. Public knowledge has created outrage, but has public knowledge actually changed any of that? Could it? DO you really think, even if the director of the NSA stepped down, and they officially abandoned all the projects that Snowden leaked, that they wouldn't just rebrand it all and start again in secret if they wanted to? There are those in congress opposed to such things (ironically, one of the most stalwart voices against such programs was Sen. Udall in Colorado, who was voted out last election in favor of a tea partier who has nothing to say about it. You know, the tea party people who say they are all against government overreach?), and I actually believe this stuff will die at some point. But I don't think Snowden helped at all.

    17. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the quote-on-quote "proper channels"

      The correct phrase is "Quote, unquote" and is used in speech to denote that what follows should be regarded as being within quotation marks. As you are communicating here using the written word, you are able to actually use quotation marks, and have done so. Please do not use grammatical devices that you do not understand.

    18. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Calling people brownshirts and retards isn't a good way to debate.

    19. Re:So let me get this straight by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      It's the one that counts. Everything else is mass media bullshit.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    20. Re:So let me get this straight by Stan92057 · · Score: 0

      I do understand what your saying. I,m no Snowden hater but consider this, what IF he followed proper channels and allowed the process to either work or fail. He could still have came out to the public I think the people who don't like him see he never gave the process good or bad to work.I don't think hes a criminal but he should have let the process work.

      --
      Jack of all trades,master of none
    21. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He could still have came out to the public

      Before or after the proper channels deemed him to be dangerous to the powers that be?

    22. Re:So let me get this straight by Crashmarik · · Score: 1, Insightful

      he gave all the secrets to several newspapers and THEY became the judges.

      I don't care where you stand on Snowden but that statement is pure BS.

      You give documents to newspapers, You know at least one is going to publish anything even remotely provocative. Once one does it's everywhere.

      If he wanted it to be judged he could have given it to a judge of competent jurisdiction.

    23. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not voting is the same thing as voting for the status quo.

    24. Re:So let me get this straight by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think you can have a negative opinion of him but think he did the right thing, also. I don't think he did the best possible thing, I don't think he tried very hard, I think he was angry, didn't get the response he wanted from the right people quickly enough and acted brashly. I think he could have done more to protect secrets that need to stay secrets (because lives are on the line), while also revealing how incredibly bad our government was acting. But what he did was still better than keeping quiet.

      I also suspect that the older you are, the more foreign enemies scare you than domestic ones. That's not a statement that indicates the older crowd is correct in their fears either, if anything the foreign enemy threat is in fact somewhat lower, but the domestic enemy threat has grown tremendously in the past 40 years. Just look at the people funding the republican party? I cannot imagine a scarier group of people with a more frightening ideology.

    25. Re:So let me get this straight by JimFive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree. I can believe that Snowden's revelations hurt National Security and anti-terrorism and ALSO believe that what he did was a great service to the country. Unless they specifically asked something like, "Do you support Snowden's actions?" then I don't think you get a good sense of what people think about him.
      --
      JimFive

      --
      Please stop using the word theory when you mean hypothesis.
    26. Re:So let me get this straight by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      There are those in congress opposed to such things (ironically, one of the most stalwart voices against such programs was Sen. Udall in Colorado, who was voted out last election

      That might have had something to do with his opposition to the secret ballot in labor union elections.
      Or it might have had something to do with his voting to raise taxes.
      Or It might have had something to do with his supporting gun bans
      Or it might have had something to do with his backing Obamacare
      Or it might have had something to do with his trying to stop resource development.

    27. Re:So let me get this straight by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      Iwhat IF he followed proper channels and allowed the process to either work or fail.

      He did follow proper channels, and he did allow the process to either work or fail. It failed. His concerns were ignored. If he pushed anymore, he would have ended up like other NSA whistleblowers, such as Thomas Drake, who was arrested and jailed. If we want people to use "proper channels" then we need to stop destroying the lives of people that do exactly that. During his first campaign, Obama promised to protect whistleblowers, but once in office, his administration has persecuted them with more fury than ever before, with disastrous results for our country.

    28. Re:So let me get this straight by Ravaldy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I like what you wrote because I feel the same way. I think he provided a great service to the whole world.

      I'd also be curious how many of the millennials would hire him to work in their business. I bet the % would be significantly lower and I wouldn't blame them.

      I'm curious if the older generation would think more of Snowden if he faced the music after releasing the information? After all, heroes of the people have either suffered or even died for their cause to be recognized.

    29. Re:So let me get this straight by bluckysmucky · · Score: 0

      Of course its not acceptable. But 1) its just as easily done by Google or Facebook employees, and none of the people posting in all caps about fascism seem to care about that, and 2) considering the size and reach, it was surprising how little abuse was found.

    30. Re:So let me get this straight by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My feeling is this, our government has compromised national security by acting in ways that are blatantly wrong. IF the government wasnt involved in incredibly dubious shit, i would be more sympathetic. The fact is our government is frantically trying to be able to tap everything, and that needed to be exposed.

      --
      Good-bye
    31. Re:So let me get this straight by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      No, he released information to a self-aggrandizing reporter who is very hostile to the US. Who then released everything in self-aggrandizing click bait fashion. The worst actual "abuse" they found was a couple of people spying on their girlfriends. My concern is the waste of taxpayer money. This huge spy machine couldn't stop the Boston Marathon bombers even when alerted to them.

      Your opinion of Glenn Greenwald notwithstanding, that just isn't the case. Reporters from the Guardian newspapaer and an independent documentarian were also involved and given the information. The worst abuse they found was the head of the NSA lying to Congress and the fact that what the NSA is doing is illegal and unconstitutional. I assume you are concerned about law breaking by people who work in secret. Or is it all just about money to you?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    32. Re:So let me get this straight by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      As a citizen, yes it is your place to expose it. When did we get to the point where you wont even QUESTION authority? In this case the NSA was UNQUESTIONABLY wrong and it needed to be made public. Also, nuclear bombs are relatively trivial to design, there are few actual secrets. You take two chunks of refined material and smash them together at high speed. The hard part is getting the refined fissionable material.

      --
      Good-bye
    33. Re:So let me get this straight by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      I might add, Bluckysmucky, that your post history indicates that you signed up just to post in this thread. Who do you work for and what is your agenda?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    34. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You're right. I think the survey was loaded. Of course Snowden has hurt the US National Security agencies. That is the point of the documents - they were lying to everyone and have since got called out on their policies.

      He is a savior to people that want to try to understand what is really going on, and not so much to the people that were covering things up.

    35. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. I can believe that Snowden's revelations hurt National Security and anti-terrorism and ALSO believe that what he did was a great service to the country.

      Thank you for having a brain and using it. I'm in my late 40s and I hold the same opinion.

    36. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if a systematic program to exterminate Jews is 'classified' would you just sit on that also?

      I thought not.

    37. Re:So let me get this straight by ttpilot · · Score: 1

      I agree; he isn't all that rare. I'm 65 and think Snowden did this country a service

    38. Re:So let me get this straight by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Can't he be all of them. To me Snowden always seemed like a rather foul person but but that doesn't mean he isn't someone who did a great service to his country. Sadly he is probably just more honest of a person than most in government who are probably all just a foul but don't have the backbone to do what is right.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    39. Re:So let me get this straight by erebus2161 · · Score: 0

      So it's actually even worse. He didn't even take on the responsibility of what should be released himself. He stole a bunch of highly sensitive data and then gave away control of it. Maybe the people he gave it to are trustworthy, but if just one of them isn't lots of people could die. And for your other comment. If someone who works for the System is out to get you, then you might just be screwed. It sucks, but that's the way it is. But that's why the System isn't one person. There's a whole chain of people making sure no one abuses the System and most of the time it works. Sometimes it doesn't and that sucks, but tell me how you can make it better. Tell me how you'd make it so everyone gets justice. I don't think all of us taking justice into our own hands is the answer. Mostly because I don't trust the rest of you. And I don't trust Snowden. And I don't trust news organizations.

    40. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think being 59 puts you firmly into the Baby Boom generation, which is 2 generations older than "millenials". Nice try, grandad.

    41. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A judge?! How do you think all this surveillance nonsense got greenlit in the first place? I'm sorry, but giving the info back to the system would have been the dumbest thing he could have done.

    42. Re:So let me get this straight by MobSwatter · · Score: 1

      >Not voting is the same thing as voting for the status quo.

      Actually it makes a statement that the individual does not believe in the political theater faÃade and that one is aware they will not receive representation in either direction they vote as both parties are owned long before being placed on the ballot, and that is respective to the aspect that politicians are "installed", not "elected". Welcome to '91 Naples Italy, participation in a reach around hand job is what voting is when the place is run by thugs.

    43. Re:So let me get this straight by Phusion · · Score: 1

      Will you still leak me, will you still teach me, when I'm siiixxxty four.

      --
      640k ought to be enough for anyone.
    44. Re:So let me get this straight by tnk1 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I'm not sympathetic to the government in the sense that I like the shit that they do. However, there are some things that the government does that we effectively have asked them to do.

      My problem with Snowden is that he embarrassed the country, caused National Security breaches, and he did it in the manner least likely to actually cause actual change to occur.

      Sure, sound and fury and we all know what that signifies.

      So we spied on allied leaders for instance. Really? No shit. They all know we're spying on them and we know that they're spying on us. The Israelis? Spying on us. The Germans? Spying on us. The UK? You get the idea.

      All you do by releasing the proof is forcing those leaders to have to act as if this is some sort of outrageous affront to their country, as opposed to business-as-usual. Half the time in an alliance, you know that the other guy's a jerk, but you need him to help you against that bigger jerk. That's international relations 101.

      And the government spying on US citizens? Was that actually something that no one believed was happening? And what is the effect of that? Did we blackmail any journalists into writing softball stories? Did we run people out of office with that material? Have they shut down human right's activists with that?

      No? Oh, they looked at my email. Who the fuck cares? My ISP probably does that five times a day. There's more threat from some pimply faced kid stealing nudes from some celebrity than the government coming to tell me to stop reading the New Republic.

      Do you know why many people over a certain age dislike him? Because we already understood that all this was happening. So we get to have our intelligence activities dragged through the mud, activities that you should know that *every* country does, and we got zero in return except hyperventilating.

      Of course, I am not at all surprised that this happened, it was bound to happen eventually. The information wants to be free and all of that. I just feel like Snowden decided to let off a bomb and then let the rest of us see if we could sort it out, and it will all be somehow "okay" in the end. I may not think he's the Antichrist, but I can't think very highly of him.

    45. Re:So let me get this straight by clong83 · · Score: 1

      Fair enough, it was a cheap political jab.

      I guess it's a matter of compromise on issues no matter who the candidate is. I just happen to think that many of those issues you mentioned are secondary to the surveillance problem. You apparently disagree (as do many others), and that's fine.

    46. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      he gave all the secrets to several newspapers and THEY became the judges.

      You have to wonder why Obama has a hard-on for Snowden but not the newspapers which are actually releasing the information. Is President Barack Hussein Obama a closet homosexual? The Kardashin's want to know.

    47. Re:So let me get this straight by bluckysmucky · · Score: 0

      Yes, after lurking in slashdot for years, I finally signed up. No agenda, other than my opinions are my own.

      NSA has 2 jobs: spying on the world and securing US communications.

      I don't know how well they are doing job #1. IMHO they are doing a really crappy job of #2.

    48. Re:So let me get this straight by TimFenn · · Score: 1

      Don't forget, there were several people that tried to stay "within the system" to stop trailblazer from ever getting the green light, and they were all pushed aside in one way or another. These include Thomas Drake, Jack Goldsmith, Diane Roark, and several of the NSA developers for the ThinThread program (which they thought was a much better choice over Trailblazer, the program Snowden revealed. This is the most heartbreaking part of the story, folks like Ed Loomis almost lost their sanity trying to fight the higher ups on Trailblazer). Working within the system was being shot down by Cheney, Addington and Gonzales.

      --
      CAPS LOCK IS THE CRUISE CONTROL OF AWESOMNESS
    49. Re:So let me get this straight by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      You understood the message he was trying to convey didn't you?

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    50. Re: So let me get this straight by richardbittner93 · · Score: 1

      I'm 68 and after J. Edgar Hoover, The Zapruder Home Movie, Vietnam, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, James Jesus Angelton(sp?), Watergate, Iran/Contra ( CIA In the Drug business) The Saving and Loan swindles etc. the Baby Boomer generation has got to be the dummest most gullible generation in America History. How can they be so stupid? The DemPublicanCFR Ruling Elite control of the mainstream corporate media has turned them into Pavlovian(sp?) morons.

    51. Re:So let me get this straight by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Yes, after lurking in slashdot for years, I finally signed up. No agenda, other than my opinions are my own. NSA has 2 jobs: spying on the world and securing US communications. I don't know how well they are doing job #1. IMHO they are doing a really crappy job of #2.

      Fair enough. But the NSA is also spying inside the United States, which they're not supposed to do, and lied about doing.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    52. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a Gen-Xer I applaud Edward Snowden although he should have stayed out of the public eye and never come forward as the person responsible for exposing the massive government surveillance programmes. You can be a hero without seeking 15 minutes of fame (or infamy in some people's minds).

    53. Re:So let me get this straight by narcc · · Score: 2

      Well, no. Not voting is generally interpreted a few ways, none of which are "You're protesting against the political system". It's usually "You're too lazy to get out and vote", "You couldn't be bothered to remember the date of the election", or "You were so uninformed that you didn't know there was an election".

      You may want to consider the message your non-voting habit actually sends, and adjust your actions accordingly .

    54. Re:So let me get this straight by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 1

      These frakking polls are bovine scat.

      Ummm, like, I think you've missed the point. The researchers did not say that 100% of people who aren't "Millennial" hate Snowden. They showed that, looking at one metric--age--the percentage of people who appreciate Snowden has a clear trend. And they are saying that this particular trend matters because Millennials will soon be running the country.

      If the researchers looked at the demographic of "people who comment on /. articles," which demographic cuts across all age groups, I am guessing you will find a large chunk of the 26% of people over age 55 with a positive opinion of Snowden residing here. But this is not a demographic that the researchers were interested in, because they are looking at who will be running the country in the looming future, not people who will still be sitting in front of their computers in their Mom's basement.

    55. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm 63, and I like Snowden, too.
      Sunlight is a great disinfectant. The more you read about what's happening behind the scenes, the more you realize just who our government is representing. Not the 99%.

    56. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So is voting for the major parties. Case in point , Obama. The party tamed him quicker than anyone expected.

    57. Re:So let me get this straight by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm partially sympathetic to the Government. The Government isn't a monolithic entity where they're all marching lock step towards the same totalitarian goal.

      No, it's worse than that, in that we have some parts being turned into agencies and departments that no one wants to reign in because heaven forbid someone put a check on law enforcement power, lest you be considered to be "weak on crime" or "weak on national defense." It's why we still have outdated ideas about incarceration and justice despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary that this shit doesn't work. No one wants to be told prisons don't work, they just want the safety and security illusions of having a prison system. Once they're told that the whole system is broken the illusion of safety is gone.

      That's harder to fight. If there was a conspiracy or a tyrant running the NSA doing awful things, it's easy to point that out and say, "Hey, get them! They're the problem." When the problem is more endemic and harder to check than just saying, "The Government is spying on it's citizens and that's bad for a whole host of obvious reasons."

      We aren't in an age where the Stasi-like agents are stopping cars asking for papers, but the transition from there to here would be gradual. It's a ... not slippery? Slightly moist and lightly more lubricious than average slope to a terrifying police state no one but the most ardent control freak wants but we wound up with any way because of partisan electoral politicking.

      I don't think that Park Services is tapping your phone line and I don't think that DOT and DOE are interested in your private conversations, unless you're out to burn down a forest or school or rest stop.

      Even then, that's an FBI matter.

      teal dear:

      I do still trust the Government, but with a whole lot of caveats.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    58. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's getting into the boundary of xgen

    59. Re:So let me get this straight by ChrisMaple · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What you said, and more. People born before 1950 should remember that there were real spies stealing real military secrets that could have, and in some cases probably did, result in American deaths. Snowden appears not to have been entirely able to distinguish that sort of secret material from safer stuff.

      Government domestic spying has become egregious, and by exposing that in a manner that stays in the news, Snowden has advanced freedom. Whether the balance of the effect of his actions will be positive will probably never be known.

      It is beyond question that what he did was dishonest, in violation of legally binding agreements he made with his employers, and in a narrow sense treasonous. Let's hope the net result is better government behavior, not a doubling down on domestic spying.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    60. Re:So let me get this straight by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Trust, but verify

      --
      Good-bye
    61. Re:So let me get this straight by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Have you taken a look at people funding Democrats? Soros, who thinks that destruction is fun? Various Middle Eastern countries, whose four top goals are to kill Israelis, Jews, Americans, and Christians? Wake up and see the party of slavery, poverty, and murder.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    62. Re:So let me get this straight by Last+Warrior · · Score: 1

      I don't recall voting for National Security Director.
      I don't recall voting for domestic spying programs.
      If you way these systems were put in place by people we elected to represent us in the government, then they are clearly failing to represent us and need to be removed. Since at least 7 or the last 8 presidents we have had have presided over governments where questionable spying has occurred, I'd say the fact that we actually vote for president has only a marginal effect on whether we can be blamed for unethical and unconstitutional domestic surveillance that is going on or has been going on for more than 40 years.

      Also, not a millennial. Snowden is a hero to this country. I think when people actually understand what he did and why and the actions he took to get there, they usually agree. Its the people that believe the force fed propaganda from the intelligence agencies are the ones that tend to have an less that stellar view of Snowden.

    63. Re:So let me get this straight by rbrander · · Score: 1

      >not my place to choose to release it.

      "Not my place", meaning "the decision was made above me", meaning "I was only following orders". Destroyed as a defence by an American, Robert Jackson, at Nuremburg. No, not a Godwin violation, it just happens to be the series of trials at which it was established that nobody, nobody is below the job of personally evaluating whether the actions of the organization for which they work are criminal, and not merely refusing to take part, but actively opposing the crimes.
      Snowden's reasons were clearly stated as arising from constitutional violations that went all the way to the top. Snowden took action not because he was in political disagreement about policy choices, but because his organization was exceeding its legal mandate and violating American civil rights. And the principal authors of a "patriot" act agree with him on that, so it's not like his viewpoint was deluded.

    64. Re:So let me get this straight by Last+Warrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He did go through the proper channels. He did bring this to his supervisors.
      This fact is left out a lot of the discussions.

      It is only when he was ignored that he took it a step further. Maybe if more people knew that he actually did try to go through the proper channels first without success, they might have a better understanding of the situation and a better opinion of Snowden.

    65. Re:So let me get this straight by Last+Warrior · · Score: 1

      No, He actually read each one and only took documents which showed that the NSA and the intelligence community was doing things which were illegal, unethical or unconstitutional. He didn't just grab a bunch of random classified secrets and hand them off to a civilian organization with no thought or care at all.

      You are thinking of Bradley/Chelsey Manning.

      I don't want any of our people to get hurt or die in the process of doing their jobs. What's more important to me is that our people aren't asked to do illegal or unethical things in the first place. This way, we don't run into situations where we have to choose between a bad thing and a worse thing.

    66. Re:So let me get this straight by AntiAntagonist · · Score: 1

      The whole point of having whistleblower laws is that some information DOES need to be known by the public. The difference between the information ES released and a "nuclear scientist" releasing information is that one is actionable and the other isn't. Edward Snowden didn't release information on individuals in the field or information on how to make the surveillance technologies used.

      What do you think of the Church Committee? The NSA has overstepped before and been reigned in. It takes time and it takes the will to reverse the idiotic course we've been on.

      Government overreach will go away and come back. It happens, but that doesn't mean we have to tolerate it.

    67. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you just say "quote-on-quote"? I don't believe I'm familiar with that phrase

    68. Re:So let me get this straight by clong83 · · Score: 2

      There will no doubt be a moral objection to pretty much every conceivable state secret by someone. Does someone who philosophically abhors taxes and believes them to be illegal get to release critical information that might bring down IRS servers?

      I'll absolutely agree that the "Only following orders" defense is NOT a defense. There is a difference between keeping a secret, and actively enabling a governmental policy. The German higher-ups weren't charged for leaking secret information about what was happening, they were charged with enabling atrocities. If Snowden had a moral/ethical problem, he could have (and did) quit, just as those German generals could have quit in 1941 when they saw where everything was headed.

      There will always be secrets from pretty much every government, ever, that you find objectionable. Part of holding a clearance is being loyal enough that you agree not to divulge that information. If the state is really that rotten, then your loyalty itself becomes guilt, because why are you loyal when someone is committing crimes against humanity? That is to say, Nazi Germany would inspire no loyalty from me.

      Bad analogy: Say your spouse does something embarassing and possibly illegal. Do you help them cover it up? Or do you divorce them and air all their dirty laundry? Something in between? It depends on the situation, right? If my spouse were a prolific serial killer (your Germany example), I wouldn't feel bad about divorce and airing of dirty laundry. If I found out my spouse had been illegally spying on the neighbors and recording phone calls, well, I might walk out if he/she was resistant to change. But telling the neighbors? It's a bit of a gray area. I am not completely unsympathetic to Snowden. But if I had previously sworn to not reveal details of our relationship under penalty of law, I would probably not go running and telling the neighbors abotu my spouse's proclivities, other than in vague (read:unclassified) warnings about how their privacy was vulnerable.

      There have been plenty of hints that this was going on long before Snowden, his revelations were completely unsurprising if you had been paying any attention, merely confirmation. The public is complicit. So I think what he did helped nobody, was unnecessary. But he did it anyways. My chief objection now is that lauding him as a hero sets a dangerous precedent regarding the sanctity of classified information.

    69. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      24% isn't "rare," nor is it such a small number that there is any utility in people raising their hands to say they are in that group.

      It reminds me of the 60s. The media would have us believe that it was a "cultural revolution" that led to a bunch of liberal changes, but the history shows that most of the young people during that time actually became more conservative in response to the "revolution," leading to the War on Drugs and a general increase in criminal penalties for a wide variety of crimes associated in the media with hippies.

    70. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      Or had fled to a neutral country.

      That he is in Russia is going to lose a lot of support from people who lived through "Duck and Cover."

      https://archive.org/details/Du...

    71. Re:So let me get this straight by clong83 · · Score: 1

      I don't wish to tolerate it. I also want it to go away. I question whether or not Snowden really did anything to further that goal or not. If you listen carefully, there were plenty of hints that this was happening long before SNowden came around. He merely provided some confirmation.

      The CIA was recently skewered in a Senate report as being essentially a rogue, overreaching agency that violated many people's rights. Everybody knew about waterboarding and torture without any Snowden to blow the whistle. It's hard to keep 'secrets' this large.

      I guess I am content to put some faith in the system. Things like CIA torture and the NSA happen. It has happenned before and it will surely happen again. It's not "okay", but as long as the citizenry control the levers of government (and we do), then I am content that the right thing will be done in the end. The problems happen when the will of the people do not match "the right thing". When it came out that the CIA was torturing people illegally, people actually defended it wholeheartedly. Same with the NSA. Joe McCarthy was pretty popular for a long while, and he was pretty blatantly violating people's rights out in the open.

      What is needed is a sea change in the way that the general population thinks about these things, and that change will be reflected by government leaders who want to stay in office. Democracy is actually pretty efficient that way. That tide will turn as it always does, but it is hard to effect change when most of the population, and therefore the leaders they elect, are complicit. Snowden is not a villian, but I do think of him as a fool.

    72. Re:So let me get this straight by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Thanks!

      Usually I'm on the giving end of idiomatic corrections; it'd be hypocritical of me to fail to appreciate receiving one.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    73. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      "24% not rare, film at 11"

    74. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      The first 6 months they were trickling out training PDFs that are refuted by the (more authoritative) stuff they leaked later. And all the big ticket stuff took well over a year to get published. By then, the details that matter would all be changed in anticipation of the leaks.

      The way it was done, I don't see how it increases our knowledge. How do we even know he isn't a CIA agent leaking false data to hide whatever the real NSA programs are? We don't. We have no way of knowing which parts are true, if any; nothing appears to have changed; nothing was done in a way that would give interested civilians increased data on what is really happening at the time they're reading it.

      He absolutely made the "journalists" the judges, and they judged that it needed to be trickled out for click-bait, starting with sensational-sounding stuff that was true, and then slowly ratcheting up to the shocking stuff after it has been too long to matter.

      It did cause an extra 5 or 10 minutes of air time to go to Senator Wyden and his complaints about the programs. But those complaints already existed, and so far he's getting almost no support from his colleagues.

    75. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Why lie? I mean, if you support what he did, support what he did. There should be no need to make up fibs.

      He didn't ever raise anything with his supervisors. He did mention in passing that he personal disagreements with the legal analysis, but he didn't actually make a complaint, or report anything through the provided channels for complaints.

      He also didn't go to congress, which is where there are elected officials who answer directly to the public and also have security clearances and legal mandate to oversee these programs.

      If your position is that he didn't go through proper channels for some good reason, stick to that. Maybe that is true, maybe not; maybe somebody agrees, maybe not. But there is no need to trot out the tired lie that he actually used proper channels.

    76. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kill your asshole fucking self dickhead

    77. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      If the worst abuse was lying to Congress, something that happens every day Congress is pretending to do work, then that isn't exactly a bombshell.

      If that is all you remember of what was reported, or that is somehow among the 10 worst things, it hardly seems Snowden made a quality sacrifice.

      I'll tell you who has a better memory, though: the NSA. I'm sure they've learned real lessons about handling leaks and managing newspaper editors to maintain the fog.

      As far as, worrying about "law breaking" by people working is secret, actually, the danger seems much worse than that. It seems actually that the danger is so huge and deep that as long as they're working in secret, they haven't actually "done anything" yet. I hope it stays that way. There will always be bad apples, there will be a few "law breakers" in the national security apparatus, and even the local police, and some of them will do bad things. But that is just regular crime, it is not a special aspect of this situation.

      The existence of the leaks brings into question deeper issues than that. Did Snowden leak something real, or was he the NSA plant to throw us off? Are the Constitutional violations just to fake-protect us from imaginary threats, or is there some as-yet-unleaked conspiracy? Why would they break so many laws, on such thin legal justification, just out of a sense of wanting to enforce the law more strictly? Who killed JFK? Are post-JFK Presidents even in charge, or is some shadowy group in charge? The problem with specific conspiracy theories is that you don't know what you don't know. It is not that conspiracies never exist, just that the people promoting them wouldn't know. It is easier to know that you're being lied to than to know what the lie is. Snowden didn't leak anything that uncovers a lie big enough to really explain the claimed programs. There is no way to know anything based on it, and it doesn't even claim to provide any answers about that stuff. From one end of the spectrum being, "Snowden is still working for the NSA and it was all a ruse" to "Alien lizard people are calling the shots," either of these and the whole range between could be true.

      We have more information, but all that does here is increase our ignorance by raising more (and deeper) questions that we're answering. And way too small of a percentage of the people who are offended by the programs even care about the truth in order for any positive effects to be apparent. It seems that only those against Snowden will react to him in a unified way, and those who support him will be running in a zillion directions shouting different crazy nonsense. The few people asking rational follow-up questions are ignored.

      The whole thing reminds me mostly of Roswell and "weather balloons." It is entirely possible that neither of the two main sides of the narrative are providing useful explanations for whatever the real events were/are.

    78. Re:So let me get this straight by TopherC · · Score: 1

      The claims that Snowden attempted to use the proper channels are disputed by the NSA. I think it's extremely likely that Snowden's version of the story is closer to the truth, but I have to keep in mind that there's some uncertainty there. The outcomes of the leaks are harder to dispute, and I think the net effect was a positive outcome.

      And I still recall Obama's speeches that change had to come to Washington, not from it. Heh. But did he live up to his campaign promises any less or any more than other presidents have? I guess good presidents need to work with compromise and internal politics well while in office. I think Nixon was pretty good by that measure.

    79. Re:So let me get this straight by geoskd · · Score: 1

      No? Oh, they looked at my email. Who the fuck cares? My ISP probably does that five times a day. There's more threat from some pimply faced kid stealing nudes from some celebrity than the government coming to tell me to stop reading the New Republic.

      I care. I care because letting our government do that unchecked is *dangerous*. By itself, it is not a big deal. By itself, eliminating the right to bear arms seems to be good for general public welfare. By itself, the right to free speech causes almost as much harm as good (Think guy yelling fire in a crowded theatre ).

