Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
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.
The data shows Snowden has more support than the US Congress.
How is willingly losing your hot fiance, 200k/yr job, etc. "put[ting] themself first" ?
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.