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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.
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.
This country is so damn rotten. I can't wait for grandpa to die already.
Bill Clinton
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
It's a nutjob neocon superchristian propaganda rag. More reputable news sources exist (yes, even Fox News is fine for stories like this).
Thanks.
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.
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.
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.
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.).
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.
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.
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.
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).
So...don't trust anyone over 30?
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.
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.
Was any attempt made to correlate people's views with the propaganda^w news sources that they viewed/read the most?
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.'"
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.
When we know that Americans don't know what he did and who he is, how this junk may have any value?
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.'"
The group without jobs likes the guy that destroyed the security software industry in the U.S. No one trusts our software now. This is horrible for our economy.
We haven't seen the full effect yet because it takes time for companies overseas to get a foothold.
Snowden damaged our 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
also is upset over national security revelations.
The data shows Snowden has more support than the US Congress.
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?
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.
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
Problem solved.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
conservatives (retards) vs liberals (normals) - what else is new.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
...old people like their lawns with nothing on them, so get off my lawn.
Are you implying that what is legal == what is right/moral/appropriate?
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.
STDs have better support than Congress.
Stockholm syndrome much? Statism is a cult. Look up "Statism: The Most Dangerous Religion" on Youtube.
Unfortunately, Americans will get the democracy they deserve.
Popularity only matters to the high school mentality or NSA disinformation campaigns.
Why not deal with issues and not personalities?
Of course most people hate him.
Except For Millennials, Most Americans Don't Understand Snowden
Presently here, but not there.
FUCK YOU NSA
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.
He could have and should have at mere whistle-blowing about illegal spying on US citizens in the US. If he had stopped there, I'd probably consider him a hero.
But instead he got over-zealous and deliberately revealed state secrets.
Bam. Treason. Game over.
I think he will be convicted of treason if he ever steps foot in the US again.
Minimum sentence = life in federal prison. More likely sentence = execution.
However, I suspect he will receive a presidential pardon (or at least commuted death sentence) if he hurries his ass up and gets back while there's still a Democrat in the White House.
[Disclaimer: I'm not in favor of any capital punishment, even for convicted traitors.]
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.
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
money is power, power corrupts
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.
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.
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
This is depressing. We are doomed.
(And no -- this is no sarcasm: I'm really sad. JFTR: I'm 58)
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.
He helped to reveal how negative and authoritarian most people are.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
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.
Everyone hates their alarm clock.
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.
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.
Most american's are so blissfully ignorant they don't even really know who he is
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.
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.
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?
"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.
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.
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)
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!
When will we throw off the chains of the older generation? Are we their slaves?
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?"
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.
.
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.
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
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.
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.
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)
Between Facebook, Google, and Iphone based location services the NSA didn't have to do very much.
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.
We actually overwhelmingly like what Snowden did. Many of us just dislike him because he looks like a hipster.
(source: IJMIU)
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
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.
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.
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.
"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
You realize that Newsmax is the National Inquirer for conservatives right?
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.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
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.
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.
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".
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.
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."
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.)
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
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.
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.
I seem to remember that it used to belong to Sun Myung Moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Myung_Moon
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
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.
When the Raptor pilots had concerns about the F-22 they carefully followed the whistleblower laws. This guy couldn't figure it out.
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.
My takeaway from this is that the older you get the more brainwashed you get by the ruling class and the system.
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...
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.
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
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?
For his naivity about the the consequences of his actions. Hasn't improved since his exile.
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
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).
...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.
Seems like brainwashing the public works pretty well, just like it works in russia.
There's no point of argument like or not like Snowden as an individual. All that matters is the information revealed.
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.
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?
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.
Republicans aren't ass holes; they're elephant holes. But it's not like there's a big difference anymore.
"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.
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.
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.
that is a strong sign of dementia among americans.
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.
Cool, well hopefully that 64 percent dies the fuck off as quickly as possible.
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...
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.
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!
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!
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.
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 !
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
We should make this a Slashdot poll:
1. I like Snowden
2. I dislike Snowden
I'm 56 and I I think he's a hero.
But Im not American so my opinion doesn't count.
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.
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
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
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!
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"
Hate my generation.
Patriotism is a favorite device of persons in India with something to sell; A true patriot honors all nations;
Casteism
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.
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.