      When it starts getting interesting (and by interesting, I mean "oh god, oh god, we're all going to die."), is when the government acquires the authority to tell people what they can and cannot say. Then they take away the right to bear arms. Then they start surveillance on every citizen. Now we have a government to be terrified of because those in power can effectively put an end to rivals by just throwing them in jail, and without weapons, we have no good way of getting our country back from the douchebags.

      Quick question for you: What do you call one group of people with military grade weapons fighting against another group of people with knives?

      The only thing protecting us from our government is our ability to remove absolutely anyone from that government. There is no government employee or elected official who can protect themselves from the will of the people. The only thing guaranteeing that power is the bill of rights. When we allow them to trample on it, we grant them another sliver of power that will cost us in blood later on.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
    80. Re:So let me get this straight by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      I love my country, America, but I fear my Government.

      Too bad all those 2nd Amendment nutjobs forget about their fear of the government that they need guns so as to violently overthrow a tyrannical government, when the government tells them that someone is opposing the NSA's plot to secretly spy on Americans to find out which of them owns guns/"are a threat to national security".

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    81. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait. So we already understood that all this was happening? Why the outrage?

      And why should your ISP be reading your email five times per day?

    82. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait. So we already understood that all this was happening? Why the outrage?

      And why should we not care that our ISP is reading our email five times a day?

    83. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      His first choice was Hong Kong, an ex-British colony that is the only place in China that you can curse the Chinese government openly and walk free. But people there told him he might soon be turned in to the US by China. "Neutral" countries would readily turn him in too, like New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland, which are known to bend over. It seemed it was hard for him to get to places like Venezuela. He probably didn't bring any of the leaks with him to sell, and Russia is the best place for him not to end up in Guantanamo.

    84. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is inappropriate. Many were sounding the alarms, but were called conspiracy theorists. It is only after these revelations that people like you can make such statements.

    85. Re:So let me get this straight by MobSwatter · · Score: 2

      Perhaps I am too informed by watching what has been going on. Perception is in fact an interesting concept, this is not a matter of being lazy. It is defiance of accepting a reach around hand job while getting in the backside, as the government has failed to see or remedy this and that does bother me, in defiance I opt for neither. I am just not into 'theater', which is all the politics has become now, why bother voting as an individual when the 'mob' is getting the representation. Want more votes? The get the system out of the toilet, individual people did not break the system, lazy politicians unwilling to represent the individual however did.

    86. Re:So let me get this straight by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      You ought to re-think that. No, I'm not "firmly into the Baby Boom". The Baby Boom began in 1845, and had tapered off by the time I was born. The real baby boomers are all over sixty now.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    87. Re:So let me get this straight by BoFo · · Score: 1

      I believe the polls, I just cannot believe the stupidity of the responses. I am outside the mainstream as well, I'm 60 and I believe Snowden is a patriot and American hero. Unfortunately, I have to listen to these people who look at me like I'm crazy and that privacy is dead and I must accept it. To accept privacy is dead, I must accept that free and open discourse is dead as is democratic government. I will never accept that.

    88. Re: So let me get this straight by janengoldberg · · Score: 1

      Gr8 reply!

    89. Re:So let me get this straight by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      The Baby Boom began in 1845,

      I really hope you don't think we had a Baby Boom after the Mexican-American War....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    90. Re: So let me get this straight by colinnwn · · Score: 1

      As soon as the information was released, the CIA was going to figure out very quickly who was responsible. Becoming famous was probably the only reason he wasn't quietly assassinated or kidnapped and spirited to a dungeon in a middle eastern ally before anyone figured out.

    91. Re:So let me get this straight by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      LOL - no, 1945. Hear me groaning? I usually catch typos before I hit the submit button - this time - no.

      I don't know about 1845 - they may have had a little baby boom.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    92. Re:So let me get this straight by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Having lived through the 60s (although rather young for much of it), I was very disappointed in how some things went afterwards. For example, I would have bet very heavily that marijuana would be legal in the US today.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    93. Re:So let me get this straight by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I have some problems with your position.

      First, I reject the idea of entirely abandoning one's own judgment. A person is always responsible for his or her own actions, no matter what.

      Second, and more practically, your attitude would allow any secret organization to do what it pleased without accountability. The NSA has lied to Congress, so Congress cannot hold the NSA to account. I doubt they're more honest to the President (they certainly don't have to be). If nobody inside the NSA can reveal what's going on, nobody's going to know.

      I agree that revealing classified information is illegal, and that there are good reasons for that. I don't agree that it's always immoral, and sometimes breaking the law is the morally correct thing to do. I consider much of what Snowden revealed (not all of it) to be worth breaking the law, it being a considerable service to his country.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    94. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      54 here. And ditto.

      I know of NO ONE of my similar aged friends who doesn't think the same thing. This seems like a biased, set-up poll.

    95. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is beyond question that what he did was dishonest, in violation of legally binding agreements he made with his employers, and in a narrow sense treasonous.

      Incorrect. What he did was an exercise of rights arising under and protected by the 9th Amendment, where many rights not understood by the majority of Americans (clearly including you) arise. For example, the right to long term public oversight over government, and the right to not be spied upon by one's own government.

      Government only gets to make security rules when they do not infringe this right, and individual members of the people, as always, have to decide what rights are "retained by the people". This is by definition: rights the people decide are retained to them (9th Amendment) or reserved to them (10th Amendment) can not be taken away by any entity of government.

      Next point: as the Bill of Rights is the highest law in the land, it supersedes contract law considerations. As such, your claim regarding the "legally binding" nature of such is completely false.

      Further, the exercise of 9th Amendment rights can never be treason. This can be shown by a simple technique of logic known as "proof by contradiction". I'll leave that as an exercise for the student. Do it as a penalty for being so ignorant concerning the Bill of Rights.

    96. Re:So let me get this straight by Immerman · · Score: 1

      So don't vote for one of the big "two" - there's usually other candidates on the ballot as well. At worst you send the message that "I'm so sick of the big two that I'll throw my vote away on this wacko". Hopefully there's even a 3rd-party candidate you can agree with - if enough people vote for them then we can even influence the big two a little as they try to capture the "defectors".

      Anything's better than sending the message "I'm too lazy to vote, do whatever the hell you want."

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    97. Re: So let me get this straight by Xman73x · · Score: 0

      So let me get this straight as well are you people saying that Xer's are stupid and we don't like Snowden? Your off once again!ðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðY

    98. Re:So let me get this straight by baubo · · Score: 1

      ditto and hear hear

    99. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with you entirely but my question for slashdot: how do you vote when you oppose both candidates and there is no third candidate?

      Abstaining makes more sense to me than voting for someone you do not support or want in office.

    100. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Snowden has done "more to hurt" U.S. national security (43 percent) than help it (20 percent)"

      Since when was Snowden trying to help national security. This was about the right to privacy, not national security.

    101. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't entirely disagree with you, and you make some legitimate points.

      But let me ask you, does a soldier who signed up after the WTC attack get a free pass to desert when he is unwittingly deployed to Iraq? Just because he/she thinks (rightfully so) that it is morally reprehensible and does not at all represent his/her interests or reasons for signing up? We don't always get to decide such things, for a very good reason.

      I do agree there comes a point where you have to draw a line, and I guess I think that line is further out than you do. The NSA spying wasn't really secret. The NSA may have lied to a general session of congress, but several senators with clearances who sat on intelligence committees did know about the extent of this. Some of them dropped hints and tried to fight it. Snowden's revelations came as no surprise because for the last 15 years or so, we have had a bunch of other senators and congress-critters who have explicitly said that we don't need to worry about this sort of thing, all under the guise of "national security".

      Until people VOTE for inividuals who will stand up to this kind of thing, there won't be any change. What candidates say, matters. Their words are often couched in newspeak and it can often be hard to determine what they really stand for, but when someone says something like "National security is the utmost important thing, and these programs are an integral part of fighting terrorsim", they are just plain stupid if they don't get the message: "I will not even attempt to block such spying programs, and I don't think your privacy is important. National Security trumps citizen rights." If voters ignore such signals and instead vote on who they think will block/approve gay marriage, then all the Snowden's in the world won't change a thing. The problem isn't lack of oversight, or lack of knowledge, it is apathy.

      I am the GP poster, but just realized I wasn't logged in. In an ironic display of my own apathy, I am posting AC.

    102. Re: So let me get this straight by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Go in, take your ballot, and simply decline to vote for any sock-puppets from the big two. If that means you turn in a blank or mostly-blank ballot, so be it. THEN you're sending the message that you DO care enough to vote, just not for either of the available candidates.

      As a side benefit, there may well be state amendments, etc. on the ballot as well - and voting for/against on those can actually matter directly.

      And who knows - if you're going to be voting anyway, maybe there's one or two offices where there's a decent candidate available - sometimes they manage to sneak into even the big two. Hell, an Elizabeth Warren / Bernie Sanders ticket would be promising enough to get me to not only vote for them, but go canvasing.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    103. Re:So let me get this straight by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I don't know about 1845 - they may have had a little baby boom.

      Maybe. It was a time of territorial expansion. Manifest Destiny and all that such.

      Many probably died in the Civil War. They would have been about the right age.

    104. Re:So let me get this straight by Nov8tr · · Score: 1

      I'm 61 and I submitted him for the Nobel. I find what he did a great act of patriotism. I love America, I am also ashamed of my crooked government. I think this is a fake, biased, rigged poll. I have about as much faith in it as I do the tooth fairy.

      --
      I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
    105. Re:So let me get this straight by Nov8tr · · Score: 1

      Then you'd be wrong. If I still had my ISP service I'd hire him today. Because I know he'd do what is best for this country. Because he actually cares about the American PEOPLE. If he "faces the music" or not is of no consequence what so ever. Chances are extremely good the trial would be rigged as well. I trust the NSA about as far as I can throw the State House. He has suffered, more than you I'd dare say. He does not have to die for him to be a hero. Let me clear something up for you. A hero does not have to die for his country in war time. He makes the OTHER guy die for his. The atrocities that the government has committed against the American people can no longer be tolerated. We need more people who "tell" on them when the violate the law, violate the constitution, and when the violate our basic human rights.

      --
      I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
    106. Re:So let me get this straight by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      He didn't ever raise anything with his supervisors

      And your source for this is... ?
      You're just... swallowing the official NSA reports as if they were somehow credible?

    107. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks, that was a genuine question and I wondered what others thought.

      That is basically what I've been doing. Vote for 3rd party when possible, vote on local issues and occasionally pick the 'lesser of two evils' (when it makes sense to do so). However, generally, neither option is one I feel I can support.

      I'd be canvasing as well in that scenario.

    108. Re:So let me get this straight by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      But let me ask you, does a soldier who signed up after the WTC attack get a free pass to desert when he is unwittingly deployed to Iraq?

      He doesn't, but he should. No man, regardless of situation, should be compelled against his will to kill other men.

    109. Re: So let me get this straight by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Write-in. And if there are no options for that, completely abstain.

    110. Re: So let me get this straight by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Debater King, right here.

    111. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm 64 and I like Snowden.
      I don't know if he's a snob, an asshat, a jerk or a nice guy and I don't care.
      What he did was a great service to the population and citizenry of the USA.

      I love my country, America, but I fear my Government.

      These frakking polls are bovine scat.

      I like Snowden too. I'm in my early 60s. Polls can be so slanted. Categorizing people is dangerous.

    112. Re:So let me get this straight by LessThanObvious · · Score: 1

      It's not secret how much I support Snowden, even if his actions were not legal. I hate supposed surveys where they don't show you the actual text of the questions asked. If I don't know how the survey asks the question, it's impossible to know how much to trust the responses. Sorry mister Snowden, your worst fears are realized. You sacrificed your own freedom to give us the chance to protect ours and most people are too ignorant to give a damn. If the ACLU actually sponsored this, they should have thrown it out. We don't need this shit in the press months before the expiration of Patriot Act Sect. 215.

    113. Re: So let me get this straight by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Amongst the over 55s American Exceptiolism runs rife. Their viewpoint, who gives a shit what the NSA were doing to foreigners, foreigners are all sub human only Americans, well, certain Americans are actually human and should get human rights. This extends to foreign countries, only Americans have rights in foreign countries and those foreigners, 'er', 'um', it is up to their government to provide them rights 'AGAINST' the actions of the American government or American Corporations (with tiny defence forces and no nukes, snark, snark, if they try we will kill all that resist and they do exactly that and then fucking celebrate it). Regardless of anything they will say when answering a survey. That is the reality of American exceptional and America has no allies as far as those Americans are concerned, no country whose citizens have rights within their own country if those rights would in any way infringe about Americans in any way shape or form, no matter how much those actions are against the law in American (only when applied to American citizens, well, most citizens of course, exceptions being pretty bloody obvious). Thanks to the internet, America is pretty much advertising exactly this to the rest of the world, winning hearts and minds, not so much.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    114. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      62 here and in my eyes Snowden is a hero a real patriot. I saw this spying shit going on in 2007 I'm glad it has been brought to the light.

      Sad part is people don't care if their rights are taken away.

      What was it I fought for in Vietnam? What was it I watched my friends die for?

      Seems all the old guys I know think he is a hero. I think this poll is shit.

    115. Re:So let me get this straight by ahabswhale · · Score: 1

      Where's the evidence? This guy collected thousands of documents but he has literally zero copies of the emails he sent to his superiors? Seriously? Bullshit.

      --
      Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
    116. Re: So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. First post invokes NAZIs.

    117. Re:So let me get this straight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with Snowden is that he unilaterally made himself the judge of which secrets should be released and which should not.

      Bullshit!

      Snowden had no goddamn choice -- NONE WHATSOEVER -- because going through the quote-on-quote "proper channels" would have resulted in his whistleblowing being ignored or buried and nothing changing.

      Calm down. It will help you to think more clearly and provide a more considered less hysterical response.

    118. Re: So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      The only way to end up in Guantanamo is to be captured on a known battlefield bearing arms without a uniform.

      Hong Kong's light handed period is ending, the transition plan to being a regular part of China was recently announced.

      That wikileaks guy found a neutral embassy to hide in. There are lots of places. New Zealand, of course, is not a "neutral" country. They are First World ally. If he can't get to the Americas, that is rather pathetic. He could have just hired McAfee.

    119. Re:So let me get this straight by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      lol based on his statements since then. Duh. Look it up.

    120. Re:So let me get this straight by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      If I still had my ISP service I'd hire him today

      Good for you for being trusting but I can assure you that many business owners don't feel the same.

    121. Re:So let me get this straight by AntiAntagonist · · Score: 1

      There are court battles happening today because people were made aware of the issue. One of the criteria to open a case is to prove that there is an injured party. That was not a possibility before Snowden because all proof was considered "secret".

      Yes, Binney, Drake, and Meyer were all people that got punished for doing the right thing. Yes, there were people in the public that toed the party line of "the US doesn't torture", then following up with "waterboarding isn't torture and is legal because the White House counsel (but not the Attorney General) says so".

      I don't understand this concept that someone is a fool for trying to right a wrong by making the the wrong known. Is it because he'll undoubtedly have a harder life? That's not foolish if he made the decision knowing that his life would be harder, which he does. There are many people that would do so (see other whistleblowers, aid workers, emergency workers, etc).

      I agree that it will take a sea change in order to make long term changes to society. However for that to occur society needs to be made aware of the problem, which is being done by whistleblowers.

    122. Re:So let me get this straight by Nov8tr · · Score: 1

      Really? How do you know? Have you taken a poll? Have you talked to most business owners in America? Because the poll in question I consider false evidence. I think the majority of business owners would hire him. Unless of course they were corrupt. Are you telling me then that not only is our government corrupt but so are most business owners. Because a honest man would hire him in a heart beat. So pardon me if I find fault with your logic.

      --
      I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
    123. Re:So let me get this straight by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      Really? How do you know? Have you taken a poll?

      Here's a link to an actual survey that said only 19% would hire him. This is a poll done with employers that would be the most interested in his skillset based on the industry they serve.
      http://www.bizjournals.com/was...

      Unless of course they were corrupt. Are you telling me then that not only is our government corrupt but so are most business owners.

      I am a business man and I wouldn't hire him. Why? Because I can't trust he won't leak intellectual properly or customer list to my competitors. If a man can leak information about his country and be willing to face death, what is he willing to do to get rich where the risk is much less? What about my company's reputation should my customers find out he works for me? After all, I don't control their opinion of Snowden and I may lose their trust in the process.

      Because a honest man would hire him in a heart beat

      Funny, he lied on his application regarding his education. Although I wouldn't condemn him for doing so it is still a great argument against your statement.

    124. Re:So let me get this straight by Nov8tr · · Score: 1

      I already told you I believe the poll is corrupt, fake, rigged. Whatever choice of words you choose to use. Semantics. And I speak businessease. In other words you wouldn't hire him because you are afaid he would tell on you for something that isn't..... well lets be nice. Something isn't "just quite right" in your company. It is not about your "intellectual" property or customer list to competitors That has nothing to do with the corruption and violation of the American public he brought light to. Because what he released is what scumbags our government is and what kind of ILLEGAL, corrupt things they do . How THEY stab their friiends in the back. How they violate the Constitution of the United States. So please no pious speech. Funny, that would inclue 90% if not more of the people's resume. Pretty much every human being seeking a job "embellishes" their resume. So if they are capable of doing the job and DO do the job well. I don't care. And I would still hire him and so would many business men I know. I'm 61 and from my many years in business I know quite a few and some are very, very wealthy. What Snowden did was the right thing. Period. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. TRUTH

      --
      I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
    125. Re:So let me get this straight by Ravaldy · · Score: 1

      You can calm down bud. It's a forum and we both are speaking our opinions. You have your opinion and that fine but that doesn't mean most agree with you.

      You suggest the survey is flawed but you have no proof of this. In my business circle most feel the same way I do especially after I put the arguments on the table. Putting aside intellectual property and sales leads, you still can't control your customer's opinion of Snowden. If you own a McDonald, your customers don't give a crap about who works there but if you are a security consultant with potential access to company information that is a different story.

      A company like Google could potentially twist it in their favour but not everybody has a strong position in the business world like they do.

      You can choose to disagree for yourself but keep in mind that not everybody agrees with you.

  2. Doublethink by Totenglocke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare. The younger crowd grew up with much more access to information and see the police state for what it is and do not have the blind worship of government that the elderly do.

    --
    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      War is peace.
      Freedom is slavery.
      Ignorance is strength.

    2. Re:Doublethink by MightyYar · · Score: 0

      Honestly, I think it is because Millennials don't know who he is. They really don't, as a cohort, pay much attention to the news. I'd love it if these surveys also tested knowledge about basic facts on an issue, and not just opinions.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      Exactly.

      For many in the elderly population, the governments money is the only thing keeping them alive enough to form opinions about such topics.

      Off-topic, but just an example... my grandparents are both in the 75-80 age range. They grew up in a time where you could actually trust your doctor to make an informed decision about your health and recommend the best treatment he knew of based on his expertise. That used to be all well and good, but now they're on so many drugs they're going broke, but refuse to stop taking any of them because "doctors orders, why would I go against his wishes?!"

      I've often told them "you know, you could just stop taking A LOT of that stuff", especially after they tell me how sick they get from the side effects... but no. They have actual trust in those people in authority positions. To go against that authority is just laughable to them. So when they hear those people they trust shouting "snowden is a traitor!" of course they're going to side with them.

    4. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "elderly" grew up during the cold war. They understand these things far better than you ever will.

    5. Re:Doublethink by jythie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know about that. Millennials by and large seem to be better informed, well, maybe not 'better', but more likely to know about things since they tend to be a lot more integrated with online communities. They are also more likely than older generations to have some (if light) knowledge of the technologies involved since they have gone more of their life exposed to them.

    6. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The hell they do. Growing up in a certain time frame imbues them with some inherent understanding of world events? They grew up in a time of blind jingoistic nonsense, though people are now growing up in the same, possibly even worse with all of the constant propaganda.

    7. Re:Doublethink by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare. The younger crowd grew up with much more access to information and see the police state for what it is and do not have the blind worship of government that the elderly do.

      I wonder how those elderly will feel as their Social Security and Medicare programs are stripped clean in order to pay for that police state they champion so much...

      This isn't just about information. Cost is a huge factor too, and perhaps felt a hell of a lot more with the younger generation who is still paying the full brunt of those "terror" taxes.

    8. Re:Doublethink by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think it's more likely to be because people under 35 are the first generation that have no memory of the cold war. People born before about 1980 lived in a world where there was a very strong, clear delineation between us vs them and that divide was seen as an existential struggle between good and evil. Merely by being born into a certain country, you too could take part in an epic ideological struggle between right and wrong. It is perhaps not surprising that people who lived most of their life in such a world instinctively support a strong, authoritarian state and react badly to a "traitor who gave our national security secrets to the Russians" or whatever garbled version of the story they received via Fox News. There's definitely a clear and strong tendency in older populations to support our side regardless of what that side actually does, and things that seem to bring back old certainties strongly appeal to them. Hence the desperate need of the establishment to make "the terrorists" to new Big Evil.

      Contrast to people under the age of 35 who don't remember the cold war and have never lived in a world where there were clearly defined conflicts between us/them or good/evil. Instead there has been a series of endless wars started by us against dramatically weaker foes, based on vague and uncompelling justifications, the results of which have mostly been bedlam. Older people love this because it's an attempt to bring back the old certainties they remember. It leaves young people cold because they don't care about the old certainties, as they never had them to begin with.

      Combine all this with the fact that the average software developer is 30 years old and the average age of Congress is 57 ... nearly double their age .... you have set the stage for an epic showdown between the technology industry and the political establishment. Which is exactly what's happening.

    9. Re:Doublethink by jythie · · Score: 2

      I think the analysis of the cold war is one of the reasons that millennials have such a different take on things. People who lived during it tend to have absorbed more of the hype and propaganda, they lived the fear. People who lived most of their lives after it tend to be more aware of how, if not outright fabricated, the public perception was twisted for the benefit of a fairly small (and now much wealthier) part of the population.

      Perception of the cold was is similiar to the psychology of a nigerian scam, once you buy into it, people dig in further and further since any reexamination is an affront to their self image. It feels better to circle the wagons than feel foolish.

    10. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not like it makes a difference though, for every younger person who understands the nature and expected outcomes of a police state, there is more than enough people in the younger cohort who don't care about it anyway. There are just as many arbitrary people between generations who will have their own "War on xyz". That's the way it's always been. The core issue is that a single authority or a single group of authorities can't be the source of all control and have all the answers. However, it's clear that no one is ready for this conversation, because everybody just wants to be the hero. It's of course a delusion. But good luck having, above all, the police state, admit that there could be a flaw in the design or their actions. Naturally, the scheme is going to fall apart. At this point, I would accept that there be at least insurance, checks and balances, and laws that would prevent the police state from using its weapons irresponsibly. No amount of IQ testing, psychological profiling, and aptitude testing is going to prevent the basic truth that if there is someone in power and that person in power wants something, there is no deterrent for that person.

    11. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Millennials by and large seem to be ignorant, but more likely think to know about things when they really no jack shit since they tend to be a lot more deluded.

      Fixed that for you.

    12. Re:Doublethink by oobayly · · Score: 2

      I've often told them "you know, you could just stop taking A LOT of that stuff", especially after they tell me how sick they get from the side effects...

      So why don't you write them a prescription for what they *actually* need. I'm guessing you're a certified doctor because you know what they should and shouldn't be on.

    13. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The hell they do. Growing up in a certain time frame imbues them with some inherent understanding of world events?

      Yes

      They grew up in a time of blind jingoistic nonsense, though people are now growing up in the same, possibly even worse with all of the constant propaganda.

      The older generation is smart enough to know that the cold war never ended. Stupid millennials are going to be in for a rude awakening when Russia marches on Europe.

    14. Re:Doublethink by Tim+the+Gecko · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wonder how those elderly will feel as their Social Security and Medicare programs are stripped clean in order to pay for that police state they champion so much...

      So the generation that votes wants to maintain Social Security and Medicare, even if it plunges future citizens into debt, and the generation that doesn't vote wants a different policy on Snowden. Which generation do you think politicians would listen to most?

    15. Re:Doublethink by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Millennials are the same group marching along trying to restrict speech on campuses. Saying that they're better informed seems to be off by a fair bit.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    16. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I strongly disagree.. "online communities" are *not* proper new sources and are full of bias and half stories.

    17. Re:Doublethink by nucrash · · Score: 1

      You should research history. If you did, you would find out that a lot of these people in power now are either Vietnam vets or hippies from the same era. The Vietnam youth were far more radical and active than the counter-culture that exists in the youth today. Many of these people managed to get old and get into politics or become politically active, but seemed to lose that train of thought of peace, love, and freedom. Apparently as you get old, you get senile and go into this phase of trusting the government to do what is right. This is a sad thing really.

      Only the highly intelligent people can think that for forward as well as that far backward. Others seem to whitewash their history and remember everything as the "Good Ole Days."

      --
      Place something witty here
    18. Re:Doublethink by khallow · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I think it is because Millennials don't know who he is.

      Why mention one particular group, when the ignorance is far more widespread?

      They really don't, as a cohort, pay much attention to the news. I'd love it if these surveys also tested knowledge about basic facts on an issue, and not just opinions.

      I wonder which generation would demonstrate the most ignorance on the Snowden affair, if you did that?

    19. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many of these people managed to get old and get into politics or become politically active, but realize the thought of peace, love, and freedom are not the basis for running a civilization. Apparently as you get old, you get smarter and realize how stupid your political views were when you were younger.

    20. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      i'd say online communities tend to be large echo chambers. like will tend toward like for their views, for their peers. You've got a generation thinking everybody thinks as they do, with the confidence that comes with that. With very little awareness of the other pockets.

      you've gotta remember, a swing district is something like 47:53, and even the deepest of the blue states or deepest of the red states are 40:60 which means at any one time, half of america is kinda on the opposite side of the fence as you regardless of your position.

      progress is slow, but perceptible, and you don't need to piss everyone off to make it.

      online connectivity has given the shrill elements of the left an outsized presence. And i think it's largely to the detriment of this nation.

    21. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      :) probably some homeopathic remedy. fucking hippie.

    22. Re:Doublethink by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Astute observations.

      And yes, the battle will be between the tech industry + users vs the political establishment.

      The "young people don't vote!" thing is a red herring. Especially this generation, I absolutely believe they would vote, if there were anybody to vote for. They got burned with Obama, and do you think either the R or D candidate in 2016 is going to have "end government surveillance" as part of their platform? Absolutely not.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    23. Re: Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Experience trumps age.

      This is why the young didn't figure out that Obama was just blowing smoke up their ass ( twice ) until now.

      As you get older, you'll realize that with age comes the one thing the young will never posses: Wisdom.

    24. Re:Doublethink by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

      > The older generation is smart enough to know that the cold war never ended. Stupid millennials are going to be in for a rude awakening when Russia marches on Europe.

      Putin applauds this comment. Governments just love to point at boogiemen behind the fence while screwing their own people. You point out Russia, but you forget to mention that most of the surveillance was concentrated on US citizens and EU. That backdoors were built without discrimination and that the power to spy was abused to pursue personal agenda (spying on an ex-wife or ex-girlfriend).

    25. Re:Doublethink by ultranova · · Score: 1

      That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare.

      It's questionable if even North Korea is worse than Oceania. And the US, where government wiretapping is actually debated publicly, is neither a police state, dystopia nor an Orwellian nightmare. No state that let's you make such claims about them unpunished is, by definition.

      Why can't we simply treat the US as an ordinary nation that's mostly benevolent but has its darker side, rather than trying to pretend it's either the Messiah or the Devil? Both titles are already taken.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    26. Re:Doublethink by argStyopa · · Score: 2

      Or, perhaps the young are still naive enough to believe their rage matters?

      "Change is coming" - sure it is. What will change is only that the naive, hopeful young will grow up and recognize that short of actual revolution, nothing is going to substantially change (no matter how many "causes" you "like" on facebook!) and that their energies are better spent just focusing on the things and people that are important to them.

      --
      -Styopa
    27. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken with the unwavering confidence that naivety begets...

      Here's the news flash for you - nothing changes. Nothing. Some of the trappings change, the rhetoric changes a bit, but learn some history before you start talking about how things are different. You can go back and read critics of society of ancient Greece of 2,500 years ago and they are just as true today as they were then. Every generation declares that it is the one and only "enlightened" generation, that the previous generations got it all wrong but we will fix it. That is because each generation has to relearn the lessons of the past - that things are as they are for a reason. That reason often being the reality of how people behave and react to things (which hasn't changed ... ever). The new generation cries "Hooray for BitCoin! Unregulated! Anonymous! Lets put it to the man and all his rules and regulations about currency!". And then the inevitable happens - the consequence of an unregulated and anonymous currency that would be obvious to any student of human nature and history - and suddenly there is a hue and cry about calling the police (aka "the man" who has rules and regulations) to track down and expose those people who exploited everyone's naivety to take their money.

      This is the process that has been going on for as long as there have been people on this planet because, sadly, it is human nature to think one's self smarter than the previous generation simply because one does not have the range of experience yet. There is, in fact, a number of studies on this effect. One of my favorite is the "Dunning-Kruger Effect" (its on Wikipedia for those who will take the time to read it) which states, roughly, that a person's confidence in their own knowledge is inversely proportional to how much they actually know.

      Until each generation has repeated the mistakes of the previous generation, it fails to learn. Its not that the older generation "fails to see". Its that the older generation has seen both sides of the coin and recognizes that the alternatives are worse then the imperfect solution currently in place. Until the next generation tries to throw it out and then gets burned by those worse alternatives, they fail to understand why the current imperfect solution exists.

    28. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about that. Millennials by and large seem to be better informed, well, maybe not 'better', but more likely to know about things since they tend to be a lot more integrated with online communities.

      I suggest you hop over to the vaccination article to see how "well informed" millennials really are.

    29. Re:Doublethink by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 2

      The generation who doesn't vote is busy building technology which renders the politicians' mandates increasingly-impossible to enforce.

      By the time that generation is done, it won't matter what the politicians say anymore because math will trump force.

      That's the possibility that should really terrify the Boomers and make them clamour for increased surveillance - the possibility that their grandchildren might have both the means and the desire to avoid paying the payroll taxes which keep the Boomers' monthly checks flowing.

    30. Re:Doublethink by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      online connectivity has given the shrill elements of the left an outsized presence.

      You made so many good points, until this last sentence. Online connectivity has given the extremists an outsized presence, and is fueling a "with me or against me" culture, where the extremely large majority actually doesn't really give a damn but tends to support one of the 2 artificial poles presented because of some secondary issue they maybe do care about. Hence you get the "Pro-Life/Death Penalty" group on one side, and the "Pro-Choice/Anti-Death Penalty" group on the other. There's no real "Pro-Life/Anti-Death Penalty" or "Pro-Choice/Death Penalty" groups of note, because the polemic stance of the 2 parties prevents it even though those 2 stances may each be larger than the official ones, albeit not as strongly held.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    31. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean like the news media?

    32. Re:Doublethink by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      I wonder which generation would demonstrate the most ignorance on the Snowden affair, if you did that?

      I'd vote the 60+ age group. Just ask your parents (assuming they're over 60) And I would not be shocked if the ignorance increases exponentially with age past 60, as that group is heavily targeted by political marketeers with some truly ridiculous information.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    33. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish I had mod points today.

    34. Re:Doublethink by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Informative

      I was referring to this study. The largest source of news for Millennials is Facebook. That might seem like "the news" to someone without epic stupidity flowing through their veins, but some of us are so full of epic stupidity that we still think of Facebook as a place to get biased, self-reinforcing information from your little circle of "friends".

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    35. Re:Doublethink by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      So why don't you write them a prescription for what they *actually* need. I'm guessing you're a certified doctor because you know what they should and shouldn't be on.

      I did, and dropping 2 meds out of 19 made this person a whole lot better. Another dropped to just 1 med and has been doing great the past 5 years. Granted, it was me pressuring them to question their doctors and coordinate the total medicinal intake, but the improvements were worth fighting the stubbornly clung to beliefs. In the current system, under Medicare, these folks see as many as 10 different doctors in one case, each one prescribing stuff. It is worth questioning each doctor on the specifics of the prescription and the effects in aggregate with all other meds.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    36. Re:Doublethink by N!k0N · · Score: 1

      They grew up in a time of blind jingoistic nonsense, though people are now growing up in the same, possibly even worse with all of the constant propaganda.

      The older generation is smart enough to know that the cold war never ended. Stupid millennials are going to be in for a rude awakening when Russia marches on Europe.

      Nah, we (they? stupid non-hard dates for generation lines) partially grew up on Command and Conquer.
      I for one await the day that the Allies call upon me to command the forces on the Eastern Front.

    37. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The issue isn't about Snowden. It is about what he revealed. The people in the age bracket pro -Snowden are more aware of the internet and it's underpinnings as they grew up digital native.

      The older generation who saw the rhetoric of the cold war sees this as exactly what the "Evil Empire/Iron Curtain" Russians were doing. These people listened to their own citizens phone calls, and collected information on all of them to decided who was a good russian and who was a threat. The stifling of free speech and thought. Whats is different today?

    38. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare. The younger crowd grew up with much more access to information and see the police state for what it is and do not have the blind worship of government that the elderly do.

      This is too funny. Really. While schools of yesteryear were likely to instill patriotism in their students and tell you to be a good citizen, schools today do more social engineering than ever, mostly because parents have decided to let the schools raise their children. We've used children to promote everything from recycling to gay marriage. I recall watching one news report where a young boy was crying because his parents didn't recycle. What this has to do with the Three R's, I don't know.

      Propaganda is rampant today from businesses that lie about their environmental record or human rights to governments that are "keeping us safe" to lobbyists whose PACs are named for the exact opposite of what they try to achieve.

      The young aren't any less susceptible than the old.

    39. Re:Doublethink by dave420 · · Score: 1

      So because they don't agree with you, they must not be well informed. Brilliant logic, Sparky!

    40. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So Millennials are a generation of digital natives, meaning they use Facebook and other bigger companies online applications, meaning that are tracked online and and their data is collected for profit reasons.... And they are not brainwashed...

    41. Re:Doublethink by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      I don't know if your thesis is right, because I'm betting that a substantial number of people who took the survey don't even know that Snowden is in Russia. That is my problem with surveys like this. I would love to know why informed people support or don't support him - I'm not so interested in what ignorant people think.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    42. Re:Doublethink by spacepimp · · Score: 1

      The very rhetoric the American politicians used about the evil russian empire is that they surveilled their citizens. spied on journalists, actively suppressed the ability for their citizens to dissent.

      This is the exact America we have now. Anyone who can claim to remember that era, yet conveniently capable of forgetting why Russia was bad, does not actually remember a damn thing. Also the Church Committee was still quite recent where the clear abuses of government and intelligence agencies was piled high upon the morass that was the Vietnam war which Ellsberg clearly dismantled for the propaganda it was. Anyone today who lived through that era, who can claim Snowden is the bad guy here, didn't understand it then, and doesn't understand it now.

    43. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am wondering exactly what was "manufactured" about the threat of the USSR? Let's analyze it shall we.
      Was the USSR an aggressive authoritarian expansionist state with the power to single highhandedly destroy the US? Uh, yes
      Did russian agents penetrate US military and domestic(universities) institutions to try and fundamentally overthrow the capitalist system? Yes, in large numbers
      Did the soviets support innumerable genocidal/masochistic communist regimes that led to the deaths of nearly twice the amount of people as the third Reich? YES

      So how was the soviet threat exaggerated exactly? I mean I know that Iraq war was a big steaming pile of poo but communism was the left wing counterpart to nazism for the better part of the last century. There was no "buying into" the soviet threat, it was real and very present just like the german/japanese threat of the 1930's. And I promise you sir, if the US had not been as powerful as it was, the USSR would certainly have attempted to expand into north america and western europe.

    44. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So because they don't agree with you, they must not be well informed. Brilliant logic, Sparky!

      So because they agree with you, they must be well informed? Don't really know that you're any better off than the parent poster, buddy.

    45. Re: Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Having said that, it is my opinion that Snowden did nothing wrong. He is instrumental in confirming what many of us already suspected. Were I in charge, I would give the guy a medal and put HIM in charge of the NSA.

      This opinion going against the grain of the poll the entire story is about considering my age puts me right in the middle of decade number four.

    46. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a load of unmitigated bollocks. Absolute tripe. See how far the termites have eaten? Western liberalism is now actively apologising for winning a war against a monstrous tyranny.

      You should be ashamed of yourself. You're a complete disgrace.

    47. Re:Doublethink by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      So because they don't agree with you, they must not be well informed. Brilliant logic, Sparky!

      Who said anything about agreement? I'm talking about restricting speech to walls, "safe zones," "trigger warnings on lectures," "disrupting lectures by trying to shout down people" "pulling fire alarms because of subject matter they don't like." Perhaps you should spend a bit more time looking at exactly how messed up millennials are. And boy are they messed up.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    48. Re:Doublethink by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      "That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare."
      It is not just the elderly it is everyone that is not really young.

      What it could be is older people tend to see more potential unintended results of actions. I have to say that your post is an almost prototypical propaganda tactic of making villains out of those that disagree with you.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    49. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dumb. we need a modern definition for whatever dysfunctional system you have when you can say whatever you want because it has zero chance of changing anything. it's a "police state" by virtue of us ignoring most of the 4th amendment. police powers have already trumped our civil rights.

    50. Re:Doublethink by Glarimore · · Score: 1

      Genuinely curious -- where are these marches happening and over what?

    51. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the hell is someone born in 1981 a "Millennial" ???

    52. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Infinitely this.
      America in particular grew up with patriotism very heavily in education.
      Hell, it still is to an extent.

      Of course, it isn't as bad as Russia. Holy SHIT the patriotism over there is immense.

      Glad to be in a country where everyone hates every minute of it, but still won't move, because "fuck it we're still the best, time for a kebab."

    53. Re:Doublethink by houghi · · Score: 2

      The ones that gives them the most money. This means neither of the two you were talking about.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    54. Re:Doublethink by khallow · · Score: 1

      No, their behavior is a far more solid indication of ignorance than whether or not they agree with me.

    55. Re:Doublethink by Maritz · · Score: 1

      If it ain't rubber stamped by Murdoch it ain't news eh.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    56. Re:Doublethink by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Whereas ignoring the advice of your doctor, because you think you know better, is straight-up genuis.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    57. Re:Doublethink by crackspackle · · Score: 2

      That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare. The younger crowd grew up with much more access to information and see the police state for what it is and do not have the blind worship of government that the elderly do.

      What a crock. Ever since myspace came along, every millennial I know has been quick to jump on the next big tracking/social app that comes along. Many older but not "elderly" people won't do that precisely because they are concerned about being tracked. Aside from that, what Snowden did can't be simplified into right or wrong because some people object to the way he did it, e.g. running off to Russia instead of standing on his principles and others object to parts of what he did, such as releasing documents that could get innocent people killed. Nothing can be derived about how people feel about a police state based on their opinion of Snowden. A better measure would be the fact damn few people are protesting or doing anything else to try to stop it. In this regard, it is everyone's job; However, mass social protest has always worked best when young, college age people are involved as it was during the years of Vietnam. In that regard, they seem entirely missing from the scene.

    58. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think it's ironic that the age bracket of the Hippie 60's that were against the Government and the man, came down from their trip, and now drink the koolaid.

    59. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. Link me *one* instance of people marching to restrict speech on campuses, reported in actual news.

    60. Re:Doublethink by geekmux · · Score: 2

      The generation who doesn't vote is busy building technology which renders the politicians' mandates increasingly-impossible to enforce.

      By the time that generation is done, it won't matter what the politicians say anymore because math will trump force.

      That's the possibility that should really terrify the Boomers and make them clamour for increased surveillance - the possibility that their grandchildren might have both the means and the desire to avoid paying the payroll taxes which keep the Boomers' monthly checks flowing.

      It's funny we sit here and talk about the environment and what are we doing to secure the planet and natural resources for future generations as you spitball about future generations literally being sabotaged by the younger generation.

      I only have one thing to say to that. Better fucking hope the youth of today discovers immortality.. Funny how they've have forgotten they will get old one day too, and get screwed over by their own policies.

      I'm certainly not saying the current system is perfect, but shortsightedness and greedy thinking like this will likely make it worse.

    61. Re:Doublethink by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 2

      Funny how they've have forgotten they will get old one day too, and get screwed over by their own policies.

      The will rediscover the value of personal savings, and won't rely on a Ponzi scheme for their retirement plan.

    62. Re:Doublethink by Solandri · · Score: 2

      The "young people don't vote!" thing is a red herring.

      Statistics would disagree. It's always been this way - younger people tend to care less about voting. My theory is at that age you're still so engrossed with exploring your environment, that you put little thought into shaping your environment.

    63. Re:Doublethink by judoguy · · Score: 2
      Since we are listing age here... I'm 61 and I'm FAR more afraid of my own government than terrorists or other nations. I do believe we need intelligence services, a strong military, etc., but not at the cost of establishing a totalitarian police state in the U.S.

      Oops! Too late, I suppose that boat has already sailed. A secure country doesn't need to be a police state. That's a fact.

      --
      Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    64. Re:Doublethink by schnell · · Score: 1

      "Change is coming" - sure it is

      Significant change does in fact happen, all the time. I'm pretty sure that if you were a woman, queer or black in the United States you would find that your playing field (while still not level) is far better than it was one or two generations ago. While there is still much to be done, at least in the US care for the environment is a world away from where it was even as late as the Reagan years. Poor Americans who didn't previously have access to health care as little as two years ago now have it. Across the planet, life expectancies in the poorer parts of the world have rocketed up in the past 50 years. And, for those of us who remember the Cold War, we all no longer live in the fearful knowledge that our deaths were never more than a 35 minute ballistic trajectory away with potentially no warning.

      There are plenty of things out there that are worse, too. But that is change as well.

      It's easy to see that the world isn't in the state you would like and conclude that nothing ever changes, that involvement in causes or politics is futile, and that everyone should throw their hands up in frustration and walk away from caring. But things really do change - even if it is slow - and to dismiss the ability of people to change things for the better ... or for the worse if they fail to oppose it ... is lazy at best and unworthy of our better natures.

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    65. Re:Doublethink by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1

      Which generation do you think politicians would listen to most?

      You're reversed cause and effect. The fact that young people don't vote is because politicians don't listen to them. I think the first Obama campaign illustrated this nicely.

    66. Re:Doublethink by jythie · · Score: 1

      No more messed up than other generations, and probably a lot more introspective and aware of others than previous ones. In the past there was a clear hierarchy of who's feelings you had to take into account and who's you did not, now it is not so simple and groups who in the past were invisible or simply told to 'put up with it' are getting visibility among people outside their own.

      Speech has always been restricted, it is simply who is restricted and to who's benefit has been shifting.

    67. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AARP shill posting :)

      Don't vote, kids!

    68. Re:Doublethink by jythie · · Score: 1

      Pretty well actually. Yeah there are ignorant people, but look back a decade or two and you tend to see more ignorance, not less. I see a lot more questioning than I used to, with ignorant people more likely to be called out.

    69. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Millennials by and large seem to be better informed, well, maybe not 'better', but more likely to know about things since they tend to be a lot more integrated with online communities.

      Yeah, in the olden days all they had were television and newspapers. And god knows you can't formulate a valid opinion based on information from either of those sources.

      Walter Cronkite: The most trusted man in America - yeah, bullshit.

    70. Re:Doublethink by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's always been this way - younger people tend to care less about voting

      I could equally say it's always been this way because politicians and The Establishment have always been old.

      My theory is at that age you're still so engrossed with exploring your environment, that you put little thought into shaping your environment.

      My theory is that political parties run by older people tend to focus on the wishes of people just like them i.e. older people. Due to the party political whipping system, young people who investigate politics quickly realise they will be forced to vote in support of social policies they disagree with, making the career unattractive. This results in a downward spiral in which politicians ignore people unlike them, those people get turned off from politics, and thus the demographic makeup of the political elite can never self correct.

    71. Re:Doublethink by jythie · · Score: 1

      Yeah, understanding complexity and nuance is so disgraceful. It is much more patriotic to simplify things into "YAY AMERICA! NEVER SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT HER!"

    72. Re:Doublethink by jythie · · Score: 1

      *shrug* no more 'threat' than we were. Two ruling classes hyping up their populations about how doomed we all are if we do not destroy the other, and anyone who gets in between us get either downplayed or hyped depending on who's side any particular proxy is.

      The 'overthrow' part is one of the best examples of propaganda during the cold war. People daring to engage in democracy provided a great scare example to crack down on policies and shifts conservatives did not like. Pure fear mongering for political gain.

    73. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder how those elderly will feel as their Social Security and Medicare programs are stripped clean in order to pay for that police state they champion so much...

      So the generation that votes wants to maintain Social Security and Medicare, even if it plunges future citizens into debt, and the generation that doesn't vote wants a different policy on Snowden. Which generation do you think politicians would listen to most?

      I think you are making a huge assumption based on supposition. I am not going to go into detail here as this is the wrong forum for such a lengthy debate, but to say that one generation votes and the other doesn't is utterly naive and self serving. It might be better to say that one group votes more often than the other, but to say that one generational group votes and the other does not is utterly false. Unless you have a citation to back up your assertion (here's mine), you're dead in the water and spouting opinion that is not based on fact.

      Politicians listen to the folks with money, if you haven't noticed. Also, if you believe that is a problem then maybe you should help get out the vote instead of posting nonsense on the Internet.

    74. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials

      In May 2013, a Time magazine cover story identified Millennials as those born from 1980 or 1981 to 2000.

    75. Re:Doublethink by Jawnn · · Score: 1

      I strongly disagree.. "online communities" are *not* proper new sources and are full of bias and half stories.

      As usual, sweeping generalizations fail. The truth is out there on the net, accessible to all, but if you think you will always find it by querying one source or one "community" you are being stupid. That, or you just select for people saying the things you want to hear, which is the same thing, really.

    76. Re:Doublethink by Jawnn · · Score: 1

      I wonder how those elderly will feel as their Social Security and Medicare programs are stripped clean in order to pay for that police state they champion so much...

      So the generation that votes wants to maintain Social Security and Medicare, even if it plunges future citizens into debt

      [citation needed]

    77. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [citation needed]

    78. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People in general are just dumb, including most Millennials. I mean, right now it is PERFECTLY ok to be racist and sexist against a chunk of the population, according to Milennials. The rest of us believe that everyone should be equal, with a few neanderthals who still cling to 19th century beliefs.

      Now, as to how the stupidity of Milennials applies to the Snowden situation, he did two distinct things. First, he released information about our government spying on us. This is the best thing ever for him to do. I applaud him for this. More people should come forward about this type of activity.

      Second, He released details of espionage abroad. EVERYONE is playing it. Our allies are spying on us, our enemies are spying on us, the dreadful neutrals are spying on us. Espionage is an activity that pretty much every other country takes part in, despite anyone's idealistic world view. The other countries clearly do not care so much that this was released, but he did weaken our country's practices. Basically, he made it so that it was easier for everyone else to spy on us.

      That last part? Yea. That's the problem most sane people have with it. Anyone who has a problem with the first part is a grade a moron.

    79. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is another "well informed" millennial.

      http://classic.slashdot.org/story/15/04/23/132256

    80. Re:Doublethink by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      That's because the elderly suffered much more stringent brainwashing as children that leads them to say that they "support those who fight for our freedom" while also promoting a police state worse than Orwells worst nightmare. The younger crowd grew up with much more access to information and see the police state for what it is and do not have the blind worship of government that the elderly do.

      I don't know about that. A lot of those millennials were kids and at their most impressionable during the post-911 wars and the "if you're not with us you're our enemy" support-the-government/support-the-troops fervor.

      It's more reasonable to blame the general trend toward conservatism that happens with every generation as they age and get stuck in their ways.* Hell, those boomers we're talking about were the anti-government hippies of the 60s. They (as an aggregate whole) certainly had no blind worship of their government then.

      * Though, even with this slope, each generation tends to start and end slightly more liberal than the last, leading to the society's overall slow trend towards liberalism despite every generation complaining along the way.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    81. Re:Doublethink by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Probably true, but previous generations did not have a Government backing their actions. The fact that the Government is openly punishing free speech, and in reality amendments 1-4 have been discarded to at least an extent, plays well for "Social" movements attempting to squash those same amendments.

      I quoted social due to the fact that many of these movements are not really social though presented as such. Agent provocateurs are nothing new to any Government, including the US.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    82. Re:Doublethink by Jaazaniah · · Score: 1

      Safe Zones are no more than explicit response of organized free speech and labor to protect those who would try to use the same to harm those they don't like. Trigger Warnings are no more than content warnings seen on movies and TV taken to lecture level where the audience can thereby exercise informed consent to attend. Shouting lecturers down is yet another form of the whole free speech paradigm you hold so highly. Pulling fire alarms to end speeches is no different than a democratized version of taking a speaker off-air when their opinion is unpopular with the executives of a new network, it's also a crime to falsely pull one, but it's one hell of an uphill fight to find that person.

      Examining our own biases is a good exercise to ensure the principles we're trying to talk about aren't marred by our own dislikes of other people using their rights in different ways than we do ourselves.

      Which is exactly why this thread has 400+ comments in an age of Slashdot where typical stories get less than 100. It's a debate of principles and biases. Ultimately whether one agrees or not, there are going to be future events like this.

    83. Re:Doublethink by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      So the generation that votes wants to maintain Social Security and Medicare, ...

      If you spent your whole life investing in those systems with the promise they would be available to you when your time came wouldn't you expect a return on your investment? I think your fear of plunging future citizens into debt is overblown.

    84. Re:Doublethink by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      As most people age, they both naturally start to decide that some things they've learned are "good enough" for them (be it music, technology, processes) and then start to resent further change. Moreover, after a certain age everyone starts to depend more on others for support than their own abilities.

      Put those together and you get a slide towards conservatism and an increased trust on institutes of order such as the government.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    85. Re:Doublethink by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      2+2=5

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    86. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neither. They listen to the lobbyists with the most money. That means big business, big pharma, and permanent wars. Have you ever seen a congress any different? Votes are a little game they play every so often to decide who is going to get power and wealth. Elections have nothing to do with politics.

    87. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which generation would the politicians listen to the most? Easy.

      The one that either donates the most money to their campaigns, or pays enough lobbyists.

    88. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shouting lecturers down is yet another form of the whole free speech paradigm you hold so highly. Pulling fire alarms to end speeches is no different than a democratized version of taking a speaker off-air when their opinion is unpopular with the executives of a new network,

      Ladies and Gentlemen; Fascism, 2015.

    89. Re:Doublethink by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 1

      The trend is to attempt to censor "damaging" or "distressing" (read: conservative / libertarian / right-leaning) speakers and provide "safe spaces" free of any opposing view points, literally in a room supplied with with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets, a video of frolicking puppies, etc. And unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating in the least bit. The NY Times had a great profile on this last month (and from the comment section, its readership, to their credit, was generally appalled by this phenomenon). It's truly frightening when you think that the people advocating this type of crap are supposed to become America's next leaders. How on earth will they deal with difficult situations in the real world, where they can't run away or simply ban those who disagree with them?

    90. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ah yes. the new coded phrases you have to use to replace references to "political correctness".

      here's a clue: "political correctness" as its used by conservatives to refer to speesh is nothing more than than the concept of simply being a nice person in your speech and manners. such as not using racial/ethnic slurs, not insulting people who are different from you, being understand, and generally being a nice person.

      but you go ahead, keep fighting for your right to be a patronizing bigot.

    91. Re:Doublethink by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 1

      Shouting lecturers down is yet another form of the whole free speech paradigm you hold so highly.

      By definition, free speech doesn't mean anything near what you claim it does. I truly feel sorry for you if you really believe anything that you wrote here.

    92. Re:Doublethink by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      I have seen plenty of ignorance from the pro Snowden side just in this comment section. Much of the ignorance is over what Snowden actually revealed. What was the government doing that was so bad? Please provide links to your assertions, bonus points if you provide links to things being done that are actually against the mandate of the NSA:

      The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence organization of the United States government, responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes

      from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    93. Re:Doublethink by sjames · · Score: 1

      Based on the last few years, I'd have to say neither one. They seem more interested in listening to the demographic that has millions to billions of dollars under their control.

    94. Re:Doublethink by sjames · · Score: 1

      Actually, growing up in the cold war did the opposite for me. I see our government doing more and more of the things that made "the Russians" the bad guys. I guess I'm "doublethink impaired".

    95. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which generation do you think politicians would listen to most?

      At the highest levels, neither one. It's impossible to tell one side from the other based on their actions so it doesn't matter if you pick the guy on the right or the left. The only thing they do differently from each other is talk.

    96. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am glad you know what all us "older people" think, since I have such a hard time figuring it out for myself. Would you like to explain any more of my wrongheaded political ideas to me?

    97. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Especially this generation, I absolutely believe they would vote, if there were anybody to vote for. They got burned with Obama, and do you think either the R or D candidate in 2016 is going to have "end government surveillance" as part of their platform?

      The last presidential election had candidates from third parties on the ballot in nearly every state. Your excuse is lame.

    98. Re:Doublethink by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Do you include in your "braiinwashing" the Berlin Wall? The suppression of the revolt in Hungary?

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    99. Re:Doublethink by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Many of the hippies who claimed "peace and love" were actually enemy sympathizers. Remember "Ho Ho Ho, Ho Chi Minh. The NLF is gonna win!" ? Those hippies now in power have not changed their anti-American bias, they've just gotten better at hiding it.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    100. Re:Doublethink by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Relative to the general population, things have gotten worse for young blacks in the last 50 years.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    101. Re:Doublethink by anyaristow · · Score: 1

      I don't know about that. Millennials by and large seem to be better informed, well, maybe not 'better', but more likely to know about things since they tend to be a lot more integrated with online communities. They are also more likely than older generations to have some (if light) knowledge of the technologies involved since they have gone more of their life exposed to them.

      You've grown up too fond of the internet.

      The "older generations" are perhaps too trusting of authority and media. They are perhaps too uncritical. They are perhaps too paranoid and prejudiced.

      "Millennials" are perhaps too trusting of their friends, even those they don't really know much about. They are perhaps too easily manipulated with flattery and camaraderie. They are perhaps too subject to group think and naivete.

      Neither, as a whole, is particularly well-informed.

    102. Re:Doublethink by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      Let's see, everybody says "young people don't vote" and "3rd parties just split votes and make the guy you like least win."

      If we can just convince Millennials to buck BOTH of those MASSIVE issues in US politics, we'll fix government surveillance no problem!

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    103. Re:Doublethink by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Look at how maps changed over the course of the 20th century. Countries defeated in war by the U.S. became countries again; countries defeated by the USSR became either part of the USSR or occupied by the USSR military, and stayed that way until the end of the cold war.

      The threat of totalitarian communism was and is real, and the "threat" from western democracies is a hallucination from loons like you.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    104. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Due to the party political whipping system, young people who investigate politics quickly realize they will be forced to vote in support of social policies they disagree with"

      It's called compromise. The sad thing is that too many of our so-called older politicians never matured enough to understand what compromise means. They're still children.

      What I never understood is why young people are so stupid. I'm 35, but even when I was 18 I _knew_ I was going to be 40 or 50 or 70 some day (well, hopefully). So when old people preferred a policy that seemed dumb, I always gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried to understand their position. Their interests could never be completed adverse to my own because I would be one of them someday.

      You don't have to be a genius (or maybe you do!) to understand what this old v. young battle has been going on since time immemorial. Hell, it's like the sub-plot to most movies. I'll never understand why people are so stupid.

      The flip side is that old people are just as stupid, forgetting why young people do what they do.

      *sigh*

    105. Re:Doublethink by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      I have had a doctor make a mistake on me, and it cost me weeks of pain (fortunately, no permanent damage.) The pain was entirely unnecessary; the doctor was ignorant.

      Doctors are not omniscient, and by living in my body I can be quite familiar with it. Blindly following a doctor's advice can be as destructive as never following it.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    106. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Social security was solvent and most of the boomers paid in a fairly large amount of their incomes on a yearly basis. If the government hadn't been raiding it constantly to pay for handouts and pet projects it would still be solvent even with the reversal and decline of the population. I will agree that the program never should have been started in the first place because as soon as government starts collecting a pool of money from it's citizens it garuntees that they will eventually raid that pool and steal it all. People always should have been in charge of their own retirements without government intervention and garnished wages that were essentially just stolen as soon as no one was watching closely.

    107. Re:Doublethink by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      You might want to read their mission statement and the referenced supporting legal points. You'll note "foreign signals" are the only mentioned monitored signals by law. There are no domestic provisions at all. What can I do with my bonus points?

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    108. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you really think blaming an entire generation on the incidents of a few SJWs makes sense? And do you really think that it's the equivalent of defending NSA spying programs?

    109. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's crazy to think that the same John Kerry who testified before Congress about war crimes in Vietnam and threw away his medals would go on to be Secretary of State and claim that it was acceptable to cause the deaths of thousands of people in order for the USA to "save face".

    110. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure the politicians focus on the wishes of whoever has piles of money to pay for their campaigns. That kind of money is typically controlled by older people far more often than young people. Our use of representative democracy makes it impossible for public opinion to have an immediate effect, and sadly, the effectiveness of advertising on election outcome has kept the focus of all successful politicians on the money above all else. If money interests get more control over the internet, we'll have even less ability to see alternatives to whatever information big money want to present to us.

    111. Re:Doublethink by Last+Warrior · · Score: 1

      Russia collapsed under its own weight.

      When i was growing up, it was always referred to as the paradigm of guns vs. butter. Russia was not able to both feed its nation and maintain the increasing size of the military and the military arsenal.

      It isn't that we didn't put on a good show. We kept the competition fierce for a while on the amount of nuclear weapons. But Russia basically fell apart from the inside and not really from something that we did.

    112. Re:Doublethink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From your cited figures for the 2010 midterms: 60% turnout for 65-74 year-olds, 20% turnout for 18-24 year-olds.

    113. Re:Doublethink by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1

      Yes, you're right, in America that must definitely be a component of it. I'm from the UK where political parties get a lot of public funding so the influence of money is less overt (it still happens).

    114. Re:Doublethink by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      You know, if I had all the FICA money that went to the Feds on my account over the years, either with interest applied or inflation-adjusted with a reasonable real interest rate added, my personal savings would be even healthier than they are.

      The reason people like me don't want to have Social Security and Medicare stripped is that we have been forced to pay for these all of our working lives, and we think we deserve at least something of what we paid for.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    115. Re:Doublethink by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      A LONG time ago, I read a Scientific American article about why the needs of the elderly tend to be prioritized over the needs of the children.

      Children don't vote. The elderly do, in large numbers.

      People are going to become elderly eventually (or so they hope). They're not going to become children eventually.

      People on the average spend more time as children of elderly parents than they do as parents of underage children.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    116. Re:Doublethink by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I don't believe that "free speech zones" were invented by millennials. Hecklers existed even when I was young. There were subjects people in general just didn't talk about.

      Perhaps you should spend a bit more time looking at how comparatively messed up various generations were. Currently, you seem to be complaining about "kids these days".

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    117. Re:Doublethink by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      No; AC said "online communities", not "leftist online communities".

      When I was young, people got their news from a relatively small number of sources, the most influential of which at least tried for balanced reporting (as they saw it). This had obvious problems, but it meant we were generally arguing from something of the same basis. The news would report an antiwar demonstration, and some of us would be thinking that was great and others that that was disgraceful, but we all had some source attempting to be reasonably objective about the facts. Editorial pages published opinions from a variety of viewpoints, which is how I got to like reading William Buckley, Jr., although I almost never agreed with him.

      Currently, it's possible to get all the news you want from whatever biased source you want, whatever your political views. In such an environment, you get news that supports your prejudices and confirms what you already think. There's no check on what people claim as news, no way to know if what you're getting is true (aside from going out and searching for sources that might disagree with you). I see lots of ridiculous claims going unchecked and believed by a frightening number of people. When a person of party A meets a person of party B, and they've both been in self-centered echo chambers of news, each will believe the other is spinning lies and ridiculous fabrications (which will be actually true some of the time). There's no common ground for discussion and actual learning.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    118. Re:Doublethink by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 1

      You know, if I had all the FICA money that went to the Feds on my account over the years, either with interest applied or inflation-adjusted with a reasonable real interest rate added, my personal savings would be even healthier than they are. The reason people like me don't want to have Social Security and Medicare stripped is that we have been forced to pay for these all of our working lives, and we think we deserve at least something of what we paid for.

      Sorry, but you were robbed. You didn't "pay in" to anything - you money was taken and given to your grandparents (as well as being spent by politicians to buy votes).

      You can justly complain all you want about how unfair this is, and you can try to take up the issue with the people who actually robbed you, but you have no right whatsoever to inflict the same robbery on your descendants. They aren't the ones who robbed you, so they aren't responsible for it.

      You also had your entire life to prepare for retirement, and at ample warning going all the way back to the 1980s about how the system was financially unsustainable, so if you didn't heed the warnings and aren't prepared now, that's also not your descendants' fault.

    119. Re:Doublethink by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Funny how they've have forgotten they will get old one day too, and get screwed over by their own policies.

      The will rediscover the value of personal savings, and won't rely on a Ponzi scheme for their retirement plan.

      If it works for 85 years, I don't think it can be considered a "Ponzi scheme." If humans were immortal and collected SSI for eternity, then yes, it would be a Ponzi scheme. But they don't. They leave the system every day. And new people join the pay-in every day.

      Americans are living longer, which means that perhaps the money flowing into the system needs to be adjusted upwards. And bumps in the population (like baby-boomers retiring) also require adjustments. But that's all they are: adjustments. They don't require an act of God, just an act of Congress (though the snarkier among us might claim that both are just as likely).

    120. Re:Doublethink by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      The last presidential election had candidates from third parties on the ballot in nearly every state. Your excuse is lame.

      It's rare to find a good third-party candidate on the ballot, though. I don't like either Democrats or Republicans, but Greens and Constitutionalists are far crazier. Most of the rest of single-issue parties, focusing on changing government policy towards one particular issue. But we don't elect people to be "The guy who ends/increases government surveillance." We elect general-purpose legislators who decide a wide variety of issues.

    121. Re:Doublethink by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Or, perhaps the young are still naive enough to believe their rage matters? "Change is coming" - sure it is. What will change is only that the naive, hopeful young will grow up and recognize that short of actual revolution, nothing is going to substantially change

      I think it's more that the young are naive enough to believe that everyone else also wants their "revolution," that other people think like them.

  3. Please don't link Newsmax... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's a nutjob neocon superchristian propaganda rag. More reputable news sources exist (yes, even Fox News is fine for stories like this).

    Thanks.

    1. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by CajunArson · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So you're saying that old people like Snowden and Millenials hate his guts?

      Your summary dismissal of facts based on the source not being politically correct enough shows that you are very enlightened and tolerant.

      During WWII, did your grandpappie tell his bosses to not trust that E=mc^2 crap because the guy who thought it up wasn't an Aryan pure blood?

      --
      AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    2. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The author of this summary should have submitted the original ACLU article instead of a writeup anyway: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/snowden_poll_results.pdf

      Also thanks for invoking Godwin's law, that was definitely necessary.

      In any case I guess everyone competent who used to submit to Slashdot now just reads Ars Technica and others. I come back here every few months and look and it's amazing at how (a) fewer and (b) worse the comments are compared to 5-6 years ago. It's like the CrackBerry of tech news.

    3. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This sort of information will be reported from multiple sources.... if it is reputable. Newsmax is a pile of shit.

    4. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The terms "Neocon" and "Christian" are opposites.

    5. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by dave420 · · Score: 2

      You are confusing "politically incorrect" with "factually incorrect". The source is a bad source to draw conclusions from because of its unabashed biases. Ignoring it does not magically imply that the opposite of what it states is the truth. You'd have to be some special kind of nuts to think that...

    6. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you ever leafed through an issue you would understand. It's like a print version of Drudge or Breitbart.

    7. Re:Please don't link Newsmax... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Your summary dismissal of facts based on the source not being politically correct enough shows that you are very enlightened and tolerant.

      The source is bad enough that you can't draw any conclusions from anything on the site (because they will post anything, true or not, that follows their political conceptions) without verification of the story from other sources.

  4. Trust in authority by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I suppose it goes into how blindly people support their chosen government or newscaster. Walter Cronkite had extreme influence because people assumed his word was gospel, so when he said the US was losing in Vietnam people believed it. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    1. Re:Trust in authority by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The US was losing in Vietnam. It didn't matter whether South Vietnam was winning, or North Vietnam was winning, but the US was losing.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  5. Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Propaganda Works. Smear someone for long enough, loudly enough, consistently enough, and people will eventually listen and believe. We've seen it happen to Assange, to Snowden, to dozens of other whistleblowers, in politics, in law enforcement, in finance. We've seen it happen to fucking gamers. Over time, a negative media narrative will stick.

    The problem, at its core, is the media. They are not a fourth estate. They are the new First Estate.

    1. Re:Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Propaganda Works. Smear someone for long enough, loudly enough, consistently enough, and people will eventually listen and believe.

      Yeah, you would say that. Puppy-kicker!

    2. Re:Propaganda Works by jythie · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Something I will be curious to see over the next few decades is how propaganda is affected by advertising saturation. Something that has been worrying marketers is that young consumers (ones more accustomed to multitasking and who grew up with heavy advertizing) filter out a larger amount of marketing than other groups. Even as their knowledge and skills improve (ah, the dark uses of all those psych majors), advertising is becoming more difficult and consumers more jaded and less uniform.

      Since propaganda can be seen as a specialized form of marketing, I wonder how that type of manipulation is going to adjust. It used to be that one coherent message would affect most of the population the same way, but increasingly the same techniques and narratives will have differing effects on different populations. So what we tend to see more and more of is propaganda generating smaller more fanatical groups along with others forming backlash against tem.. it kinda works if you examine only the successful parts of the application, but is no longer all that useful for changing general public perception, just creating partisans.

    3. Re:Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smear someone for long enough, loudly enough, consistently enough, and people will eventually listen and believe.

      Like the record industry, here on Slashdot and Techdirt? You guys don't realize what an echo chamber this place is.

    4. Re:Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The propaganda that snowden is some hero has tricked over a bunch of people.

    5. Re:Propaganda Works by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      ...people will eventually listen and believe.

      Funny enough "listen and believe" is one of Anita Sarkisian's prime points, don't think just listen and believe. And people wonder why there's an entire generation of fucked up people out there.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    6. Re:Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I honestly can't tell if you're actually confused or just trolling, but the two philosophies are not the same. When Anita says "listen and believe" she means to listen to other people's experiences amd believe that that is what they experienced. What the GP is talking about is listening to the narrative sold by the media and believing it without analysis. Ignoring facts presented straight to you is just as stupid as accepting someone else's interpretation of them uncritically.

    7. Re:Propaganda Works by quintessencesluglord · · Score: 2

      You've got the same biological responses that have always been in play (sex, emotional cues, peer pressure, etc.) that do just as much to serve as inhibit propaganda (some of the propaganda from WWII inferring peace-niks were back home having relations with lonely wives were just as likely to cause doubt as remind people what they were fighting for), and also disinfo campaigns (serving up several platitudes that you probably accept with a few questionable ones so you are less inclined to question their validity), as well as buzz (think of any viral videos you've seen that were far beyond what you would normally watch).

      But especially with fragmented media, it allows you tailor a message to a specific group to where Snowden could have been represented as youthful rebellion to a certain segment, and then altered to following in the grand traditions of the country in another.

      What I think most people overlook is that with so many media choices, they think they have a better chance at getting at some type of "truth". Not really, they've just opened themselves up to several venues of manipulation. Especially at a time when everything is seen as biased, you can tell huge bold-faced lies with little in the way of consequences, and for the time it takes to research and debunk, move on to another bold-face lie until no one trusts much of anything (even their neighbors) and leaves them primed for more instinctual propaganda.

      And even then, the propaganda only really has to target the vocal. This is why education has become such a partisan issue. Sure, not everyone is going to accept things like they did in the age of Cronkite, but you only need those willing to shout down the dissenters for it to be effective.

    8. Re:Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean experiences like Jackie in the Rolling Stone article, or the prostitute from the Duke Lacross case?

      Those two philosophies aren't as distinct as you believe.

    9. Re:Propaganda Works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is eerie how Orwellian that picture is and how much of the narrative follows the Junior Anti-sex League.

    10. Re:Propaganda Works by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      You mean like all the people on Slashdot that are saying those that do like Snowden are old, out of touch, brainwashed, and clueless?

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    11. Re:Propaganda Works by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Zing! And you missed it, and having listened to the entire bit about that little presentation, it's exactly the same. One is the media saying "listen and believe, don't examine" the other is a person which the media is giving clout to saying "listen and believe, don't examine."

      Perhaps you'd like to explain the differences between a person which the media gives clout and refuses to examine her claims, and the media running with exactly the claims that aren't examined.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    12. Re:Propaganda Works by Glarimore · · Score: 1

      And please explain "listen to other people's experiences amd believe that that is what they experienced" is different than "listen to the narrative sold by the media and believe it without analysis."

      In both cases you're just believing something said to you, but in only one is there even the possibility of verifying validity (the media story). What you're suggesting is that we should apply critical thought to news stories, but when dealing with people we should blindly accept anecdotes about their experiences and how those experiences made them feel. That doesn't make any sense -- especially when Anita and her ilk have proven that they will invent instances of abuse and malisciousness, as well as go far out of there way to portray events/media in a completely different light than it actually exists (Anita's video on Hitman, anyone?).

    13. Re:Propaganda Works by Dasher42 · · Score: 1

      "An awkward, feeble, leaky lie is a thing which you ought to make it your unceasing study to avoid; such a lie as that has no more real permanence than an average truth. Why, you might as well tell the truth at once and be done with it. A feeble, stupid, preposterous lie will not live two years -- except it be a slander upon somebody. It is indestructible, then of course, but that is no merit of yours."

      - Mark Twain, "Advice to Youth"

    14. Re:Propaganda Works by houghi · · Score: 0

      And the younglings like to stick it to "the man". So Assange is one who "Sticks it to the man" and the youth likes that.

      Just like the younglins in the 60-ies, who are now the oldies.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    15. Re:Propaganda Works by dj245 · · Score: 2

      Something I will be curious to see over the next few decades is how propaganda is affected by advertising saturation. Something that has been worrying marketers is that young consumers (ones more accustomed to multitasking and who grew up with heavy advertizing) filter out a larger amount of marketing than other groups. Even as their knowledge and skills improve (ah, the dark uses of all those psych majors), advertising is becoming more difficult and consumers more jaded and less uniform. Since propaganda can be seen as a specialized form of marketing, I wonder how that type of manipulation is going to adjust. It used to be that one coherent message would affect most of the population the same way, but increasingly the same techniques and narratives will have differing effects on different populations. So what we tend to see more and more of is propaganda generating smaller more fanatical groups along with others forming backlash against tem.. it kinda works if you examine only the successful parts of the application, but is no longer all that useful for changing general public perception, just creating partisans.

      Having traveled to North Korea and seen what propaganda looks like, you are wrong. Good propaganda is something that people want to believe, or could easily believe, even if it isn't true. Good propaganda has no opposing viewpoint that is credible. Good propaganda speaks to the choir, where the choir intentionally designed to be the largest possible audience. And anyone who isn't in the choir is a bad person.

      Consider as just one example the propaganda that in North Korea, everyone must choose from 28 official state haircuts. It's something that the average American could easily be convinced to believe. Perhaps you read the story and believed it too. It sounds plausible enough for most westerners to believe.

      Unfortunately, it was complete bunk. But just about everyone I talked to bought it. And they thought I was the odd one for believing otherwise.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    16. Re:Propaganda Works by RyoShin · · Score: 1

      I don't know if I can speak for all "young consumers" (I'm 29 myself, which I think puts me on the edge of that group), but between the misleading tactics of advertising and a complete loss of confidence in elected leaders (and non-elected, for that matter), I have developed heavy cynicism towards any statement from "the Man", be it a company hocking its products or a politician hocking a need for something. I give their statements no credence until I have done at least some research on my own.

      For advertising, when I don't just disregard the ad completely, I do my own research to see if there's any scientific basis for the claims and/or look at product reviews to see how it truly stacks up against alternatives.

      For politicians, I do research on any statistics claimed and personal reflection on logos, some analysis on ethos, and completely disregard pathos.

  6. Dubious by unixcorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am well beyond millennial status and I approve of what Snowden did so I am not sure I believe the survey results. While I do approve, I also wrestle with the fact that he broke the law and put Americans in jeopardy. That makes me wonder how the questions were asked. I mean I can certainly dislike someone but approve of what they did.

    1. Re:Dubious by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I've only just turned 35 so am on the border of being a "millennial", but I thought that phrase referred to people around the 15-25 range who were teenagers around the 2000-2009 time frame. 34 seems a bit old... More like gen X or gen Y.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'll be 50 in a couple of years and I think Snowden was a hero. Possibly he even qualifies as a super hero.

      If you just look at the questions asked, they slanted the whole thing.

      Of course Snowden hurt national security. But there are thins more important than national security. Like freedom.

        If we don't have Freedom, then we are better off without national security, because maybe some freedom fighers (aka terrorists) will liberate the people of the US from the government.

    3. Re:Dubious by geekmux · · Score: 1

      I am well beyond millennial status and I approve of what Snowden did so I am not sure I believe the survey results. While I do approve, I also wrestle with the fact that he broke the law and put Americans in jeopardy. That makes me wonder how the questions were asked. I mean I can certainly dislike someone but approve of what they did.

      Perhaps what you should be struggling more with is the fact that Snowden revelations haven't done a damn thing to hinder the abuses of our own government.

      It's practically funny how you struggle with the fact that Snowden broke the law, and yet you find exactly ZERO laws broken on the government side.

    4. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Half of what we're told is lies, so it's hard to me to have a strong opinion on anything these days, including Snowden.

    5. Re:Dubious by Carewolf · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've only just turned 35 so am on the border of being a "millennial", but I thought that phrase referred to people around the 15-25 range who were teenagers around the 2000-2009 time frame. 34 seems a bit old... More like gen X or gen Y.

      Generation X. The generation born by babyboomers, usually from 1970 to early 1980s. Teenagers in the late 80s and early 90s.

      I think that what was shortly referred to as Gen Y are now millenials (Gen Y were those born too late to be Gen X).

    6. Re:Dubious by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Informative

      These are large percentages we're talking about here. Even in the older age brackets about a third of people are supporting Snowden so the fact that you fall into that category doesn't mean much.

    7. Re:Dubious by dinfinity · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I don't have a uterus, so I don't believe that 50% of the population have a risk of getting cervical cancer.
      Asshole statisticians, lying bastards trying to scare me for no reason.

    8. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I've only just turned 35 so am on the border of being a "millennial", but I thought that phrase referred to people around the 15-25 range who were teenagers around the 2000-2009 time frame. 34 seems a bit old... More like gen X or gen Y.

      Generation X. The generation born by babyboomers, usually from 1970 to early 1980s. Teenagers in the late 80s and early 90s.

      I think that what was shortly referred to as Gen Y are now millenials (Gen Y were those born too late to be Gen X).

      Not all baby boomers had kids by their mid 20's, my parents are of that generation and I turned 18 on Jan 1 2000.

      Usually I hear 1982 as the demarcating line which places the current max age around 33. Then to confuse things some refer to those born in 80-84 as "cuspers" who are not entirely Gen X or Gen Y.

    9. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's probably some overlap depending on how the individual grew up. But isn't the word "millennial" being used as a buzzword for the most part?

    10. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you actually expain how he put Americans in jeopardy, or do you simply accept whatever government tells you at face value?

    11. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That makes me wonder how the questions were asked.

      Like most push polls, the questions are asked in a manor to produce the specific results the "research" company conducting to poll has been paid to produce.

    12. Re:Dubious by fafaforza · · Score: 1

      Statistics are really better applied to entire populations, rather than individuals, no?

      After all, they did say only a portion of the millenials or the older folk sway one way on the issue. So the other portion will sway the other way. Whichever way you feel about the issues, there's a spot for you. That's how percentages work.

    13. Re:Dubious by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I am well beyond millennial status and I approve of what Snowden did so I am not sure I believe the survey results.

      Nobody is saying the survey conclusively proves that nobody approves of Snowden's actions. That's not how these things work. The summary says:

      Among those aged 35-44, some 34 percent have positive attitudes toward him. For the 45-54 age cohort, the figure is 28 percent, and it drops to 26 percent among Americans over age 55, U.S. News reported.

      So even if this survey is accurate, that still leaves a significant percentage of people in those age ranges who do have positive attitudes. In that context, it doesn't really make sense to say, "Well I'm in that age group and I have positive attitudes, so this survey must not be accurate." Maybe you're just part of the minority.

      Of course, the survey could be inaccurate or misleading. Most polls are.

    14. Re:Dubious by fafaforza · · Score: 2

      Can you actually explain how he did not put Americans in jeopardy, or does your aluminum hat cause you to automatically reject anything anyone from the government tells you.

    15. Re:Dubious by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Thanks, +1 informative.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    16. Re:Dubious by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Informative

      My Dad is an 89 year old WWII vet who is so conservative he makes John Boehner look like a member of the ACLU and HE approves of Snowden. He calls him a hero.

    17. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seriously asking someone to prove a negative?

    18. Re:Dubious by dave420 · · Score: 1

      That's not how evidence works. I hope you were being facetious and are not actually that messed up.

    19. Re:Dubious by Nyder · · Score: 1

      I've only just turned 35 so am on the border of being a "millennial", but I thought that phrase referred to people around the 15-25 range who were teenagers around the 2000-2009 time frame. 34 seems a bit old... More like gen X or gen Y.

      Generation X. The generation born by babyboomers, usually from 1970 to early 1980s. Teenagers in the late 80s and early 90s.

      I think that what was shortly referred to as Gen Y are now millenials (Gen Y were those born too late to be Gen X).

      True story, my babyboomer parents had me in the late 60's. So you can call me Generation X, but I'm more Billy Idol...

      --
      Be seeing you...
    20. Re:Dubious by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Not all baby boomers had kids by their mid 20's, my parents are of that generation and I turned 18 on Jan 1 2000.

      Usually I hear 1982 as the demarcating line which places the current max age around 33. Then to confuse things some refer to those born in 80-84 as "cuspers" who are not entirely Gen X or Gen Y.

      That would explain why I have no clue what 'gen' Im supoosed to be in. Born in '83 lol

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    21. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was born in the mid-60s and was called "Gen-X".

      I think Mr. Snowden is an American Patriot along the lines of our founding fathers - who also performed treasonous acts against The Crown.

      He didn't just release the documents to the world - he provided them to reputable news organizations, so they could review them and release portions without sacrificing operational security for ongoing actions.

      Sadly, we've learned that we cannot trust our elected officials or our government departments to "do the right thing." Democrats and Republicans are equally bad as this.

      I'm of the opinion that if you cannot do something in public in front of the world, then you shouldn't do it at all. A 5 year limitation for all secrets seems necessary as a Constitutional Amendment.

    22. Re:Dubious by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Can you actually explain how he did not put Americans in jeopardy, or does your aluminum hat cause you to automatically reject anything anyone from the government tells you.

      By showing all the nasty baddies that the American intelligence services i.e. their enemies were too busy spying on their own people and allies to notice what shenanigans they were up to? Is that what you mean?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    23. Re:Dubious by fafaforza · · Score: 1

      I was being partly facetious. As if damage done to America can be eaily quantified, or even told to the public.

      But I was also chiding him for his obvious and automatic dislike for government and everything being released by it.

    24. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The charts I have seen recently seem to have moved Gen X to have ended with those born in 1980. Gen Y (rebranded Millenials, starts immediately after, so, it seems I have been moved from Gen X to Gen Y (Millenial), didn't even notice when it happened.

    25. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does this get marked 5 on a nerd site ? Is your math that fucking bad? You don't have the fucking first understanding of statistics or anecdotal evidence ?

      You even then go on to lay out how you might've been in the camp of negative snowden based on how the question is asked.

      What a fucking idiot.

    26. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does informing us of our government's actions against us put us in jeopardy?

    27. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whadda fuck? I was a kid in the 90s, and a teenager in the 00s, and we definitely are not millenials. We're that weird generation between X and the millenial, Y, I guess you could call it. Millenials are the kids who are just now teenagers (born on/after the millenium).

      For my generation, we're just 90s kids. And you old farts are too stuck in your wars, and you youngins need to get off my lawn. I mean, we're old enough to have lawns of our own now...

    28. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you actually explain how he did not put Americans in jeopardy, or does your aluminum hat cause you to automatically reject anything anyone from the government tells you.

      That's besides the point. I'll even stipulate that he probably did put Americans in jeopardy. Any time you try to curb abuse of authority or limit power, whether it is a privacy law, constitutional right, or basic human rights, you are almost by definition making that authority less efficient and less effective. It's worth it. That's why we have a Constitution, laws, etc. The threat from out of control authority or unfettered abuse is much greater.

      There are lots of appropriate quotes, such as:
      - The end doesn't justify the means
      - The one about giving up liberty in pursuit of security leaves you with neither
      - Let them eat cake
      - Godwins Law ... I know, I know, but it applies here

      I'm not sure how I feel about the guy but I greatly admire how he stood on principle to do the right thing at great personal cost and did us all a great service (Americans and non-Americans alike).

    29. Re:Dubious by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      This was easier to understand when I realized that each generation gets two names, one applied when they're kids and one later that sticks. When I was a kid, I remember my generation being called the "Baby Bust" generation or other similar names, as we followed the Baby Boomers. It was only when we were starting to come of age did the term "Generation X" become coined and retroactively applied to us. Then someone decided to use "Gen Y" for our kids, and it took them starting to come of age for the better term "Millenials" to come along.

      I'm sure the Baby Boomers were referred to by some other name when they were young - the Postwar Generation or something - just like the WWII "Greatest Generation" certainly didn't have that name until they were grown up.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    30. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fascist alert: watch out for fafaforza. he's not to be trusted.

    31. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the context of a large, diverse, multi-cultural society likes ours, freedom is a prerequisite for security. If you don't effectively mediate between majority-minority* conflicts, you'll quickly end up with problems, including security problems. Moreover, transparency is key to nurturing trust, and trust is the sine qua non of political mediation.

      If you want to live in a benevolent dictatorship, move to Singapore. I don't personally have a problem with that kind of political system--or most any other system--as long as people have the freedom to travel and at least in theory choose the kind of government under which they wish to live. Which is another interesting nexus of freedom & security--self-determination. You can define self-determination in terms of either freedom or security.

      * Everybody in the U.S. is part of some minority, and "cultural" isn't a synonym for "ethnic".

    32. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally I automatically redact anything anyone from the government tells me.

    33. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could it be possible that the stats are totally skewed because most of the 'older' generation believe they will be aggregated into the list(s) of 'baddies' if they express approval of Snowden's actions ?

    34. Re:Dubious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Generation X. The generation born by babyboomers, usually from 1970 to early 1980s. Teenagers in the late 80s and early 90s.

      Definitions change. I was born in 1975 and the first time I ever heard the term, it referred to people who were about 10 years older than me, those yuppies of the late 80s.

    35. Re:Dubious by toddestan · · Score: 1

      The problem is that most of the time you're simply not going to have a nice clear cut dividing line (such as the end of WWII and all the GI's coming home) so it's always going to be a bit fuzzy. Personally, I think the whole attempt to pigeonhole people into "generations" is stupid anyway.

  7. Of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Older American's see him as someone who put themself first to the detriment of others (in the sense that he took it upon himself to decide that the secrecy and security protocols that our society has tacitly agreed to were not important enough to respect) and consequently have a negative opinion of him. Millennials see him as someone who put themself first and respect him for it because that is what they have been taught to do their whole lives (by helicopter parenting, everyone gets a trophy, etc.).

    1. Re:Of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is willingly losing your hot fiance, 200k/yr job, etc. "put[ting] themself first" ?

    2. Re:Of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently he valued his own notoriety far more highly than either of those. It's a common trait in narcissists.

    3. Re:Of course by kilfarsnar · · Score: 2

      Apparently he valued his own notoriety far more highly than either of those. It's a common trait in narcissists.

      You mean the guy who said he didn't want the story to be about him? The one who gave hi information to responsible parties, so that he could stay out of the picture? That guy?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    4. Re:Of course by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      To me it looks like he put his oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies ahead of his own well being. (I'm one of those older Americans, born in 1952).

    5. Re:Of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you just stop reading? He answered your question starting with *the very next word* after what you quoted.

      > (in the sense that he took it upon himself to decide that the secrecy and security protocols that our society has tacitly agreed to were not important enough to respect)

    6. Re:Of course by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      That's the "detriment of others" part, not putting themselves first.

  8. Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by AndyCanfield · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was at the U.S. Embassy in Laos monday morning. It was a horrible experience. A brand new embassy building staffed with paranoid idiots. When I got home to Thailand I described the experience at
    http://www.andycanfield.com/Th...
    I may be 66 years old, but Ed Snowden is my hero. He can sleep on my floor any time. He could sleep on my sofa if I had a sofa.

    1. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by AndyCanfield · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was at U.C. Berkeley in 1968. We forced the US out of Vietnam, we brought down Richard Nixon. We can do it again; we can bring down the US NSA.

      How? The same way we did it before - by teaching everyone we meet. What did we teach them in the 1960's? "The government MIGHT be lying to you." Once they learned that, they began thinking and checking, and they saw that very often the government WAS lying. When Richard Nixon denied the accusations, noboty believed him.

      What do we need to teach people today? Perhaps it is "The government does not TRUST you." The constitution says that Barack Obama is the boss of the NSA, and that the AMERICAN PEOPLE are the boss of Obama. So how can an organization not trust the boss? Keith Alexander has admitted to Congress that the NSA has lied to the American people, who are his boss. You lie to the boss you get your ass kicked. This posted message is part of that education.

      The question is not whether Ed Snowden can get a fair trial. The question is whether Keith Alexander can get a fair trial. So far he hasn't had a trial at all, depite his confession that his agency broke the law.

    2. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think you understand. It security THEATER! The idea is not to secure the Embassy but make it seam secure so the unwashed masses can say they are on top of it and "it's a harden target"

    3. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do they have those "How are we doing?" -forms at the US embassies?

    4. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh look a perverted white dude living in Thailand.

    5. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Yunzil · · Score: 1

      we brought down Richard Nixon

      No you didn't. Richard Nixon brought down Richard Nixon.

    6. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you won't hear much about that last fact, well, anywhere. And that's just the start of the problem. Hard to argue where the breakdown is in the US, when people openly admit to breaking laws at the highest levels, but aren't punished.

    7. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

      We forced the US out of Vietnam

      And put them in Central America and Middle East

      we brought down Richard Nixon

      And we got Ronald Reagan, et al, and all of a sudden Nixon and Vietnam 'never happened'.

      The Church Committee had hearings on this stuff 40 years ago. Scandal after scandal, it doesn't matter, the same people are reelected despite it all.

      You are witness to a shell game. The 'system' is as powerful as it ever was.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    8. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

      The technology now is more robust. The so called "Constitution" can be invalidated overnight with martial law. You can disappear with a few clicks (i.e. "accidental" drone attack on your house)

      The war is over. It is lost. The future of the planet will be one single world government controlled by people who are (or who think they are) doing "God's" work. It is necessary for expansion beyond Earth.

    9. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice little article Andy. I would like to let you know that if you are referring to the great (former) steel town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it should have an "h" at the end.

    10. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was at U.C. Berkeley in 1968. We forced the US out of Vietnam, we brought down Richard Nixon. We can do it again; we can bring down the US NSA.

      Why don't you start by voting the demon wench out of office that's running the NSA? Dianne Feinstein is singing the same historic tune you are, but she controls the entity you so despise.

    11. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We can do it again;

      Not if the media calls you misogynists you won't.

    12. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This may come as a surprise to you: times have changed, boomer.

    13. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The American People are not the boss of Obama - he's never running again and is not beholden to anyone at this point. Recent events have show that Congress think's it's not being beholden to the American voter either. They're all 'honest' politicians - they've received their bribes, and they're honoring their bribes.

    14. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you didn't do squat.

      you were used by politicians to create an excuse.

      then all you Berkeley types grew up and made the 80's corporate excesses, then matured into the politicians and banksters who crashed the economy and created the NSA. You became the media types that sold out to big advertising and political party electioneers.

      Even today your Berkeley students support Pelosi who is on record as being supportive of all NSA activites and voting for even more-all the while making sure to add influence to war machine manufacture companies her family is profitting from.

      Words meant nothing. The ivory towers never cared. So all you 60's types, while breaking down the "system" you didn't like because it told you to slow the fuck down and understand before taking the quick glamorous road out, rebuilt a system on vanity and without even the checks and balances of tradition. You became even worse. What took "The Man" a century to erode, you nailed in 40 years. Responsibility was your biggest enemy, and today's society shows how well it works when that is gone.

      a quote from one of the Austin Powers movies "There's nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster."

    15. Re:Those idiots couldn't invade Pittsburg! by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      we brought down Richard Nixon

      No you didn't. Richard Nixon brought down Richard Nixon.

      And another whistleblower, Deep Throat.

  9. Controlling for age effects? by fortfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if the study controlled for the fact that people tend to get more conservative as they age.

    I bet if Snowden had done his thing in the 90's, the age distribution of approval would be similar, and I bet you'd get the same result in another 15 years, when those same millennials have kids and are facing their mortality.

    Progressive ideals are risky, and it takes more courage to take risks as folks age and have more to lose.

    Note this is purely an academic comment and is not meant to endorse or deny either snowden or the NSA.

    1. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I bet if Snowden had done his thing in the 90's, the age distribution of approval would be similar, and I bet you'd get the same result in another 15 years, when those same millennials have kids and are facing their mortality.

      And you'd probably see the same distribution of the public's opinion of Daniel Ellsburg in the 1970's.

    2. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder if the study controlled for the fact that people tend to get more conservative as they age.

      I bet if Snowden had done his thing in the 90's, the age distribution of approval would be similar, and I bet you'd get the same result in another 15 years, when those same millennials have kids and are facing their mortality.

      Progressive ideals are risky, and it takes more courage to take risks as folks age and have more to lose.

      Note this is purely an academic comment and is not meant to endorse or deny either snowden or the NSA.

      Agree. Remember that in university Tony Blair was in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament but later supported renewing the UK's nuclear arsenal

    3. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is also the case that with age comes greater experience and wisdom. When people first get the right to drive a car, they are much more prone to have accidents or kill themselves (or others) because they simply do not understand the risks. In many cases, they also cannot really understand the concept of dying either. An interesting study from when I was a kid concluded that showing teenagers pictures of people who had been mutilated (and were therefore deformed and ugly) had a far greater impact on behavior than showing them people who had been killed - because most teenagers simply cannot believe that *they* could ever die.

      The question is not one of courage, as you so self-righteously proclaimed, but wisdom. The greater understanding of the consequences of actions that people with less experience fail to grasp. The knowledge that the imperfect solution currently in place is the lesser of multiple evils born from the experience of trying something different and getting burned by our lack of experience. The wisdom born of "been there,done that" that tragically each generation has to repeat for itself before it learns the lessons of history.

      I should point out that when the 9/11 attacks occurred, everyone, including the millennials, jumped up and shouted "Do whatever you can because now we see a threat!" The few voices that tried to urge reason and restraint were drowned out. So we marched off and started repeating the mistakes of the past. People convinced themselves that it would be a "quick war" (because how could anyone stand up to us?). But then, just as has happened in the past, the war dragged on. No quick, clean "solution" came out of it. But we did manage to recreate our own McCarthy Era style culture (again) where merely being accused of being a communist, er, I mean terrorist, was enough to suspend one's civil liberties. And the millenials were just as much a part of that as anyone else, because they felt threatened and became afraid.

      So, please, do not try to tell me that the younger people are more courageous. They are simply more naive. Give them time to repeat past mistakes and learn how the world really works.

    4. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once you have something to steal, progressive politics look like a shitfest.

    5. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Steve+B · · Score: 1

      Obviously succeeding generations do not get to be as conservative as their parents -- if they did, we'd still have COLORED ONLY water fountains.

      --
      /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
    6. Re:Controlling for age effects? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      It seems to me that plenty of the people who flew off the handle in reaction to the 9/11 attacks were older. How old are Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, again?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    7. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This, a hundred times over.

    8. Re:Controlling for age effects? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      It seems to me that plenty of the people who flew off the handle in reaction to the 9/11 attacks were older. How old are Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, again?

      My cynical self says they were using the American public's reaction to 9/11 to help their own aims for power.

    9. Re:Controlling for age effects? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      My cynical self agrees with you.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    10. Re:Controlling for age effects? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      It seems to me that plenty of the people who flew off the handle in reaction to the 9/11 attacks were older. How old are Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, again?

      My cynical self says they were using the American public's reaction to 9/11 to help their own aims for power.

      You don't need to be cynical, the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) was quite open about its beliefs. Their founding documents in 1997 stated that defense spending was way too low, forcing the US to choose, for example, between presence in Europe and presence in Asia. Their four core missions, for military forces were defense of the American homeland, the fighting and winning of multiple simultaneous major theater wars, the establishment of the US military as a security force in key regions, and the transformation of US forces "to exploit the 'revolution in military affairs.'" In 1998, PNAC sent a letter to President Clinton strongly encouraging the preemptive US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

      Their statement of principles was signed by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Scooter Libby, along with other, lesser-known people in the GWB administration.

    11. Re:Controlling for age effects? by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      I realize all of that. I was just being snarky.

  10. digital natives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Please, I hate that word. It's ok for Facebook and Google to data mine the shit out of the stuff their emails and instant messages, but when the govt does it everyone flips their shit. I'm not saying the govt is innocent, but rather, they should be boycotting these corporate entities with similar fervor.

    Millenials are dumb. I do research on data mining (not for the govt).

    1. Re:digital natives by meta-monkey · · Score: 2

      Young people are fleeing FB in droves. Soon the only people on FB will be your grandma and your aunt locked in a never ending loop of right wing troll forwards. "RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: OBUMMER HATES AMERICAN PROOFS!!!!!!!!!"

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    2. Re:digital natives by tsqr · · Score: 1

      Young people are fleeing FB in droves.

      Half of the world's Internet users are active users of Facebook (where 'active' is defined as using at least once a month). http://www.statista.com/statis..., http://www.statista.com/statis...

      84% of Facebook users are aged 18 - 29, while nearly half of teen Facebook users say they're using it more than last year. http://www.businessinsider.com...

      That doesn't look much like "fleeing in droves".

  11. Boomer Redux? by tmosley · · Score: 3, Funny

    So...don't trust anyone over 30?

    1. Re:Boomer Redux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So...don't trust anyone over 30?

      So far, ignoring anything that came out of your snot-nosed 18-32 range has worked for everyone else.

      Now go get my burger and fries sonnie.

    2. Re:Boomer Redux? by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      Its never trust a hippie as the punks say

  12. From an ACLU poll by dale.furno · · Score: 1

    It's from an ACLU poll of 1000 online trolls

    https://www.aclu.org/sites/def...

    KRC Research designed the questions for an omnibus survey that was administered by ORC International. The survey was
    conducted online among adults 18+ in ten countries: Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New
    Zealand, Spain, and the U.S. The omnibus is conducted regularly among a demographically representative sample of approximately
    1,000 adults 18 years of age and older in each country. Fieldwork was conducted between February 12 and 19, 2015.

    1. Re:From an ACLU poll by dale.furno · · Score: 0

      1,000 from each of 10 countries

      10,000 internet trolls rather.

      my mistake

  13. Not surprising by God+of+Lemmings · · Score: 1

    This kind of contradicts the polls that came out way back in 2013, but I'm not surprised how our media can sway public opinion. ACLU has their own article about it which portrays it in a slightly different light, with poll results linked at the bottom https://www.aclu.org/news/inte...

    --
    Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
  14. Fox news correlation ? by Alain+Williams · · Score: 1

    Was any attempt made to correlate people's views with the propaganda^w news sources that they viewed/read the most?

    1. Re:Fox news correlation ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You call it propaganda but most people who'd agree with you probably think that they have a "real" news source. Of course, the other "side" would see it just the opposite. And they'd both be right and wrong at the same time.
       
      It's this kind of shallow thinking and knee jerk posting that keeps people like you in line.

  15. My Response by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I bought a picture of his face with the words AMERICAN HERO right under it as soon as I read this headline. Guess it's time to get out and do some proselytization.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  16. Not Millennial: Love and Support Snowden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Well I am not alone. Many many people from all age groups support him. Title of the article DOES NOT MATCH the raw data. If 20% in a group like him, that is A LOT of people. The article is playing with %s making us think 56% is everyone and 26% is no one. That is not the case at all! Overall he did a good thing. New spy software and H/W is very easy to make... letting some out of the bag to protect the world and the USA from corruption is not a bad thing at all. The title should be: There is a partial inverse relationship between age and the support of Snowden with the young being more likely to support him than elder Americans. But across the spectrum overall he has about 40% support of all Americans.

  17. Americans don't know what he did and who he is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When we know that Americans don't know what he did and who he is, how this junk may have any value?

    1. Re:Americans don't know what he did and who he is by barlevg · · Score: 1

      This. My favorite part of the interview is when Oliver shares that segment with Snowden, right after Snowden says that what he did was "worth it" because it forced us Americans to have a meaningful dialogue about government surveillance--his reaction is like when you tell a kid there's no Santa Claus or a twenty-something grad student that the job market for people with his or her PhD is nonexistent.

  18. T-Shirt by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    That comment would have been a lot cooler if I'd written it correctly. I bought a T-Shirt with his face on. I'd look a right moron walking around with a printed, loose picture of Snowden saying LOOK AT THIS

    Yes, slashdot, I know it's only been a minute since I posted a comment, but could you just let me post this and move on with my life?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:T-Shirt by dale.furno · · Score: 0

      I thought you framed the picture and hung it above your bed

    2. Re:T-Shirt by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I thought you framed the picture and hung it above your bed

      Yes, that was my fear, I didn't want slashdotters picturing me fapping to such a poster. I love freedom, but not in precisely that way

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  19. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Right, because all the youth who cheered on and voted a second term for a president who continues the trend of destroying our civil rights and handing arms to terrorist friendlies as he bombs kids in a country that we're not even at war with are really going to step up and make all the evils of grandpa go away.
     
    Right. Right. Right.
     
    Just as blind as the morons who voted for Clinton thinking he was going to legalize marijuana and that he was a hip, fresh new face for American politics or the other morons who thought that Bush Jr was going to put the US back on track and pull back the reigns of government.
     
    You don't get the to the head of one of the major parties by threatening the power-that-be. For as much as you may think one or both parties are lead by idiots the fact of the matter is that they play the game a lot better than you do and they're 20 steps ahead of where you stopped thinking with the idea that you knew it all.

  20. Stazi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Conventional wisdom says that the young and idealistic grow up and shed their naive ideals as they confront the real world. By that logic, as millennials age, they will recognize the need for the surveillance state to keep us safe from terrorism.

    Real World? How about that terrorism isn't as big a threat as we are led to believe? We have a media that makes billions of dollars a month in scaring the shit out of us and by being bombarded by that shit, we begin to think that terrorism is right around the corner. Perception bias. I live in meth country, according to the media, I should be experiencing high crime and meth labs blowing up every day. We had one in the last five years and one before my state's legislature passed a law that made getting Sudafed harder to get than a gun - I'm in the South.

    The other thing is, East Germany and the old communist states. My fellow old people forgot those abuses and are under the delusion that our government is beyond such things; when in fact, we are seeing an out of control security government bureaucracy. Are my fellow old people concerned? Nope. We are all worried about Clinton's email server, Benghazi, IS, gay marriage, and other social "issues" that some how are going to ruin our country and our freedoms.

    I really don't think my fellow Americans know WTF Freedom means.

    1. Re:Stazi by khallow · · Score: 1

      [...] when in fact, we are seeing an out of control security government bureaucracy. Are my fellow old people concerned? Nope. We are all worried about Clinton's email server, Benghazi, IS, gay marriage, and other social "issues" that some how are going to ruin our country and our freedoms.

      Benghazi is an out of control government issue. A number of high level government officials, including Clinton, lied about a relatively mundane security problem because it might harm them in the 2014 elections.

      Similarly, Clinton's email server is another out of control government issue. She committed a felony by using that server. And there is some speculation that she had legitimate reasons for doing so, namely, an adversarial relationship with the rest of the Obama administration who might have used those emails against her.

      Grouping that (and ISIS) with "social issues" illustrates the principle about throwing stones in glass houses. If you really are concerned about an out of control security government bureaucracy, then you need to be consistently concerned about it. When an important official successfully dodges federal email usage and retention rules (which were intended to make a more open and accountable government), that will make your concerns worse. When government officials succeed in lying about national security affairs, even minor ones such as Benghazi, that will make your concerns worse.

      When government officials ignore important security matters in allied countries and that results in the establishment of ISIS in an important region to the US, that is greatly relevant to making your concerns worse.

      Even social matters often have huge security apparatus implications. For example, due to the mandates of Social Security, income tax, various bioinformation data bases (like the FBI fingerprint database), and Obamacare health record mandates (both the conditions of the individual mandate and electronic record keeping), the federal government collects a huge amount of information about the US citizenry. They have information right there about who you are, where you are, your financial status, biometric information, and part of your medical records. Combine that with the NSA spying on US cell phone and internet conversations, then they have enough to do Roman Republic-era proscriptions - the drawing up of lists of political opposition, real and potential in order to punish or outright destroy them.

    2. Re:Stazi by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Clinton did not commit a felony by using a private server, no more than Powell did. Kerry would be guilty of a felony if he used a private server, since the law changed shortly after Clinton left office.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    3. Re:Stazi by khallow · · Score: 1

      Very well. There's still violation of a couple of department rules concerning preservation of emails and the scheme may also illegally obstruct FOIA requests.

  21. Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illegal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And no, I don't mean that YOU think it was illegal, or some judge said was 'probably' illegal. That a Federal court found it to be illegal. It's been over 2 years so this should be easy. I'll wait.

  22. A question for ALL demographics. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    Perhaps the standing question for every demographic as we try and paint a "Like" button on Snowden himself is, what if Snowden never happened?

    Seems no one wants to think about how much worse this could have gotten. Unfortunately, apathy will ensure the inevitable, since I'm surprised the pollsters found enough people who still give a shit about this at all to form any opinion.

    1. Re:A question for ALL demographics. by superwiz · · Score: 1

      what if Snowden never happened?

      We would know exactly everything that we already know, but we wouldn't think of some guy, whose name sounds like a title of a fiction novel, when we thought about it. The building in SLC is HUGE. You can see it from space. There is no way the government had any intention of hiding it. If it did, it wouldn't be above ground. Snowden's job is to be a distraction from the topic.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  23. B.C., A.D., ... by Max_W · · Score: 1

    We may dislike or like E.Snowden. But there is no denial, there is the world Before Snowden and After Snowden. I am not sure which one is better, the same as the Dark Ages could be not better than Pax Romana. But that is what happened, and it is impossible to put toothpaste back into the tube.

    1. Re:B.C., A.D., ... by superwiz · · Score: 1

      But there is no denial, there is the world Before Snowden and After Snowden.

      Yes, there is. Hundreds of thousands of people without any kind of security clearance knew about the building in SLC and what it does. It's not even below ground. It's huge.... humangous even. The news of what it does would have been common place by now with or without Snowden.

      --
      Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  24. Re:Disgusting. by monkeyzoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Real change and progress in politics comes only as the old people die off and are replaced by the young. It's a slow process!

  25. 10-18 Cohort by __aabppq7737 · · Score: 1

    also is upset over national security revelations.

  26. Better than Congress by zwede · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The data shows Snowden has more support than the US Congress.

    1. Re:Better than Congress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The data shows Snowden has more support than the US Congress.

      This is perhaps the most relevant statistic of all here.

    2. Re:Better than Congress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ebola has more support than the US congress. Not a big feat.

    3. Re:Better than Congress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many STD's have higher approval rating than Congress

    4. Re:Better than Congress by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I suppose we should really limit the survey to people who know what the words STD and Congress even mean.

  27. Hippie Generation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought that todays oldies were the old hippie generation of the 60's and back then they were fighting the establishment.
    So what happened?

    1. Re:Hippie Generation by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

      They weren't doing anything of the sort. They were consumers of yet another corporate pre-packaged culture. Fighting the establishment, as you call it, only supports the establishment that created a profit-center around it.

    2. Re:Hippie Generation by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      It's sneakier than most people think, isn't it?

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    3. Re:Hippie Generation by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

      Since when do most people think?

  28. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's never been slower than it is today.

  29. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Im afraid at this point change will be a hard road and that the political parties will end up in the same position as the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

  30. Re: Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How did he destroy the economy? Did he write backdoors?
    Did he intercept hardware and compromise it?
    Did he wiretap American companies datacenters?
    Oooh, I get it, he told you your government was doing this for your supposed safety.
    Yeah fuck that guy, for telling me things.
    We should shoot that messenger.

  31. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You call where we're at today from where we were at 40 years ago progress? Wow. Just wow. Yeah, plenty has gotten better but much more has gotten worse.

  32. Millennial here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I dislike Edward Snowden for the same reason I dislike Jesus, Muhummad, and Jehovah: He's a religion shoved down my throat without anybody giving me a chance to make up my mind whether he's done anything good for the world or not.

    If you ask me to view the story objectively, he's a con artist who never worked for any of the places he claims to have worked for and drew the allegedly leaked "Powerpoint Slides" himself in Windows Paint. All of this is cooked up by collusion with Glenn Greenwald, a UK reporter who has no business sticking his nose in US policy in the first place, to create a paper tiger bogeyman out of the toothless US intelligence industry the likes of which even Senator McCarthy would have blushed to turn out.

    To what purpose? Revolution! Why? So Wrong Paul! What for? End the Fed, Occupy Wall Street, Tyler Durden, we are the 1%!!!

    It's this generation of filthy hippies making lots of noise and changing nothing, a Xerox copy of everything wrong with the Baby Boomers. Only at least the Boomers had better music.

    Does anybody remember when Slashdot was about tech news? I sure miss those days.

    1. Re:Millennial here by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

      >> If you ask me to view the story objectively, he's a con artist who never worked for any of the places he claims to have worked for and drew the allegedly leaked "Powerpoint Slides" himself in Windows Paint.

      Even US government confirmed he worked at those places and said that the leaks were legit and confirmed the existence of said programs.

      >> All of this is cooked up by collusion with Glenn Greenwald, a UK reporter who has no business sticking his nose in US policy in the first place, to create a paper tiger bogeyman out of the toothless US intelligence industry the likes of which even Senator McCarthy would have blushed to turn out.

      > UK reporter who has no business sticking his nose in US policy in the first place

      Wouldn't you like to decide who gets to stick his nose and where. Nixon was pretty sure that those pesky journalists shouldn't had no business to stick their nose into his affairs either. But, hey, if US government has nothing to hide, then they have nothing to fear, right? If they haven't done anything wrong, then Snowden leaking their info won't hurt them? Isn't that what they've been telling every time they've justified the dragnets in the internet?

    2. Re:Millennial here by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      I dislike Edward Snowden for the same reason I dislike Jesus, Muhummad, and Jehovah: He's a religion shoved down my throat without anybody giving me a chance to make up my mind whether he's done anything good for the world or not.

      If you ask me to view the story objectively, he's a con artist who never worked for any of the places he claims to have worked for and drew the allegedly leaked "Powerpoint Slides" himself in Windows Paint. All of this is cooked up by collusion with Glenn Greenwald, a UK reporter who has no business sticking his nose in US policy in the first place, to create a paper tiger bogeyman out of the toothless US intelligence industry the likes of which even Senator McCarthy would have blushed to turn out.

      To what purpose? Revolution! Why? So Wrong Paul! What for? End the Fed, Occupy Wall Street, Tyler Durden, we are the 1%!!!

      It's this generation of filthy hippies making lots of noise and changing nothing, a Xerox copy of everything wrong with the Baby Boomers. Only at least the Boomers had better music.

      Does anybody remember when Slashdot was about tech news? I sure miss those days.

      You're a Millennial? You do a disservice to your generation. This has to be one of the more clueless and incoherent posts I have read here in a while. And if you're a millennial, you're too young to remember what Slashdot used to be like.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  33. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And getting slower as folks live, and work, longer than ever before.

    However, it is important to note that the process is continual.

  34. Heard this before by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

    Yeah yeah the current generation is going to go and change things. Just like how all the hippies in the 1960s went into government and legalized pot. Oh no wait they didn't. They sold out harder than ever.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Heard this before by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I don't know, some states have flat-out legalized it, and more just look the other way now.

  35. Re: Cold War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's sad to see there are still 'useless idiots' like you.

  36. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Real change and progress in politics comes only as the old people die off and are replaced by the young. It's a slow process!

    Oh, how I love to read about the illusions that people have that politics will become anything other than politics, now or anytime in the future.

    It's almost as fucking funny as labeling a D better than an R, or vice versa.

    The only other change you will see is the young politicians becoming brainwashed into the system of politics. Wake the fuck up already.

  37. Re:Disgusting. by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > Real change and progress in politics comes only as the old people die off and are replaced by the young. It's a slow process!

    It seems almost as if the survey didn't include my age group, or many of my colleagues from my age group. Some of us remember the 1960's, the frauds and nonsense of political and federal abuse against Vietnam protesters, and the Nixon era abuses of federal power quite well: Distrust of "the man" was fashionable, but demonstrably justified. And we had older acquaintances who remembered the "House Committee on UnAmerican Activities" of John McCarthy, and who'd lived with state enforced segregation in schools, or with being in American concentration camps for the Nisei, or in European concentration camps for being Jewish, gay, Communist, crippled, or for struggling against the invading armies.

    Names change, and techniques of abuse change. So must the demands for liberty, and freedom.

  38. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And you think that electing a different president will make much of a difference? That's pretty cute.

  39. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wasn't here 40 years ago. ;-)
    But anyway, yes, it's better. You should read Pinker. It's not as bad as you think, grandpa.
    http://www.slate.com/articles/...

  40. Show the 64% the dick pics interview by GroeFaZ · · Score: 2

    Problem solved.

    --
    The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
  41. 64% of Americans approve of Snowden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The actual survey by KRC says majority approve of Americans, 64% of Adults 18+ who are familiar with Snowden approve of him.
    https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/snowden_poll_results.pdf

    Of American millenials (people aged 18-34) it is 60% approval.

    (The U.S. News report is not from the KRC poll, Newsmax cites US News as the source for that.)

    If you want to win the vote, you'd better stop spying on your people, because if you follow the spooks disinformation groups like JTRIG then you are a military dictatorship.

  42. Re:Disgusting. by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

    +1 =)

  43. Re:Disgusting. by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I got a newsbreak for you, kid: grandpa doesn't ever die. The next generation just BECOMES grandpa. Every generation starts out more liberal and open-minded, and ends up more conservative and bitter. I can remember when my generation was against The Man too. And one day in the future the same millennials who are protesting in Ferguson and supporting Snowden now will be bitching about the leftie protestors and voting for Republicans.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  44. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This country is so damn rotten. I can't wait for grandpa to die already.

    Note that

    Americans overall say by plurality that Snowden has done "more to hurt" U.S. national security (43 percent) than help it (20 percent).

    doesn't mean that grandpa thinks that Snowden is a terrorist or that Snowden did anything wrong.
    The problem with surveys like this is that any interpretation of them will be skewed. Without knowing how the person interpreted the question you can't say anything about the answer.

    Say that you find a wallet containing $1000 on the street. You have the option to return the wallet to the owner, keep it or keep the money and return the wallet.
    If you ask someone if they will be financially better off if they keep the wallet/money compared to if they return it then the answer will be that they are better off if they keep the money. If you ask what they think is the right thing to do you get another answer. (Hopefully.)

    Short term I can agree that Snowdens actions probably hurt national security and the revelation clearly damaged the U.S. image.
    Over a longer timespan it was the right thing to do and will in the long run help with creating a global stability based on mutual trust.
    The NSA idea of security is to strike first against the neighbor. The ideal scenario is to have a neighbor that you can ask to look after your house while you are on vacation.

  45. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm 34. I want to see this Snowden's severed head on a pike.

  46. Well by MitchDev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm 45 and I say give him a Medal of Honor, the man is better for the US than all of Congress and the President combined.

    1. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm 50 and I say we hang him high.

    2. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm 34 and I say give him the guillotine.

    3. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am 46 and agree that Edward Snowden is a hero. The polling question on security is ridiculous. No one claims he helped national security; he undoubtedly hurt it. However, Mr. Snowden championed liberty which is far more important.....

    4. Re:Well by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      You have to be a service member to get a MoH. Civilian contractors don't count.

      Medal of Freedom, though.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    5. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am in my 40s. My opinion is he is brave. Hero is maybe a stretch. The thing is most people suspected that the NSA was doing these things. We just did not realize the scope of these things. All he did was show us that yes it is true and yes it is huge. Wikileaks was already hinting at it and the Manning thing before that we had a pretty good idea it was huge. However, at this point 20/20 and all that...

      Here is the thing there will be another and another. As containing this hot mess will be impossible. The people in charge need to realize that. They need to deal with that reality. That massive hemorrhage leaks will become more regular as it is dead easy to walk in and out with billions of records on the size of a fingernail. They think if they just screen harder or do more testing they can root out the problems. The problems is these people are coming forward out of the system saying 'uh this is not right'. Perhaps the people in charge should start thinking along the lines of this is wrong but lets not do the wrong things for 'the right reasons'. We can be better than that.

      Would he get a fair trial here? Yes. Would he also go to jail? Yes. He broke *many* laws doing what he did. Was what he did the right thing? Yes. Should he be pardoned for what he did? Maybe. I do not see an incongruity with that. It why I label him brave and not a hero. A hero would be sitting in a jail cell right now serving his time and granting interviews about how he is getting the shaft and working the system to be set free. Instead he sits in Moscow taking pot shots.

      Some people also seem surprised that most people are not angry about it and actually backing up the gov. They are scared. The 24/7 news stations makes sure of it. The news stations even go as far as to make sure you are scared of each other (you dont want a dirty stupid racist uneducated republican representing YOU do you?). Instead of working together they make sure we fight each other. Just how they like it because it ensures they stay in charge and the money flows like a river (notice how both groups vote party line). To TOP it off the same groups are busy dividing us up again with 'studies' like this. Basically "hey millennials you are cool dont let the oldsters tell you what to do" and the other message "hey oldsters those millennials are busy subverting you". This study is designed to put a wedge between people. Not bring them together. The people doing the study may not even realize that is what they were doing. But it is EXACTLY what they are doing.

      The scared will turn to anger though. Mark my words. It will not be Snowden who does it though (sorry). It will be because of the dudes after him doing the same thing. At some point you will see our 'leaders' having to answer for some seriously hard questions instead of ignoring us. Like "why dont you trust us" "why are you wasting money on spying on me" "how many did your trillions spent actually catch" "is my grandma who can barely walk that big of a threat you need her meta data" "are you telling me that following the law is so onerous that it makes your job hard, please do go on /wonka" "why dont you release YOUR meta data for everyone to see and analyzed with the same methods by the NSA"

      Most of my family had a similar opinion on the guy (traitor). However, because I told them exactly what these NSA programs mean. They flipped PDQ to supporting him.

      I flip people to supporting the guy all the time. With this script.
      "why is the government interested that you are ordering a pizza."
      "they arnt"
      "but why are they monitoring it then"
      "they arnt"
      "yes they are, here are the program names, and the dude who brought it to light"
      "wait why are they doing that"

      That easy.

    6. Re:Well by ageoffri · · Score: 1
      I'm in my late 30's and I say we give him the Medal of Freedom and then hang him. He is both a hero and a traitor. He willingly and knowingly violated an oath he gave freely and definitely hurt international relations and likely cost American lives. At the same time he exposed a massive program that violates the public fundamental foundation of the United States.

      Snowden committed civil disobedience. Which means he did break the law, but it was his moral duty to do so. He still needs to be held responsible for his actions.

      --
      -- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
    7. Re:Well by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      I'm 34 and I say give him the guillotine.

      I say we give him the guillotine, and all the heads of the NSA who lied to us and to Congress about the illegal violations of the Fourth Amendment.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    8. Re:Well by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Yes, held responsible as an American Hero.

      The real traitors are in Congress and the White House

  47. When you see newsmax, stop reading. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Newsmax is like the onion of conservative "news" outlets, except it isn't supposed to be satire. It's total garbage for people too stupid to know any better. Read some of their other articles, they're way out there.

    1. Re:When you see newsmax, stop reading. by EmagGeek · · Score: 2

      Agreed. NewsMax is laughably awful. My pre-teen can pick out dozens of fallacies and examples of bias in any given NewsMax article (I often give my kids critical thinking exercises, like taking a media story and locating logical fallacies and instances of bias).

    2. Re:When you see newsmax, stop reading. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is pretty much how I feel about abc/cbs/nbc/cnn/hufpo/nytimes/latimes . When 99% of the political donations made by an organization goes to one party, you can bet they're a shill for the party. The only one close to being fair is fox news - 52%dem, 48% rep. Don't believe me, even a lib organization like HufPo says it:
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/news-corp-pac-donates-to-more-democrats_n_2775997.html

  48. Re:Disgusting. by monkeyzoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Every generation starts out more liberal and open-minded, and ends up more conservative and bitter.

    It's true. And in the meantime, issue by issue, slowly, things change. That's because even though they get more conservative as they age, they rode on the backs of their predecessors, being raised in a progressively more liberal society, giving each generation a slightly higher starting point than the one before it. In my parents' lifetime we've seen schools desegregated, interracial marriage legalized, gay marriage legalized, chemical weapons outlawed, pot decriminalized, etc etc etc.

  49. Believing the lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can chalk this up to those who still believe in the lie (which then hate snowden) and those who dont.
    The lie here is of course that the gov has your best interest in mind, and that thing people called "american dream".. turns out it really was a dream.

    1. Re:Believing the lie by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      You can chalk this up to those who still believe in the lie (which then hate snowden) and those who dont. The lie here is of course that the gov has your best interest in mind, and that thing people called "american dream".. turns out it really was a dream.

      Most people are heavily invested in the lie. They will fight to defend it and can't be unplugged.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  50. opinion poll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The poll done at the first segment of this video says a lot more aboit the American public "opinion" than any poll out there! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M

  51. Re: Cold War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're not living in a Borne movie you fucktard.

  52. What a sacrifice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My opinion about what Edward Snowden did are summed up by what his father said in August 2013 on ABC's "This Week". He said that his son “has sacrificed more than either the president of the United States or [U.S. Rep.] Peter King [who called Edward Snowden a 'traitor'] have ever in their political careers or their American lives. So how they choose to characterize him really doesn't carry that much weight with me." (Those who sided with the colonists in the American Revolution were also called traitors.)

    This survey is bunk. I'm 37 years old.

    1. Re:What a sacrifice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This oldster is old enough to remember when Peter King was shilling for the IRA. Where the hell does he get off criticizing Snowden?

      I don't buy this survey either. I remember the Soviets. I remember the Stazi. I remember the old movies where the guard would demand, "Your Papers." I remember when Americans and the American culture would ridicule countries that do the crap we do today.

      An aside: my daughter's best friend's mother grew up in the Soviet Union. We were at their house when Ed Snowden made the news. When a story about him came on the news, her family started talking to each other excitedly in Russian. They were acting like he was the Fifth Beatle.

  53. No no no no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you're saying that old people like Snowden and Millenials hate his guts?

    I don't know about the GP, but I took it as old White Republican Christians HATE Freedom and want the USA to be a Christian Theocracy with an ayatollah, I mean Minister, in charge. They will spy on us to make sure we are moral, say only Christian things, and make sure we keep the Black people down.

    During WWII, did your grandpappie tell his bosses to not trust that E=mc^2 crap because the guy who thought it up wasn't an Aryan pure blood?

    Nah, he was just a Waffen SS officer kicking your grandpappy's ass while your grandpa waited for the pinko Commie Russians to save his ass.

    ...

    Begun the hyperbole wars have.

  54. I'm not a Millenial or an American by bravecanadian · · Score: 1

    But I believe that Snowden is a hero for exposing the incredible scope that these programs have not only in America but in allied nations.

    The thing that I hate is how little change has been made since the reveal. I thought it would be torch and pitchfork time but unless something directly and immediately affects people they just don't seem to care.

    1. Re:I'm not a Millenial or an American by fortfive · · Score: 1

      I thought it would be torch and pitchfork time but unless something directly and immediately affects people they just don't seem to care.

      What you are seeing is not necessarily apathy but fear, a confluence of external influences stoking the internal fear of individuals. People are generally terrified, and to acknowledge or understand that among the perpetrators of terribles are the same institutions and authorities they have been relying upon for protection is more than they can bear.

    2. Re:I'm not a Millenial or an American by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      I thought it would be torch and pitchfork time but unless something directly and immediately affects people they just don't seem to care.

      What you are seeing is not necessarily apathy but fear, a confluence of external influences stoking the internal fear of individuals. People are generally terrified, and to acknowledge or understand that among the perpetrators of terribles are the same institutions and authorities they have been relying upon for protection is more than they can bear.

      This is an insightful point. There is a lot of psychology mixed up in this.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  55. Poor surveying, par for the course from Newsmax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Americans overall say by plurality that Snowden has done "more to hurt" U.S. national security (43 percent) than help it (20 percent).

    Snowden didn't act specifically in the interest of national security; he acted because national security is not the be-all-end-all that gets to trounce every other value we hold dear. How about what he's done to aid privacy rights, protect the limits imposed on government by the Constitution, and expose rampant disregard for the rights of Americans and foreigners alike (nevermind what our government has done to undermine our own companies ability to do business as trusted entities)?

    Any gains to national security from Snowden were roundabout, but that's okay, because it's simply NOT why he came out with the leaks in the first place, and nor is that a bad thing.

  56. Re:Disgusting. by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 1

    No one cares what an anonymous coward thinks.

    --
    There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
  57. Re: Disgusting. by robbyb20 · · Score: 1

    Why? He showed you what the American government was doing to its citizens. He should be commended for exposing these things and the ones perpetrating them should be punished.

    If your neighbor was secretly recording all your calls and reading your mail, you'd have a shit-fit! If the government does it, it's just SOP?

  58. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...old people like their lawns with nothing on them, so get off my lawn.

  59. Re:Disgusting. by danbob999 · · Score: 0

    Right, because all the youth who cheered on and voted a second term for a president who continues the trend of destroying our civil rights and handing arms to terrorist friendlies as he bombs kids in a country that we're not even at war with are really going to step up and make all the evils of grandpa go away.

    We call this strategic voting. The alternative was even worse in that regard, and had real chances to win.

  60. Re:Obvious by khallow · · Score: 2

    Now we might not get to eat too.

    I don't see the problem here. Your food is not worth my freedom.

  61. Re: Disgusting. by fafaforza · · Score: 1

    If your neighbor knew everything you bought, you'd have a shitfit, but if google or your credit card company or paypal or Amazon... Oh wait...

  62. Re:Disgusting. by jafiwam · · Score: 1

    This country is so damn rotten. I can't wait for grandpa to die already.

    Note that

    Americans overall say by plurality that Snowden has done "more to hurt" U.S. national security (43 percent) than help it (20 percent).

    doesn't mean that grandpa thinks that Snowden is a terrorist or that Snowden did anything wrong. The problem with surveys like this is that any interpretation of them will be skewed. Without knowing how the person interpreted the question you can't say anything about the answer.

    Say that you find a wallet containing $1000 on the street. You have the option to return the wallet to the owner, keep it or keep the money and return the wallet. If you ask someone if they will be financially better off if they keep the wallet/money compared to if they return it then the answer will be that they are better off if they keep the money. If you ask what they think is the right thing to do you get another answer. (Hopefully.)

    Short term I can agree that Snowdens actions probably hurt national security and the revelation clearly damaged the U.S. image. Over a longer timespan it was the right thing to do and will in the long run help with creating a global stability based on mutual trust. The NSA idea of security is to strike first against the neighbor. The ideal scenario is to have a neighbor that you can ask to look after your house while you are on vacation.

    No. The fuckers "running" the US damaged the US's image. The NSA has all kinds of support in looking at the OTHER GUY's citizens.

    The toolbags in charge turned all that around and used the government AGAINST the citizens, 99.995% of whom were doing nothing wrong and who's rights were absolutely violated.

    If Snowden didn't do what he did, somewhere, someone else, would have. And the thing is, if you aren't doing anything wrong when your shit gets revealed then you don't have a lot to worry about.

  63. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by fortfive · · Score: 1

    Are you implying that what is legal == what is right/moral/appropriate?

  64. They don't know who Snowden is by MobyDisk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    According to John Oliver most people think Edward Snowden is Julian Assange. Oliver did "man-on-the-street" style interviews in New York, asking people who Snowden was. Most people, if they knew the name at all, thought he was "the guy who sold government secrets to Wikileaks."

    The report doesn't mention this at all, so I'm not sure what to make of the statistics. If you asked people "Which color is brighter: green or brown" but they had never heard of brown before, you wouldn't be able to draw many meaningful conclusions from it. The report itself doesn't even mention what questions they asked people. There's really just no information here at all.

    1. Re:They don't know who Snowden is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right which highlights the issue that most people don't give care. They got a job, car, TV, and enough cash to go out and have fun with friends. Until that is interrupted, they won't care. Take away all their liberties but those, and they won't care. Tell them what they will do, how they will do it, what they can say, what they can't say, how they can think, and enough talking points to make them think they "know the issues"... and as long as you don't interrupt Paycheck, Car, TV and Partytime (NFL Ticket, Club, Gaming Group, CoD 54, whatever)... they won't care.

    2. Re:They don't know who Snowden is by tchdab1 · · Score: 1

      I saw that John Oliver show, and I can't agree that "most people think Snowden is Assange". However, it sure seemed, from their impromptu sampling of people in the street somewhere, that most people they talked to had either no idea or a very inaccurate idea of who Snowden was and what he did.
      If in fact most people don't like Snowden, and most people also don't really know what he did, then maybe it's just an issue of getting proper information.

  65. True but irrelevant... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    STDs have better support than Congress.

  66. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    "House Committee on UnAmerican Activities" of John McCarthy

    McCarthy was a Senator and had nothing to do with that Committee in the House, but thank you for false mud slinging there.

    Also, could you please inform me what Nixon did that was wrong? I've been trying to figure it out but haven't been able to yet. The articles of impeachment said he talked about using the IRS to target opponent, Obama has actually done it. Nixon also deleted 18 minutes of audio that was incriminating, Obama's team has deleted 3 years of Learner's emails and 30,000 of Clinton's emails that may be incriminating and has refused to turn over documents on Fast and Furious gun running.
    So I basically am trying to figure out what Nixon actually did that was wrong because none of it seems to be even questionable today. I guess its more lies like you had about McCarthy, who was looking for Russian spies in the State Department and from recently released documents he was 100% correct.

  67. Re:Disgusting. by humptheElephant · · Score: 2

    Yes, look at the young sh*** running for president in the Republican Party. How does Harvard put out so many of these A** Holes?

  68. Democracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately, Americans will get the democracy they deserve.

  69. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't have to live history to know history.
     
    And I was addressing the state of the government versus the people in the US.
     
    But I'm really starting to understand that critical thinking isn't your strong suit.

  70. It's not high school by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Popularity only matters to the high school mentality or NSA disinformation campaigns.
    Why not deal with issues and not personalities?

  71. Felon and Traitor by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

    Of course most people hate him.

    1. Re:Felon and Traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Felon and Traitor? Correct.

      Of course all of these people were undeniably traitors too:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_attempts_on_Adolf_Hitler

      It doesn't mean much on it's own.

    2. Re:Felon and Traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Snowden took the same Oath I did: "I solemnly affirm to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic"

      What the fuck did you think a "domestic enemy of the Constitution" looks like? Why would those words be in the Armed Forces Oath of Enlistment? Here's a hint: they wear expensive suits and flag lapel pins.

      Snowden is a felon, but he sure as fuck isn't a traitor.

    3. Re:Felon and Traitor by CurryCamel · · Score: 1

      Of course half the population in the USA hate him.

      FTFY.
      I challenge you to find two people outside of the USA who hate Snowden.

    4. Re:Felon and Traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strange. Such a lowish UID for a troll.

      Ok then Brett. Please elaborate on how the guy that blows the whistle on rampant and unconstitutional domestic spying is the traitor. Perhaps you've confused him with everyone responsible for putting these programs in place...

  72. Re:Disgusting. by humptheElephant · · Score: 2

    Not everyone of us old farts become more conservative. I don't mind my tax money going to help the poor, I do object it going for the defense corporate welfare state or the Fatherland Security Department.

  73. more appropriate title, perhaps by emorphien · · Score: 1

    Except For Millennials, Most Americans Don't Understand Snowden

    --


    Presently here, but not there.
  74. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Devil's advocate here. Here is my question: What good has Snowden done overall by selling out who he worked for?

    Is the world safer? Nope. ISIS and terrorist groups know the channels they were eavesdropped on, and are now that much more potent due to knowing this. There are a lot of people dead which might have been prevented.

    Is the economy any better? China has just as pervasive a spy network, and theirs is intact. The US and Europe are not perfect, but grouse about government stuff in some other countries, and you (as well as your family) will wake up in pieces in some organ bank auction. In fact, it just makes Chinese devices (which backdoors are not unheard of) to be chosen, and then used as staging grounds for attacks. The people Snowden betrayed don't trash data on my business's machines, but if a single one of those many attacks rattling my firewall from overseas addresses makes it through, I better hope my backups are good and that my liability insurance is current.

    Its been a while since Snowden. Are we better off as a whole? Nope. The real bad guys (as in the guys who want to kill us, our civilization, our history, everything) are empowered now.

  75. Re: Disgusting. by robbyb20 · · Score: 1

    Completely different. Those services are offered to me and they have direct access to them. I can chose not to use them if I want. Also, Google doesn't have access to Amazon, Amazon doesn't have access to google, att doesn't have access to google, etc. the government on the other hand has access to all.

    If the government were to offer Internet, television home, mail service for free, then it would be acceptable for them to have access. They don't, so it's not acceptable for them to be able to just scrape everything anytime they want.

  76. FUCK YOU NSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FUCK YOU NSA

  77. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tip: The old are jaded and the young lack Wisdom.

    By the time the old guard pass the torch, the young have become old and the cycle repeats itself.

  78. FEAR by Kludge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Millennials know who Snowden is because they watch the Daily Show.

    The real difference is that older people are more likely to be fearful of whatever boogey man du jour the government is pushing. When I was a little kid, my grandparents really were afraid of communists. When I was a teenager, I was told by older folks what horrible stuff marajuana was, and how it would definitely ruin your life. In 2002 I was having a discussion with an older co-worker, who was a really smart guy, and he told me that he was concerned and scared about Sadam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction.
    Today government officials tell us we are supposed to be afraid of terrorists, and that Snowden hurt their ability to fight these ubiquitous terrorists.

    I do not know why, but as people age, they watch more TV, become more fearful about the state of the world, and buy the official propaganda. I'm am trying to avoid this.

    1. Re:FEAR by Solandri · · Score: 2

      Millennials know who Snowden is because they watch the Daily Show.

      Except polling data from shortly after Snowden blew the cover disagrees. Millennials were least likely to be following news reports of government monitoring people's private communications. Heck, the very first sentence in TFS eliminates what you're saying as a factor: "according to KRC Research about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him."

      Here's the 2014 polling data on the same issue. Interestingly, the biggest shift from 2006-2014 was along Republican and Democrat lines. Republicans wildly supported government monitoring programs in 2006 while Democrats opposed it. But in 2013/2014 this was reversed. Kinda sad that people's stance on such an important issue appears to be based so much on whether or not "their guy" is in office.

      (Incidentally, I'm in my 40s and think Snowden's revelations were important enough to warrant a pardon. I'm uncomfortable at times with how much info he has revealed about our capabilities, but assign blame for that mostly on the people who decided to mis-use those capabilities to monitor the population at large. We're supposed to be the country of innocent until proven guilty, where the government keeps its nose out of what we're doing until it suspects we're doing something illegal.)

    2. Re:FEAR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The kids (and to some extent many gun-toting parents) are now afraid of "active shooters". They conduct drills for this now much in the way they used to do duck and cover drills. If you think about it, it's pretty sick.

    3. Re:FEAR by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Your coworker was probably right, as WMD (chemical weapons) were shown used against the Kurds in his lifetime, but apparently you aren't old enough to remember it. The WMD came from the US, but were not meant for that purpose but as a deterant against an invasion by Iran. Also, during this most recent war, there were chemical weapons recovered and destroyed in Iraq, but you may have missed the news as it wasn't a big deal to the military as they already knew they were there.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    4. Re:FEAR by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      More on this, many of the Democrats of the time, and shortly before agreed with the WMD problem, this wasn't some kind of lie told by the government, it was a known issue with Iraq.

      http://politics.slashdot.org/c...

      But again, you might not actually be old enough to remember this stuff from Clinton's time in the white house.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  79. Re:Disgusting. by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 1

    I can remember when my generation was against The Man too.

    No, you got it wrong. Well, you are correct in that - when we were younger - it was our generation who fought against "The Man". We did this by throwing our support behind the New Guy who would rid of us of "The Man". And thanks to us, eventually, the New Guy ousted "The Man" and all his old-fashioned notions, enacted policies we supported, and we were happy. But then the New New Guy started making noise, winning the support of the next generation, and foolishly calling our New Guy "The Man". But that's just ridiculous. Our New Guy isn't "The Man"; that's the people our parents supported!

    So you see, it is not that our generation has become any less less open-minded and rebellious; after all, we got rid of "The Man". It's just that we already put the proper people into power and can recognize these New New Guys as the loud-mouth troublemakers trying to lead our children astray for what they are.

    What Dad, you thought "The Man" was a New Guy too and you were fighting for truth 'n' justice and the American Way? Now that's just silly; obviously you are just being conservative and bitter. ;-)

  80. Re: Disgusting. by Pi1grim · · Score: 2

    Not sure if you're trolling or just, well, you know.

    > Good it means the government it was doing it's job correctly.

    On the contrary - he demonstrated that even though the government has all this resources at it's disposal, conducting unconstitutional, warrantless searches and interceptions of communications - they failed miserably at preventing recent attacks at USA (Boston marathon, anyone? Allowing a know terrorist, that even the Russians warned US about on US soil because they couldn't write his name down correctly) and further investigation brought out that NSA, FBI and other alphabet agencies were unable to provide even one single case where all this surveillance helped prevent an attack. Guess everyone was too busy spying on their girlfriend and digging up dirt on next political candidates.

    > It's illegal for a neighbor. It's entirely legal for the government.

    It's also illegal for the government, since no warrants were requested and even the process the government setup for itself was abused and disregarded. Snowden also exposed multitudes of abuses, where employees of said agencies used the power in their hands to pursue their personal agenda.

  81. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Despite internal criticism from young people without much sense of how to keep the world from collapsing into alternatives sucha as Islamism, Bolchevism or Fascism. Vietnam war, despite the high casualties, successfully stopped communism to rule Asia, and opened a door to western values, like democracy and free markets.
    Sorry folks, but society has to work hard to be free as much as everything else.

  82. Re:Disgusting. by NeoNormal · · Score: 1

    Every generation starts out more liberal and open-minded, and ends up more conservative and bitter.

    Then I must be an outlier since I'm now 67 and far more liberal than I was 50 years ago... and for the record, I think Snowden is a hero.

  83. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You, evidently, are young.
    Why?
    Because it's the younger generation that are making these horrible choices.
    That is, unless you and the rest of the young want a total and unmitigated Totalitarian Government.

  84. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Its hard to bring a case if you don't have "standing." It is also hard to prove standing when the government claims state secrets to prevent you from getting the needed documentation. The government has taken an end run around the legal system this way ensuring they never have to answer in a court of law. And you try to use that as proof that its legal? GFY.

  85. Re:Disgusting. by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 0, Troll

    [...]pot decriminalized[...]

    You make it sound like it's a good thing. I hate that stuff, and I personnaly don't think that legalizing a substance that distorts reality, that can make you a veggie and slowly destroys your ability to have fun without it is just a way to make a whole generation less intelligent than the one before.

  86. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the reason nothing is changing for the better is because we're arguing about the man who leaked the info rather than the info he leaked for fucks sake.

  87. Re:Disgusting. by JonWan · · Score: 1

    How does that saying go????

    If your not a liberal at 21 you have no heart, If your not a conservative by 40 you have no brain.

    Or something there about.

  88. Surprising by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    The same jackoffs who share everything on Facebook apparently care a lot about privacy, who would've guessed?

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  89. rich kids will sell out, just like thier parents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    money is power, power corrupts

  90. Newsmax. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Newsmax Media, commonly called Newsmax, is a conservative[1] American news media organization founded by Christopher Ruddy and based in West Palm Beach, Florida. It operates the news website Newsmax.com, publishes the Franklin Prosperity Report and Newsmax magazine, and runs a conservative cable news channel Newsmax TV.

  91. Re:Obvious by Pi1grim · · Score: 2

    >> Snowden damaged our industry.

    US government damaged your industry.

    >> Sure the leak confirmed what many of us expected. It didn't change anything though. We still have surveillance. Now we might not get to eat too.

    And who is to blame if you are too lazy to get off your sofa? If you don't get to eat - good, maybe that will motivate you to do something about all the surveillance and start earning the trust back that you squandered.

  92. Re:Disgusting. by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 2

    and from recently released documents he was 100% correct

    It's shocking exactly how easy it is to verify this fact and how little difference that has made to the narrative.

    Clearly the people who continue to verbally attack McCarthy aren't attacking him for being incorrect - they're attacking him for being right.

  93. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by Pi1grim · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, I was pretty sure that lying to Congress was illegal, but I guess I missed the part "unless you are too important to be put in prison, in which case it's totally legal", or that spying on your ex was illegal, using NSA resources.

  94. Re:Disgusting. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

    Troll much?

    Nixon was involved in a campaign of spying on political rivals and running a ring for breaking and entering, financed by campaign funds, for personal gain.

    McCarthy's witch hunts are well documented. Just because there were spies in the State Dept doesn't justify his actions.

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  95. Re:Disgusting. by akirapill · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Well better lock up the potheads and dealers and send them to the rape factories right? Surely that's better for society than decriminalization.

    a substance that distorts reality, that can make you a veggie and slowly destroys your ability to have fun without it is just a way to make a whole generation less intelligent than the one before

    You just described alcohol.

  96. At first, I liked him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Then he started releasing information that was less and less pertinent to government violating American's privacy. Every country has spying capability and they have every reason to need it. At this point, it seems to me that he's just releasing information that sabotages foreign relations.

    - A Millennial

    1. Re:At first, I liked him... by kilfarsnar · · Score: 0

      Then he started releasing information that was less and less pertinent to government violating American's privacy. Every country has spying capability and they have every reason to need it. At this point, it seems to me that he's just releasing information that sabotages foreign relations.

      - A Millennial

      He is not releasing information! The news agencies he gave it to are. So your problem is with them, not Snowden.

      Now I know whey people aren't happy with him. They think he's doing things he's not. My sig gets more on point every day...

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  97. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obama has actually done it.

    Wow, that's a new one. Usually people have to defend their favorite politician's fuckups and corruption by claiming "bbbbbut [insert predecessors name here]!!!1!" Instead, you have to reach into the future to find any other president that did what Nixon did, and then I guess you're claiming it's ok when Obama does it because clearly it was ok when Nixon did it, right?

    he was 100% correct

    So you have his list of names, and proof that all 81 of them (on the copy he provided to Sen. Tydings, or do you have the complete list of 205 that he constantly claimed he had but never produced? If so, please contact a historian to find out how much money that's worth!) was actually a Russian spy? The New American was able to take three out of nine public names and find proof, can you do better than that, without handwaving cases away as claiming that it's true that "they are known to one or more responsible persons as having been members of the Communist Party" and then vanish the remaining listees with a wave of a hand and a claim that well he never publicly said anything about them so no foul -- except for the axe of government hanging over their neck had McCarthy had his way.

  98. Re:Disgusting. by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    You really think it's changing for the better? I look at some things in the last 50 or 60 years and see improvements. Then I look at the way government has grown incredibly huge and intrudes into every part of our lives and wonder if the bad doesn't outweigh the good. For the improvements in civil rights I am happy but most of the other improvements are worrying to say the least. When I was young it seemed Vietnam would never end and now we have the anti-terror war.

  99. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This post brought to you by 'Republicans for Apathy 2016'

  100. Re:Disgusting. by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    They are attacking him for attacking people that hated America. It's now fashionable to hate America. Get with the times.

  101. *ONLY* 56 percent in the age group 18-34? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is depressing. We are doomed.

    (And no -- this is no sarcasm: I'm really sad. JFTR: I'm 58)

  102. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's entirely legal for the government

    Please feel free to list the Constitutional amendment authorizing the government to perform warrantless espionage against its own citizens.

  103. Re:What a surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately for your horrible analogy, this was a matter of government surveillance on it's own people and it's respective cover up operations. But, yeah it's just like children that don't like to take naps. DO AS YOU'RE TOLD OR BE NEUTRALIZED. Those are good options to you??

  104. Re:Disgusting. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

    Keep dreaming. However old you are, when your generation takes power, it's going to be the same old cesspool inside the beltway. But, you go ahead and dream. That's one of the good things about youth.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  105. Re:Disgusting. by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

    You just described alcohol.

    Exactly ;-)

  106. Re:Disgusting. by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can't legislate it away though. That's not the job of the government and it wastes resources in a futile effort. Everyone clearly saw what kind of hell Prohibition caused so I fail to understand why they continue to repeat that mistake. You get rid of Pot the same way you get rid of cigarettes. Change the culture and make it uncool and ostracize those who partake. It's something society has to do not the government and no matter what you do there will always be a fringe that wont stop no matter what. This insanity of using the power of government to do things that government really can't do has to stop.

  107. Re:Disgusting. by Rich0 · · Score: 1

    Well better lock up the potheads and dealers and send them to the rape factories right?

    On a tangent, the fact that we can't even control crime in prison says a great deal about the ineffectiveness of our approach to crime. Heck, I'm sure they can't even keep drugs out of prison.

  108. ...Americans familiar with Snowden... by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    If you believe the video that John Oliver posted, the problem isn't so much that Americans hate him, it is that most Americans don't really know who the hell he is, and really don't care.

  109. Re:Disgusting. by ememisya · · Score: 1

    Indeed, times are changing. It's really cheap to buy a lot of potentially dangerous technology. Personally I don't care if my data is collected as long as it's not used to influence me. That's the difference between read only and write access to your mind. I'd hate to see an all unified system of Internet data, which outputs exactly the song you are supposed to listen to based on your preferences, exactly the conversation you're supposed to hear, until you buy a Diet Coke. It becomes a system for enforcing negative and positive tagged influences, ya know like cattle prodding sheep. As far as I'm concerned nobody who hasn't directly authenticated themselves to me (said hello, and is within my field of vision) should know anything more than how I sound and what I'm wearing. But I have a feeling we'll have a Mecha-Hitler first, before it becomes bad enough for change.

  110. No doubt Snowden helped by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    He helped to reveal how negative and authoritarian most people are.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  111. Re:Disgusting. by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 1

    You can call me a troll as much as you want, it is just my opinion. I don't say it's better to send pot smokers in prison, it's just that pot smoking is very very often an introduction to other, more harmful drugs. My brother commited suicide because, among other things, of drug abuse. He started smoking pot when he was 12, got introduced to LSD, mescaline and other craps, and ended hanged with an electric extension cord... I don't say pot causes everyone to commit suicide, I just say it's one more thing that makes people go in a possibly very, very wrong way.

    That being said, that's totally off-topic.

    I think people say they don't like Snowden only because if they say they like him, they fear to end up in a dark prison after being picked up by a group of black Chevy Suburbans...

  112. Re:Disgusting. by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    [...]pot decriminalized[...]

    You make it sound like it's a good thing. I hate that stuff, and I personnaly don't think that legalizing a substance that distorts reality, that can make you a veggie and slowly destroys your ability to have fun without it is just a way to make a whole generation less intelligent than the one before.

    I could say the exact same thing about alcohol. You never see the stoned filling out a&e though.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  113. Re:Disgusting. by dave420 · · Score: 1

    Thanks, grandpa!

  114. Dual_EC_DRBG by barlevg · · Score: 1

    No matter what age you are, if you're at all tech-savvy and security-conscious, Snowden is owed your thanks for this reason alone. (Or from Wikipedia, if you prefer).

    Related: There's a widely-circulated conspiracy theory that the NSA has solved P vs. NP and broken RSA (and most other forms of) encryption. The fact that Snowden hasn't leaked any documents confirming this seems to be to be pretty strong evidence that the theory is false.

  115. Re:Disgusting. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    I was thinking of Yale, given their standard of acceptance for qualified candidates, lost village idiots can aspire to become president.

  116. Re:Disgusting. by mcfatboy93 · · Score: 2

    And thats the problem, who cares what other people do, we already have systems in place to deal with people being irresponsible in public. Substance abuse is also a problem, but we have services for people to seek help. It has nothing to with intelligence, there has always been things that degrade your ability to perceive the world around you, and rather than wasting time preventing people from doing something, inform and help them. It seems a lot more stressful to society to fight people with self-destructive behaviors than it is to help them pick up the pieces.

    --
    Its not my fault, someone put a wall in my way.
  117. Nobody likes to be woken up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone hates their alarm clock.

  118. Re:Disgusting. by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 2
    it's just that pot smoking is very very often an introduction to other, more harmful drugs

    Research done in the 60's showed that almost 100% of heroin addicts ate cornflakes for breakfast as children. You could probably repeat the research today with Kinder Eggs in place of cornflakes.

    If you are unhappy and turn to pot, it probably won't solve the problem. So you try something harder. obviously, it aint gonna work, so you take more and harder stuff, and it ends badly. If you start young, your judgement was probably worse too.

    Correlation does not imply causation.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  119. He has done more to hurt securty than help it by Jaime2 · · Score: 1

    That was the point. No one is suggesting that the US isn't doing a lot for security, they're suggesting that the US is violating privacy too much in a blind quest for security. Snowden provided proof of this. Anyone who wants more security should move to Russia. Most of us want less, but more focused security. Dragnets aren't a wise use of tax money and aren't very effective.

    1. Re:He has done more to hurt securty than help it by Daetrin · · Score: 2

      Agreed. Snowden's actions _may_ have been somewhat detrimental to our security, especially in the short term, but they did a lot to help shore up the values we _should_ be concerned about in the long run.

      "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." That Ben Franklin quote gets thrown around quite a lot, but that's just because it's so demonstrably true. It's always possible that the people in charge right now are good and honorable, but if you keep giving up liberties then sooner or later someone is going to come along who wants to abuse the system and there will be nothing left to stop them.

      And just for the record, it should be noted that he said "essential liberty". We all have to give up some liberty to live in functioning society. Unfortunately everyone has different opinions about which are the "essential" liberties and when you've crossed the line between prudence and paranoia.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  120. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    more lies

    The only other person I've seen call someone who was wrong a liar for being wrong is Pudge. Is that you Pudge, why don't you log in? Not even the government will call DNA technicians who wrongspeak on the stand under oath "liars". Can't you just go with "you are wrong and therefore your argument is wrong" like a normal human being?

  121. Gen X Here by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

    Most of us like him...if we know who he is. Sadly my generation's decline into apathy and rigid-minded thinking...because of being the original victims of the then often-theorized and feared, yet now-confirmed tactics of the surveillocracy...has begun to claim us.

  122. Re:Disgusting. by LifesABeach · · Score: 2

    Nixon lied to the world about others who would challenge his running for president. Using the same methods as Carly Fiorina; who got fired at HP for doing the same thing. The only thing these two people haven't done is write a diary on the topic.

  123. Re:Disgusting. by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Sounds like an oversimplification. Meaningful social change still happens despite what you're saying.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  124. Most american's are so blissfully ignorant by maliqua · · Score: 1

    Most american's are so blissfully ignorant they don't even really know who he is

    1. Re:Most american's are so blissfully ignorant by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      some probably thought they meant prince Harry

  125. Re: Disgusting. by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    Also, Google doesn't have access to Amazon,

    maybe perhaps, they don't. I sure would not bet on it. What does Google do? Searches, you say. Well, I never. They search, they find. Finders keepers.

    You are damn right the government has access to everything. The real lesson from Snowdon is, anything the government knows, will leak out sooner or later. (Probably sooner than you think).

    Snowdon told us what he found. The other few thousand leakers kept their traps shut so we dont know who they sold the data to.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  126. "Familiar" with Snowden by axllent · · Score: 1

    If the John Oliver show is anything to go by, it would seem that the average American actually has very little idea (if any) who Snowden actually is, or even what he did. Many seem to think he's related to Wikileaks.

  127. Re:Disgusting. by Scottingham · · Score: 1

    I take it you're also all for re-criminalizing alcohol, right?

    We gotta get back to those wonderful crime-free days of prohibition after all.

  128. Re:Disgusting. by anagama · · Score: 1

    This is a correlation thing. It is conceivable that whatever caused him to commit suicide is the same thing that caused him to use drugs and that instead of cutting his life short, the drugs made his life tolerable enough to stay in it longer.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  129. Re:Disgusting. by Maritz · · Score: 1

    I hate that stuff, and I personnaly don't think that legalizing a substance that distorts reality

    1. Why on Earth should any of us give a fuck if you hate it.

    2. If you aren't a prohibitionist (alcohol), for these same reasons, then you're a hypocrite.

    3. Feynman smoked weed, and did alright in the intelligence stakes.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  130. Re:Disgusting. by Maritz · · Score: 2

    I think it's just an oft-repeated cliche that everyone becomes more right wing as they get older. I think it's just that people become grumpy bastards as they get older, which gets confused with conservatism (on account of how conservatives are dickheads). :)

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  131. Re: Disgusting. by anagama · · Score: 1

    More to the point, Amazon or Google can't lock you up in prison or legally kill you. The government can. That's not a small difference.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  132. Is there a third option? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think Snowden may have hurt US national security a little bit. Some directly, like the poor redacting job that leaked actual information. Some indirectly, by revealing certain secret programs that are almost certainly constitutional, but extremely damaging politically and honestly bordering on warlike. Also, letting bad actors know just how careful they have to be could ruin some of those constitutional but controversial programs.

    At the same time, I think he's a hero and has potentially brightened the future of the US, helping push back a little against the police state that has been built up. The future of America, and the world, is better for what he has done, even if it has resulted in some damage in the short term.

  133. Re:Disgusting. by gatkinso · · Score: 1

    Whose basement will you live in then?

    --
    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  134. Re:Disgusting. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    I think the guy's name was Joe McCarthy, a senator while Nixon was VP. The House Un-American thing was during Nixon's presidency, watched it play out live on the TeeVee. Nixon's 'big' crime that doesn't get much attention was his sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks before and during his first campaign, with help from Kissinger, no doubt. It was unfortunate Johnson let it go. But then we all know these people can't really touch each other without bringing down the entire house of cards. 'Fast and Furious', 'Iran-Contra', the Philippines, Cambodia, Chile ... Molasses from Havana to Canada. They are all a bunch of rum-runners and slave traders. It's a gangster's paradise.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  135. Re:Disgusting. by Maritz · · Score: 1

    This liberal/conservative dichotomy seems to be precisely what keeps American politics stuck in a never ending rut.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  136. You mean to tell me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The people who gave us America in the state it is don't seem to care about the guy who told us our government is committing treason?

  137. Re:Disgusting. by BootNinja · · Score: 1

    do you really think Mitt Romney would have done anything differently with regard to the security theater? He is on record repeatedly as being in support of domestic spying as well as increased military spending. Romney would not have changed anything. the only thing that might be said in support of him is that at least he woudl've been more open about it.

  138. DOUCHE ALERT, yet again, *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "They are a generation of digital natives who don't want government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their phone calls."

    So they want their cake and eat it too.

    Douche alert.

  139. Spot on by dbIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spot on - people have forgotten that the only person jailed over the torture scandal was the man who didn't do any torture and instead blew the whistle on the "cruel and unusual" (unconstitutional by 8th amendment) practice . That was a couple of years before Snowden's leak and he's still in jail.

    1. Re:Spot on by dywolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I get told all the time by fellow vets and Marines, who theoretically swore the same oath I did, that torture and indefinite detainment are absolutely ok and not violations of the Constitution. I get called a bleeding heart liberal for thinking those things matter.

      The only upside to this thoroughly depressing situation, is I then get to say "oh, so wanting to hold to my oath, and actually follow the Constitution is what makes me a liberal? then what defines conservatism?"

      the apoplectic fits that follow are always entertaining.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    2. Re:Spot on by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I blame Rumsfeld and his "warrior" bullshit instead of recognising the value of a professional modern armed force.
      The toy soldier spooks don't help either - even as a civilian they are very clearly toy soldiers playing at being James Bond to me.

    3. Re:Spot on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hat torture and indefinite detainment are absolutely ok and not violations of the Constitution
      The bill of rights is pretty much written to mean 'dont torture people'. They need to read their history on what the English did to it people it didnt like. All with the full authority of the government.

      Torture is not OK in any reasonable form. If you torture someone to get information is that information true or false? You literally can not tell because a person under duress will say *anything*.

    4. Re:Spot on by RyoShin · · Score: 1

      I can confirm. Going into the military really opened my eyes to a lot of things, and the complete disregard for that was quite depressing. In fact, how rampant that kind of thinking was, combined with other poor aspects of my unit, drove me to literal insanity (I spent a few days in a psych ward) and changed me permanently for the worse.

      Turns out the military is chock full of little boys and girls with no moral compass who think that running and gunning make them adults.

  140. Re:Disgusting. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Yeah, except that's their strategy, not yours. They have you too scared to look for alternatives, lest the *wrong lizard* gets in. It works like a charm, for over 150 years now.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  141. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your definition of open-minded is close-minded. In essence, you've made up your mind that their point of view is wrong.

  142. Re:Disgusting. by westlake · · Score: 1
    The young do not remain young forever.

    The Millennial in particular seems to have a short attention span and perhaps more a taste for political theater than effective political action.

  143. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're assuming the march towards greater freedom is only in one direction. You might spend more time with your grandpa and asking how things use to be.

    In your lifetime, you've seen schools resegregated along class divisions, dispersal methods that are illegal per Geneva conventions being used regularly against domestic crowds, mass surveillance, and drugs that were legal little over 40 years ago starting to be decriminalized.

    Oh, and let's not forget the main champion for gay marriage was this guy

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Olson

    who was too conservative to be appointed Attorney General.

    Being conservative isn't such a bad thing if the succeeding generation are a bunch of fuckwits.

  144. Re:Disgusting. by dbIII · · Score: 1

    They are attacking him for attacking people that hated America

    Such as the US Army? Try again sunshine.
    He was a prick with no sense of morality trying to bulldoze his way to the Presidency before scandal caught up with him, and the world is lucky it did catch up with him in time.

    Think about it, if what he said was real wouldn't that make him one of the biggest traitors in US history for refusing to turn over his "lists" to law enforcement?

  145. Choice of Media? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

    Older people still get their news and information from more traditional sources; radio, TV, newspapers. Younger people tend to get their news from Internet sources which can be more varied in their viewpoint. I wonder how much that contributes to the difference in opinion. Traditional media have cast Snowden in a harsher light, and that is where older people get their opinions.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  146. Re:Disgusting. by Steve+B · · Score: 1

    You make it sound like it's a good thing. I hate that stuff, and I personnaly don't think that legalizing a substance that distorts reality, that can make you a veggie and slowly destroys your ability to have fun without it is just a way to make a whole generation less intelligent than the one before.

    Maybe so, but having a dozen Al Capones and a legion of Al Capone wannabes slinging lead willy-nilly turned out to be a greater evil.

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  147. Not all over 55 dislike Snowden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm 67, and I think Snowden is a hero and should be treated as such. He has show us just how egregious our government has become in violating the US Constitution that it is SWORN to protect and defend! These are grounds for impeachment and prosecution. Let's put these assholes in prison where they belong!

  148. Re: Disgusting. by robbyb20 · · Score: 1

    At this point, i think they are just trolling. Im sorry for responding to an AC, should have known...

  149. Re: Disgusting. by shortscruffydave · · Score: 1

    He should be executed for treason.

    Snowden needs a very slow and very painful death.

    Whilst I don't agree that it necessarily needs to be slow and painful, I agree with your sentiment.

  150. You weren't meant to serve. by morphotomy · · Score: 1

    When will we throw off the chains of the older generation? Are we their slaves?

  151. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While I agree with much of what you said, SENATOR McCarthy wasn't on the HOUSE committee you mention. Maybe you're thinking of Government Operations Committee or the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations?

  152. Polls gauge media propganda success by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not the case here yet there is a curious feedback loop at play when polling is often commissioned by the same media that would have provided most or all information used by respondents to media polls.

    I would love to see a poll with age groupings asking the question: "Do you believe the media intentionally invokes hyperbole and fear mongering to enhance ratings and make money?"

  153. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My grandpa is alive. He's a great guy, 85, veteran, ex pilot, gun collector. Plays big band and jazz music (mostly brass) to his old hearts content in retirement.

    He (greatest generation, millennials, myself (Gen X), and just about everyone else I've met his age agree on a lot of things. (Its suprising. Go talk to your elders!) What we all agree most on is that boomers are fucked up. (His words!)

    Something fucked up bad in those decades. How did those that pioneered freedom and social reform turn so quickly to the monstrous depravity of the Reagan era? Why are bitter boomers so eager to fuck over everyone now?

    Wake up, kids. There's an enemy, and the enemy is your parents.

  154. Re:Disgusting. by danbob999 · · Score: 1

    Strategic voting is unfortunately a necessity in the US voting system. The solution is to change the voting system, not to tell people to stop voting strategically.

  155. Re:Disgusting. by unrtst · · Score: 1

    courtequdotbiz version 1:

    [...]pot decriminalized[...]

    You make it sound like it's a good thing.

    courtequdotbiz version 2:

    I don't say it's better to send pot smokers in prison...

    What are you saying then? Perhaps "decriminalized" and "legalized" got mixed up?

    IMO, all drugs should be legalized and regulated. I feel the benefits of the latter part out weight the negative effects of the former. IE. you'll know what you're taking, its potency, it's strain info and effects, etc etc etc. In addition, rather than the government (and, by extension, all tax payers) spending LOADS of money trying to fight the war on drugs, they'll be able to make loads of money on taxing those drugs. It's not a perfect solution (ex. see cigarettes), but at least there's an influx of cash coming from the same product that will eventually cost the people money to support those users in recovery/sickness/etc (I dislike how tobacco tax is currently utilized, but it could be used as a wash and even a money maker). Legalizing all drugs would also shut down almost all of the related violent crime from dealers and distributors, and stop the flow of cash to countries we don't really want to support.

    The biggest issue I see with legalizing drugs is how we deal with those that are currently incarcerated for possession or use. We could pretend that it's ok to think, "the rules changed; they broke the rules before; their breaking of the rules still happened and so they should see out their punishment". I have trouble with that, but I don't know how we'd handle adjusting the sentencing of hundreds of thousands of people.

    [mods... feel free to offtopic this]

  156. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. by sls1j · · Score: 1

    Personally I have **ZERO** trust in these sorts of surveys. The people that answer these surveys are self selecting, not a random selection. It only includes people that don't have caller ID, or that are willing to answer the phone from an unknown number, then those that are willing to take the 10 minutes to take the survey. Since this it is not a random selection of the general US public no inferences on the general US public can be made.

  157. Re: Disgusting. by Steve+B · · Score: 1

    Is the world safer?

    Yes. The revelations, and public reactions to them (the real public reaction as expressed in the marketplace, not whatever jaw-flapping occurs in response to some inane telemarkepollster call) have led to security improvements. The fact that it has also led to the entertaining spectacle of useless bureaucrats running around pissing and moaning and whining and generally making fools of themselves in public is just a bonus.

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  158. What isn't obvious to most... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    While I can certainly understand the reasoning behind what Mr Snowden was trying to accomplish, but what many people don't seem to understand is that when a security breach like this happens real people actually die. No, you will not read about it in the papers, because those people are not connected to the actual security breach, and may or may not even officially exist. Internal emails and documents carry with them information such as times and places that can be used pinpoint those unlucky individuals that you will now never even even have the chance to get to know, now that its all out there. That's the actual reality on the ground.
    .

    If you are going to idolize Snowden for what he did, at least take a moment to realize that other people paid a price to protect your right to complain about the NSA. Ironic? Yes it is. Those people were doing what they do to protect you from things you may never even know about. Sometimes no news is good news, but in this specific case its not necessarily so.

  159. Millenials? by tehcyder · · Score: 1
    Why is that a sensible name for the 18-34 age group?

    When I first saw it, I assumed that it meant people born in or after 2000.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  160. Re:Obvious by Steve+B · · Score: 1

    No one trusts our software now. This is horrible for our economy.

    Well, then, you need to throw out the bastards in government who caused that to happen with their bad policies.

    Now we might not get to eat too.

    Well, then, you need to do it quickly.

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  161. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by Steve+B · · Score: 1

    Indeed. As to the latterr, the raw misogyny of people who dismiss the LOVEINT revelations as trivial make the Gamergate cretins look like Betty Friedan.

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  162. That's not what they tried to make it say by tomhath · · Score: 2

    Roughly two thirds of the people surveyed in the US have an opinion (or even recognize the name). You need to drill into the original survey to find that number.

    Of the people who have an opinion, in the usual demographic breakouts only the 18 to 34 y/o group tends to have a positive opinion of him.

  163. Re:What a surprise by Steve+B · · Score: 1

    Children don't like rules and think that the ends always justify the means.

    Time to clean up the Romper Room in Washington DC and put adults in charge.

    --
    /. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
  164. Re:40yo me thinks he's definitely a traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    51 yo me thinks you're definitely a traitor.

  165. Re:Disgusting. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    The solution is to change the voting system...

    Well, if you can get people to vote for this 'change', you may have killed more than one bird, no?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  166. Re:What a surprise by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

    Adults respect the rule of Law and civilized society and know that what Snowden did was wrong.

    Children don't like rules and think that the ends always justify the means.

    Color me completely shocked.

    Adults like those in the NSA? They're the ones ignoring the Constitution and lying to Congress about it. Why don't you hold them to the same standard?

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  167. Re:Disgusting. by gwolf · · Score: 1

    Real change and progress in politics comes only as the old people die off and are replaced by the young. It's a slow process!

    You know... There were great hopes raised in my parents' day, when the hippies threatened the anachronic values of a dying, obsolete social construct.

    Young people are always more likely to embrace change, difference, to agree that the risk to be different is worth it, that the old corrupt system is not worth pursuing anymore. Then they grow up. Then, the old hippies become the dwellers of old age care homes, and are as reactionary as their grandparents were.

  168. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

    And no, I don't mean that YOU think it was illegal, or some judge said was 'probably' illegal. That a Federal court found it to be illegal. It's been over 2 years so this should be easy. I'll wait.

    There's this. And this. And there's also this. Yep that was easy. I hope you didn't have to wait too long.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  169. Re:Disgusting. by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    Be more specific ?

    Which young shit do you think the nominee will be against the old entitled bitch ?

  170. Re:Disgusting. by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    and from recently released documents he was 100% correct

    It's shocking exactly how easy it is to verify this fact and how little difference that has made to the narrative.

    Clearly the people who continue to verbally attack McCarthy aren't attacking him for being incorrect - they're attacking him for being right.

    Funny thing Nixon had the same problem with Alger Hiss.

  171. Re:Cold War by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

    Anyone who grew up during the cold war will see Snowden for the "useful idiot" he is. There were plenty of them back in the 70's and 80's. We used to call them traitors.

    I grew up during the Cold War and I have no idea what you're talking about.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  172. So True the millenials pay to be spied on by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    Between Facebook, Google, and Iphone based location services the NSA didn't have to do very much.

  173. which is why by superwiz · · Score: 1

    I still think he is an active NSA operative. By making it a story about himself, he diverted attention of a HUGE percentage of the population away from the program he exposed and towards himself. His "coming out" might as well have been code-named "operation lightening rod."

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  174. Speaking for all of us in the 35-44 range by russotto · · Score: 1

    We actually overwhelmingly like what Snowden did. Many of us just dislike him because he looks like a hipster.
    (source: IJMIU)

  175. Is this ironic? by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 2

    Is it just me or does this seem ironic?
    Generally it seems Millenials(the ones I know and work with) are more accepting of surveillance by the government and corporations.

    Gen X and the Boomers have more of the 20th century leftover attitude that Americans have a right to privacy, and that the blood and treasure spent to keep the "World Safe for Democracy" by the "Greatest Generation", etc, The Constitution, etc, means we have those rights.

    You would think Millenials would be more apathetic to the whole Snowden thing(which has been my experience talking to people about it). The attitude I've encountered is the usual, "I'm just on FB posting videos, etc, playing games, etc", "I'm not doing anything wrong", "why should I care?"

    My experience is that Gen X and the Boomers are much more paranoid and concerned about rights, etc;

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
    1. Re:Is this ironic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it's almost like grouping people together based solely when they were born doesn't really provide that much information. It's almost like location, family, and other things might also play a part as well.

      Wait, OK what if like, those Millenials are, like, you know, individuals with distinct personalities and not just clones of each other? Nah, thats probably just the weed talking.

    2. Re:Is this ironic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "natives who don't want government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their phone calls."

      Instead want facebook, google, twitter, spotify, and yahoo to instead.

      You think about it, the Internet has gone from a P2P system to a centralized system (the "cloud" is a myth if everyone needs to access AWS for example).

      And I agree, the younger group can care less with the proof above.

  176. Re:Obvious by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

    No one trusts our software now.

    You trusted it before Snowden?
    Wow...

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  177. Re:Disgusting. by aralin · · Score: 1

    You talk about those abuses like if they ever stopped. They just got better at hiding them...

    --
    If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
  178. IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by HBI · · Score: 5, Interesting

    46 here. I work in the military-industrial complex. Snowden did us all a signal service.

    Think about the limitations of the general public in perceiving this. Do you really think that people who think Kim Kardashian is interesting and like the NFL are really going to give this any serious thought? They'll parrot the line the government throws out.

    The interesting part of the poll is that even a tiny percentage think that Snowden did the right thing. Not enough to give me much hope, but enough to surprise me.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    1. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      46 here. I work in the military-industrial complex. Snowden did us all a signal service.

      A soldier's first duty is to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic". This supersedes all other orders. Snowden merely did what any soldier must.

      The important question isn't whether we will try Snowden, but whether we will try Keith Alexander, the walking embodiment of a "domestic enemy of the Constitution"

    2. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 4, Informative

      Do you really think that people who think Kim Kardashian is interesting and like the NFL are really going to give this any serious thought?

      Whoa . . . don't conflate the enjoyment of professional sports with contrived, superficial, reality TV bullshit. There are plenty of us geeks out there who follow both the NFL closely (the draft is a week from tonight and I'm hoping my team lands Bud Dupree!) *and* are interested and aware enough to carefully analyze what Snowden did and form our own opinions. :-)

    3. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by HBI · · Score: 1

      I hate sports, despite my father's best efforts. The cultural surround makes me recoil in disgust, more than anything else. Also, I think the very small percentage of people who enjoy it who aren't functionally retarded aren't representative of anything about the activity.

      I happen to enjoy playing D&D on weekends with a group of adult geeks, but that doesn't make me automatically upset when someone refers to the activity as juvenile and a sausage fest replete with misogyny. My game happens not to be, but most are.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    4. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Is there anything Snowden said that you didn't already know the US government was up to? Or that you would not expect the American who was interested in what he said didn't already know the US government did?

      I mean, most Americans probably didn't think about it, but most Americans probably don't know who Snowden is.

      All I really see Snowden doing was verifying a lot of assumed to exist programs. I don't see the value.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    5. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by HBI · · Score: 2

      So having internal confirmation by a known figure is not useful?

      Why do we need whistleblowers then? You seem to be contending that internal witnesses of corruption aren't a necessary thing.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    6. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I don't see the value in confirmation. If I want to sleep with my best friend's wife (or wife's best friend), who does it help to confirm that. I deny it, everyone wants to believe the denial, and life goes on.

      Unless you think that for the first time in the history of all nations, heads of state deserve privacy from other countries (in the case of spying on Germany). Or that the numerous reports of the US monitoring all "international" conversations and then having telecoms route local calls through overseas were somehow insufficient.

      I honestly may have missed something, but I have asked a lot of people (on /., and elsewhere) what he said that surprised you. Please enlighten me, cause if there's more going on, I do want to know.

      Internal witnesses are important for proving things in a court, or discovering something you didn't know about (where in both cases "credible" is more important than "internal".) In this case, since I honestly don't think I learned anything new, I fail to see any value. And I would think I'm as far on the "government shouldn't spy on me" side as is possible, short of arguing the government should be disbanded to make double-plus-sure.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    7. Re: IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thinking that your spouse might be having an affair and receiving visual proof of it are two very different things... Edward Snowden will go down in history as a great man. In fact, in the court of global public opinion, where most people are not poisoned by the American media, he already is! Let's just hope his sacrifice was not in vain!

    8. Re:IQ, Standard deviations, and propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      63 here, involved with the military all my life.
      Not conflation - all media what is the circuses part of what was referred to as "bread and circuses" in the context of the Roman empire (food stamps and other government subsistence is the bread part).
      Snowden did humanity a great service because he was willing to tell the truth - especially when he knew he was taking is livelihood and his life in his hands. There is evidence that indicates they've been using compartmentalization to keep us anti-Constitutionally in the dark regarding extremely nefarious activity for longer than most, if not all, of our lives.(Governments are puppets as well and most of us don't really know who's pulling the strings.)

  179. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by superwiz · · Score: 1

    Collecting call meta data is technically indistinguishable from peeking at someone's phone bill (it just views the information in electronic, rather than paper, format). Opening someone's phone bill (without a warrant) is illegal. Just because the court said "unc" and followed it with "le", you are arguing that the court hasn't said "uncle." That's a pretty weak argument.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  180. 52 and voting down, with a reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think that Snowden had the opportunity to do good. In fact, he did good to a point. But when you are exposing these problems, there is a fine line between not exposing enough to get people to take action and too much to where you end up helping those that are against you. I think that he crossed that line. Note to future whistleblowers (protect yourself, expose a little, wait for action... wash rinse and repeat as necessary). Don't get anxious. Wait for the response. People move much faster than societies do. You have to wait on society to catch up. Or... spend the rest of your life in a foreign country that might not be your first choice for a place to live. :-\

    It's a shame really. Just a little less information and I would have supported him fully. As it is, I think that he should be prosecuted, but don't think that he'd get a fair trial. I believe that he even thought (at the time or even still) that he was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, that's not enough.

  181. Age And Opinions by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    "The broad support for Edward Snowden among Millennials around the world should be a message to democratic countries that change is coming," says Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

    The nimrod from the ACLU doesn't take into account that peoples opinions change as they get older, and typically becoming more conservative.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  182. Newsmax? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You realize that Newsmax is the National Inquirer for conservatives right?

  183. Re:Disgusting. by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Yes, I'll trade '75 for '15 any day. If' you'd prefer the mid-70's you're a moron.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  184. It's all about THEIR stuff. by bussdriver · · Score: 1

    More accurately, people generally get more selfish as they age. Because they acquire, adapt and invest within the existing system - it's all really about THEIR STUFF.

    People who do well with the status quo almost universally become biased to whatever maintains what they have, their stuff. It's a matter of self interest and most will put down other people at the hint of a threat, which clearly makes them selfish. Sure, they have excuses which rationalize their positions and behaviors - I've not met an overtly selfish person over 8 who doesn't cover it up.

    The middle classes are quite self-centered with a "conservative" bias too but not as much as the group above them; the lower classes are not a great deal better but because they have less stuff to lose, their demographic is more open to alternative thinking. Still, the lower classes mostly are the same because they want to find ways to get more stuff. Once they move up the economic class system, most will "change" but in reality they never changed their motives, only the ones who really thought different and meant it stay the same.

  185. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed. I tend to think of it like a controls system. Liberals drive social change and conservatives dampen it. You definitely need both to some degree, otherwise you get into a feedback loop and the system spins out of control.

    Which is not to excuse the crazies on either side. I'm saying a spectrum of opinions is healthy. What isn't healthy is the two-party polarization into Us vs Them mentality we seem to have a lot of in the US where no one can ever possibly admit if the other side has a valid point. Then everyone loses.

  186. Worst enemy of freedom: Happy slaves by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Seems there is nothing left of the spirit that once founded the US....

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  187. Re:Disgusting. by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Nixon lied to the world about others who would challenge his running for president. Using the same methods as Carly Fiorina; who got fired at HP for doing the same thing. The only thing these two people haven't done is write a diary on the topic.

    What??? Pullllleeese link to where Carly did anything similar to Nixon. Simple lying doesn't count. What "methods" are you claiming? Did she hire a goon squad to break into the competition's offices? I'm not asking you to like what she did or her politics, but let's get a grip on reality here.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  188. WTF? by MT.LinuxUsr · · Score: 0

    Well, that's a shocker. Here in America, the press tells us that the Millennials don't care about anything.

    I'm 59 yrs. old., college educated, IQ > 160. Snowden would get my vote for president before the shit-heads that are currently running. They're all more of the same! Especially Hillary Clinton. She's a common street crook in politicians clothing. Guilty of more than she's not -- guaranteed! Supporting her demonstrates a total lack of any logic/common-sense -- and I'm a democrat!

    Snowden has helped to disclose the TOTALLY ILLEGAL surveillance of American(s)/foreign interests by our own worthless fucking Communist government officials. The same officials that don't have to abide by ANY U.S. laws.

  189. Re:Disgusting. by geekmux · · Score: 1

    "House Committee on UnAmerican Activities" of John McCarthy

    McCarthy was a Senator and had nothing to do with that Committee in the House, but thank you for false mud slinging there.

    Also, could you please inform me what Nixon did that was wrong? I've been trying to figure it out but haven't been able to yet. The articles of impeachment said he talked about using the IRS to target opponent, Obama has actually done it. Nixon also deleted 18 minutes of audio that was incriminating, Obama's team has deleted 3 years of Learner's emails and 30,000 of Clinton's emails that may be incriminating and has refused to turn over documents on Fast and Furious gun running. So I basically am trying to figure out what Nixon actually did that was wrong because none of it seems to be even questionable today. I guess its more lies like you had about McCarthy, who was looking for Russian spies in the State Department and from recently released documents he was 100% correct.

    What is wrong about your comparisons to Nixon is the fact that you think Obama is suddenly right.

    He's not. It's just that the American People don't give a shit anymore.

    And I mean that.

    And as a result, you have a government that gets more and more arrogant and in-your-face with every passing day, as if to say "Yeah, we broke the law. What the fuck are you gonna do about it? You're just a voter, until we decide to label you a terrorist for speaking out."

  190. Excuse me: NewsMaxx? by whitroth · · Score: 1

    Why is this a report on slashdot? NewsMaxx is an extreme right-wing flakes and kooks site, for folks who think Faux News is liberal.

                                mark "Boomer, and I'd be happy to shake Snowdon's hand in appreciation for what he did".

  191. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of us are young and jaded!

  192. News says justice is about to be served by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't see what the big deal is - he stole classified information from a US spy agency, lied to them about it, stored it improperly in his home, and delivered it to a reporter. And for that, the prosecution has recommended two years' probation and a fine, which the court will probably approve. This is about to be a done deal and we can stop freaking out about it.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/david-petraeus-to-be-sentenced-in-leak-investigation.html

    Oh, sorry, we're talking about Snowden, not Petraeus. I regret the error.

  193. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, Kinder Eggs are banned in the US for having small toys which could be swallowed by children with negligent parents. You need to buy them from someone who imports them and doesn't care (they are around).

    That said, I love Kinder Eggs (spent 6 years in Germany as a kid). Also discovered that most Americans don't know what kindergarten means...

  194. 1 in 3 Americans has favorable view of Snowden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Headline fixed.

    Here's some copy: "Despite or perhaps because of efforts to brand him a traitor and harmful to national security, over one third of Americans polled have a favorable view of Edward Snowden. When considering just so-called generation millenials, this rises to well over half."

  195. Re:Disgusting. by rowls · · Score: 1

    It is a very slow process because while those young people are waiting around the old people to die, they have to live their lives, and by the time those old folks are finally dead, the young people aren't so young anymore and their opinions have changed so as to be not so different from the old folks of their youth. Life is funny that way.

  196. Lazy by bussdriver · · Score: 1

    If you don't raise your children, something else in their environment will raise them for you

    They have little right to complain about the results of giving up their responsibilities or blindly supporting a society which takes away most their time working to support their children.

    Not that everybody should home school their children to be selfish pricks who are unable to contribute positively to society... learning civics and ethics are dead already in the schools... as if we don't have enough psychopathy today.

    Civics and Ethics are as religion neutral and scientific as one can get; needed far more today given the LACK of similar teachings at home or even at many churches (or the ones I attended as a kid which were largely caught up in dogmatic tripe.)

  197. Hold it! What were the actual questions? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Was the question maybe "Has Snowden done "more to hurt" U.S. national security than help it"?

    In this case, even someone who agrees with his actions has to answer yes. He probably did actually hurt national security. But the benefit for the liberty and transparency for every person on the planet, and especially in the US, outweighs that easily.

    Screw that survey.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  198. Hey Editors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This Snowden thing seems like a good poll topic to survey the diverse /. crowd with and see if it supports or challenges the results of the poll in the topic here, don't you think? Maybe work with someone to construct the questions to get a more nuanced response rather than being dopey and making silly responses up that are poorly constructed?

    Basically, why not start doing something useful to the community with the polls rather than serving the Dice overlords or your personal interests.

  199. Who owns newsmax these days? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I seem to remember that it used to belong to Sun Myung Moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Myung_Moon

    1. Re:Who owns newsmax these days? by whitroth · · Score: 1

      Moon? Oh, the convicted and served time in prison foreign agent? The one who thinks he is the Second Coming?

                          mark

  200. Of the sample used for this article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many of the individuals in this group practice "oral manipulation of various appendages(located in the midsection), in exchange for a substance similar to Cocaine and/or its derivatives"
    For those whom are blinded by the fact that Snowden has helped us to uncover a great DIS-JUSTICE in our society. His statements have been "vetted" by some of the highest in the land.

    If snowden is a Fruad, then why the need for certain types of security when dealing with him? Look at the documentaries, look at the facts, pull your heads out of any and all orifices. For any body whom believes there is a crime has, or is being perpetrated take a moment to review the material at hand. Instead of making a statement based on what others are saying, think for your selves, do not be the "lemmings" the govt is hoping for..

    please people wake up

  201. Re:Disgusting. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    "Pretexting" is such a nasty word. Carl lost his job because of it. Running for President is not like a piece of fruit one barters for, if one is considering a long term form of success.
    "China and America are two countries separated by a body of water" - Bush Jr.

  202. Snowden did us(a) a favor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The US Government is making bad economic choices by implementing draconian intelligence policy's.
    Its already hard to invest in the USA due to a terrible healthcare system and comparatively high taxes. What we did having going for us is a stable and reasonable government, that generally advocates rights of the individual and corparation, this is now in jeopardy.

    The faster we realize this and clean things up the better for all of us.

  203. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh come off it with your pretentious holier-than-thou idiocy. Strategic voting is a lamentable necessity in America. As long as any country uses a first past the post electoral system that system will inevitably gravitate towards a two party state. Electoral reform is sorely needed but until we have such reform votes for third parties are naÃve at best. All it does is allow the greater of two evils slide in to power. At the moment the best option to get real reform in this country is to participate in primaries and work to ensure the least worst candidates end up on the ballot. Maybe then we'll finally get real electoral reform and people will finally be able to vote their conscience. Until then though the best policy is strategic and defensive voting.

  204. scumbag by paul+mafinga · · Score: 1

    When the Raptor pilots had concerns about the F-22 they carefully followed the whistleblower laws. This guy couldn't figure it out.

    1. Re:scumbag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nobody cares what known fascist sympathizer "paul mafinga" thinks.

  205. Re: Disgusting. by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    You still won't get any of that without people to vote for it. You can relax. It's a simple fact

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  206. If only it had involved guns by ByTor-2112 · · Score: 1

    If Snowden had revealed that the government was storing meta-data about who went to gun shows, browsed for guns, or anything else related to guns, he would be a national hero.

  207. My take away from this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My takeaway from this is that the older you get the more brainwashed you get by the ruling class and the system.

  208. Re:Disgusting. by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

    I am with you.
     
    I really feel that by making drugs illegal and taboo we make it

    1. 1. Difficult for people to talk about it and thereby make the cycle harder to break and
    2. 2. More appealing to rebellious youth who want to buck the system.

    These points alone play a big part in setting some people on to a dark path.

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  209. Illuminated by John Oliver by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm actually not surprised by these results but John Oliver illuminated the bias. Snowden and Julian Assange were in the news at the same time. When asked, a surprising amount of people mistook Snowden for Assange and people are really targeting the wrong computer geek...

  210. Maybe they approve because they are more familiar by ninerdelta · · Score: 1

    It would be interesting to see if more millennials as opposed to the general population actually know what Snowden did. In the interview John Oliver did recently, it seemed like people were largely ignorant of his (Snowden's) whistle blowing.

  211. I'm 37 and I don't like him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I appreciate his statements about exposing what really goes on - what I imagine most of us already assumed goes on

    but he's still ranting for years and I kind of wish he'd just shut up already

    my life is no better or worse because of him, I'm just tired of hearing his updates

    personally I also think he's a fraud/shill

  212. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the reason nothing is changing for the better is because we're arguing about the man who leaked the info rather than the info he leaked for fucks sake.

    This. A million times this!

  213. The difference between a patriot and an anarchist by DomNF15 · · Score: 1

    Is which side wins the ensuing battle/war. The British probably had an equally poor opinion of the originators of the Declaration of Independence. Is it any surprise that Snowden's name has an overall negative public connotation when all the media regarding him is itself negative?

  214. I nickname him Snow-dumb by peter303 · · Score: 1

    For his naivity about the the consequences of his actions. Hasn't improved since his exile.

  215. Snowden and Manning are heroes by kimvette · · Score: 1

    I remember the cold war, the very real fear of nuclear war. X generation here, and I think Snowden and Manning are heroes, because they obeyed the supreme law of the land and blew the whistle on unlawful government activities. In Manning's case, s/he refused to obey illegal orders - she was damned if she did, violating the law and her oath, and violating orders if she didn't. She chose to do the right thing and is paying a high price for it right now. Snowden - well, he's a dead man walking right now, unfortunately, but he also did the right thing.

    People of my generation and older are generally too trusting of the government, because they view the situation in black-and-white terms, us vs. them, Democracy[sic] vs. commies.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  216. National Security????? by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    Oh, you mean how the NSA goes after financial intel for Wall Streeters and the ultra-rich?

    If that's your definition, and Petrobas and others are your enemy category, than one might suppose he did, but if you stand by the citizenry, one day you might actually comprehend who your real enemy is (assuming you aren't a chatbot or some type of poseur).

  217. And then there are those 7 billion... by SlovakWakko · · Score: 1

    ...of non-Americans, of whom about 98% of those who know Snowden also like him. After all, he did help us a lot by showing us that the NSA most likely holds all our politicians by the... tapped cell phones ;) Suddenly many strange decisions made by our voted representatives in the last 15 years make much more sense.

  218. Re: Disgusting. by Coren22 · · Score: 2

    Can you show me anywhere where it was said that the NSA was recording phone calls, reading mail (even email) or any other kind of surveillance on US citizens (except the metadata program, which was already ended by the time of the revelation according to the gov).

    Every program I have seen exposed by Snowden was foreign surveillance, which is kind of sort of what we ask the NSA to do...

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  219. Brainwashing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seems like brainwashing the public works pretty well, just like it works in russia.

  220. Why like Snowden? Why bother? by grumpyman · · Score: 1

    There's no point of argument like or not like Snowden as an individual. All that matters is the information revealed.

  221. Confusing Snowden with what he did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no need to personally like or dislike Snowden to approve of the information he released. I'm glad he did it, but personally, he seems like a douche and I don't like him.

  222. Rule of law fail by tepples · · Score: 1

    When judges fail to appreciate what the first Congress meant by "unreasonable search", where is the rule of law? And when lawsuits against government officials are dismissed because evidence of law violations falls under the "State Secrets Privilege", where is the rule of law?

  223. Yes, the government has done something illegal by tepples · · Score: 1

    and yet you find exactly ZERO laws broken on the government side.

    Replies to Anonymous Coward's comment point out laws that the government broke.

  224. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate that stuff

    What better way to determine public policy than by trying to foist our own personal preferences on the rest of society, eh?

  225. GOP are elephant holes by tepples · · Score: 1

    Republicans aren't ass holes; they're elephant holes. But it's not like there's a big difference anymore.

  226. What goes around comes around... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "They are a generation of digital natives who don't want government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their phone calls."

    They are also a generation that has exploited tech to cheat, get ahead and take short cuts. As millennials get older, some will realize this and we'll be back to old times in a jiffy--to make things fair again.

    ACLU better tread likely or they'll get what they may are not asking for.

  227. Again, misses the point by davydagger · · Score: 1
    Once again, the article is about snowden, not what he revealed. Can we get back to talking about the real issues, and that is the contents of what snowden revealed, because most of it is pretty damning.

    the problem with this country is we don't talk about issues, we talk about people, and who is and isn't a good person, and we don't talk about policy, and what is just policy. Half of it is celebrity culture, and how public relations and the press games reputation by pushing your emotional buttons.

    They also use this in dogwhistle politics. For example, niether party is really ended the wars, stopping the mass surviallence, or ending the security state or warrantless wiretaps, but they use the "good guy/bad guy" image to get Americans to swallow otherwise bad policy because it comes from a source they are conditioned to accept.

    But again, who cares about snowden, lets instead talk about what he revealed, because he has some pretty hard proof, and its some pretty glaring contradictions between US policy and rhetoric.

  228. Baby boomers want the NSA watching them by thunderclap · · Score: 1

    Among those aged 35-44, some 34 percent have positive attitudes toward him. For the 45-54 age cohort, the figure is 28 percent, and it drops to 26 percent among Americans over age 55, These are a generation of baby boomers and gen xers who WANT government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their phone calls and are angry that a man revealed this to them by sacrificing his lifestyle, freedom of movement and social life in an effort to expose the dirty dealing and corrupt hypocrisy the government they still believe serves them is doing.
    If you are angry about what Snowden did, or think he damaged our security or think he is a traitor, then you WANT stingray, you want govt intrusions and more and more control via the government. Like John Oliver had Snowden himself explain, you WANT your 'Dick pics' exposed on the internet.
    There is NO middle ground here. If the NSA actually served the citizens then Snowden would have needed to do nothing. He is no worse a person that ther founding fathers who are traitors to King George and the british crown.

  229. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You have also got it wrong. The answer is actually much simpler. There are basically two types of people. Poor people who want change (ie they are progressives) and rich people who want to stay rich (ie they are conservatives). Only about 50% of people live to age 70. Can you guess which 50%?

  230. dementia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that is a strong sign of dementia among americans.

  231. BECAUSE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He is disliked because most of us know he is actually still working for the NSA. His job was to fool the world into believing that the NSA had more capability than they actually do.

    He is a traitor, because he is helping the NSA.

  232. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who's = who is. Plug that into the sentence. Does it make sense, moron?

  233. Fuck THEM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cool, well hopefully that 64 percent dies the fuck off as quickly as possible.

  234. Blame it on the NEWS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We have a news media that defines news as parroting the government's talking points in order to maintain their 'access'. Why is anyone surprised? Where is the FAIR AND BALANCED COVERAGE/ANALYSIS that explains the underlying Constitutional issues and how the security state left largely unchecked by the weakest congressional oversight threatens our freedoms?

    The media is only interested in the Snowden story in so far as its sensationalism is able to drive its 24 hour news cycle. The fact is that the American public knows more about the latest Kardashian stunt of the week than about how our elected leaders are bought and sold by corporations and the wealthiest amongst us. You know it's bad when a guy from Florida feels that the only way he can bring attention to the root causes of the dysfunction of government is to fly his gyrocopter into the heart of the most protected airspace in the country.

    EVEN THEN, the story was more about the security breach than the subject he tried to bring attention to.

    OUR MEDIA SUCKS. No one should be surprised that so many in the public have a negative view of Edward Snowden. I was arguing with a Snowden hater and asked the individual why they hated Snowden and like a robot they said because he broke the law and made America less safe. I told this individual that if they had any idea of the kind of abuses that the government, armed with information on citizens of this nation has done in the past (J. Edgar Hoover's FBI/COINTELPRO comes to mind), it wouldn't be even slightly debatable whether Snowden was a hero or not.

    Woodward and Bernstein published classified information, MLK broke the law and went to jail on more than one occasion. Our Constitution, the rights it guarantees and the limitations it places upon the government is our FOUNDING CONTRACT that secures the CONSENT of the governed in this country. It's what makes the Government accountable to Joe American and not the other way around.

    Needless to say: I'm a Snowden Supporter...

  235. Re:Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a substance that distorts reality, that can make you a veggie and slowly destroys your ability to have fun without it

    Right, because we certainly don't have anything like that already available for legal consumption.

  236. Re:Name one program Snowden disclosed thats illega by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

    Yeah, that was easy.

  237. which Americans were interviewed, I wonder? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the same ones that support gun control schemes, oppose vaccination, accept illegal immigration, get their health advice from daytime television and believe that "minimum wage" should be $20 an hour or more?

    the same "public" that is found whenever some political cause wants to claim a "mandate" because without playing the "everyone else is doing it" game no one actually buys into the program?

    Especially when the same "group" supports Manning yet finds excuses to hate on Snowden.

    I see a "grassroots" CYA thing going on. Protect the Administration, no matter the cost-no embarassments allowed!

  238. Re:Disgusting. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    This liberal/conservative dichotomy seems to be precisely what keeps American politics stuck in a never ending rut.

    I bet you think a woman can be partially pregnant.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  239. Re:Disgusting. by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Okay, well you totally lost me on that response. I see nothing related to the previous discussion. Have a nice day.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  240. Re:Disgusting. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    What Nixon did wrong was (1) alienate the press (2) get caught doing wrong. Foul play that would have been swept under the rug for Kennedy or Clinton was publicized ad nauseam by Nixon's rabid detractors.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  241. Re:What a surprise by riverat1 · · Score: 1

    Adults respect the rule of Law and civilized society and know that what Snowden did was wrong.

    That's kind of a contradictory statement if you believe the US Constitution's (the basis of our Law) privacy provisions proscribe what the NSA has been doing.

  242. Re: Disgusting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least the right wing Republicans of the future will be the lefty commie bastards of today.

  243. Hero? A stupid one... by alienzed · · Score: 1

    I think he tried to do the right thing, but I sincerely believe that he did the wrong thing. Truth is relative and anyone who didn't always know that the SPY agency was SPYING probably shouldn't know it now either. Oh and he went to Russia, then told world leaders their phones were tapped. As if the US was the only one doing any of this... If you want to change the system, you have to play by the existing rules, otherwise you are just a cheater.

    --
    Never say never. Ah!! I did it again!
  244. Re: Disgusting. by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    NSA, FBI and other alphabet agencies were unable to provide even one single case where all this surveillance helped prevent an attack.

    You haven't been paying attention. Every few weeks there's a story about an arrest of a group of bomb makers or other terrorists - usually with a batch of defective chemicals supplied by a gov't planted agent.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  245. Here you go buddy...more gold stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I view millennials as the counter cultural equivalent of the hippies in the 1960s. Just wait until they have kids, a mortgage, and get in their 40s. They will experience a mid life crisis and realize that the world is a dangerous place and in the end it is about survival of the fittest. They - like Snowden - will realize that have been wrong and misguided.

    In the mean time - lets give you guys a sheet of gold stars to boost your fragile egos.

  246. View of a guy from China by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1

    I'm 64 and I like Snowden.
    I don't know if he's a snob, an asshat, a jerk or a nice guy and I don't care
    What he did was a great service to the population and citizenry of the USA

    I love my country, America, but I fear my Government

    Age-wise I am not that far from you

    I am not an American by birth, I got it through the naturalization process

    I do love America - the country, but the government? The more anti constitutional things it does the more I am fearful of it

    I came from China, and I guess I do not need to remind you guys the reputation of the CCP which controls China --- and the real sad thing is that the government of the United States of America is fast approaching the level of notoriety of the CCP government of China

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  247. Re:Disgusting. by monkeyzoo · · Score: 1

    [...]pot decriminalized[...]

    You make it sound like it's a good thing.

    I am

  248. Re:conservatives vs liberals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're just a really reactive teenager that hasn't yet had time to understand that politics is nuanced and that the one-dimensional spectrum of left-right is inadequate for anything other than grouping voters into two major parties, but your UID suggests you're actually just that willfully ignorant and likely antisocial, as not many teenagers have 6 digit uid's...

    Failure to recognize the idiocy inherent in (and indeed, fostered by) both parties indicates a pretty blind outlook. Don't forget, Congress was controlled by the Democrats when the USA-PATRIOT Act passed, that Obama has invaded more countries than Bush in the same time in office, and that it is often the red states that pass policies getting the government's filthy hands off your private life (see: Nevada and Colorado). Not all conservatives are created equal, nor all liberals, but you seem to be happy providing a left wing equivalent to a Fox News vegetable.

  249. Inaccurate survey i brtI'm a baby boomer and they by janengoldberg · · Score: 1

    I think Snowden is terrific, smart, great sense of humor. And had nothing to gain materially for his actions in june, 2013. No one made a bust of Obama and his anti-whistleblower activists and placed it in Brooklyn

  250. Slashdot poll by Racerdude · · Score: 1

    We should make this a Slashdot poll:
    1. I like Snowden
    2. I dislike Snowden

  251. hero by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm 56 and I I think he's a hero.
    But Im not American so my opinion doesn't count.

  252. Re: Disgusting. by robbyb20 · · Score: 1

    But the internet told me they were! I keed, I keed. Im going to take off my tin foil hat and retreat from posting for a bit. I think the new diet and breakup has made me a little argumentative lately.

  253. Re:Disgusting. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    McCarthy was not 100% correct. He was partly correct.

    He attempted to ruin people's lives because he suspected they were Communist, whether or not they were, or whether that made any difference (a Communist in the State Department was a danger, a Communist in Hollywood was harmless). He lied from the start about the extent of the danger. Had he gone after Communists in dangerous places, and made sure they were Communists, the story on him would have been much different.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  254. Re:Disgusting. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    How much of that was from smoking pot, and how much from the fact that pot was illegal? If you have to break the law to indulge in a mostly harmless activity, you're going to lose respect for the law and those who tell you your activity is extremely harmful, and you're going to be dealing with criminals frequently.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  255. Consider the source... by SmokeyRobot · · Score: 1

    Well that makes sense considering that Newsmax is a right leaning news organization aimed at the Baby Boomer generation. They sure wouldn't like to hear that he is viewed favorably by the majority of the country.

  256. Resrens like this generation thinks there smarter by Xman73x · · Score: 0

    Are you people saying that Xer's are stupid and we don't like Snowden? Your off once again!ðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðY were not stupid as you think we are!ðY

  257. this is trashing the generation before Y! Pathetic by Xman73x · · Score: 0

    Are you people saying that Xer's are stupid and we don't like Snowden? Your off once again!ðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðYðY'ZðY

  258. Snowden is an American Hero! by kattisch · · Score: 1

    Just goes to show how credible (or in this case the lack thereof) polling groups can be. We don't know what the question was which produced such an answer but you can make any poll reflect any outcome you want by the way you word the question. If it is a conclusion from a polling it is worthy of being ignored and discounted. Here's a poll results--everyone in my age group (55+) that I know think Snowden is an American HERO. My results are every bit as solid as the results in the article. Polls are only meant to persuade the undecided into agreeing with the results someone wanted. Cheeze!

  259. Re: So⦠by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can spy on some of the people all of the time and you can spy on all on the people some of the time, but you can't get away with making everybody like being spied on all of the timeâ"

  260. Re:Disgusting. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    Every generation starts out more liberal and open-minded, and ends up more conservative and bitter.

    I hear this weird disconnect every time talk about pot use comes up. I'll always hear people from the 60s talking about how it was ok when they used pot, but how it's terrible/awful/dangerous if young people use it today. There is always some desperate attempt to cling to some BS argument, ANY argument to show how they're right and not hypocritical. Frequently the most compelling was "the marijuana was normal when I as young, but it's so much stronger and more potent today! It's much more dangerous." This is, of course, all nonsense, a way for them to have their cake and eat it too.

  261. Re:Disgusting. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    Oh, and let's not forget the main champion for gay marriage was this guy

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    One of many strong champions. I'm not sure why you don't think he can be a man who has principles. That he would partner with Boies only reinforces the theme of greater freedom over time.

  262. Re:Disgusting. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    and from recently released documents he was 100% correct

    It's shocking exactly how easy it is to verify this fact and how little difference that has made to the narrative.

    Clearly the people who continue to verbally attack McCarthy aren't attacking him for being incorrect - they're attacking him for being right.

    Because it was witch hunting. No one is saying that witches/communists didn't exist. But he used that as a cover for using the federal government to attack political enemies and plenty of people who just got in the way.

  263. I'm 51 by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

    Hate my generation.

  264. Patriotism by NewYork · · Score: 1

    Patriotism is a favorite device of persons in India with something to sell; A true patriot honors all nations;

  265. idiots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Definitely inaccurate and a generalization.

    I am not a millennial. I hate millennials. Granted I'm only 29, I'm not one of "Them." Regardless, I think to say that only the youngest generation lacks some weird, misguided sense of "Patriotism" in that they are the only ones who don't hate Snowden is inaccurate.Not to mention this whole thing is absurdity anyway. If you dislike Snowden, you're an idiot, or, you're a diehard brainwashed sheep.

    There's no legitimate reason to dislike this man. He is a hero. He risked his life and his entire future with 100% guarantee that he lost it, to try to expose how much is going on under US citizens noses that we don't know about and should.

  266. The key is in the news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shockingly... it would seem that the same group of Americans who are more likely to watch Fox News are the same group of people who are more likely to dislike Snowden.