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Snowden: 'Governments Can Reduce Our Dignity To That Of Tagged Animals' (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader writes: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden writes a report on The Guardian explaining why leaking information about wrongdoing is a vital act of resistance. "One of the challenges of being a whistleblower is living with the knowledge that people continue to sit, just as you did, at those desks, in that unit, throughout the agency; who see what you saw and comply in silence, without resistance or complaint," Snowden writes. "They learn to live not just with untruths but with unnecessary untruths, dangerous untruths, corrosive untruths. It is a double tragedy: what begins as a survival strategy ends with the compromise of the human being it sought to preserve and the diminishing of the democracy meant to justify the sacrifice." He goes on to explain the importance and significance of leaks, how not all leaks are alike, nor are their makers, and how our connected devices come into play in the post-9/11 period. Snowden writes, "By preying on the modern necessity to stay connected, governments can reduce our dignity to something like that of tagged animals, the primary difference being that we paid for the tags and they are in our pockets."
What? Government abuses the power it is given to control and oppress its own citizens?
CLEARLY WE NEED TO GIVE THE GOVERNMENT EVEN MORE POWER OVER OUR LIVES! #FeelTheBern
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I think it already had reduced beyond dignity. Just visualize airport lines.
You mean invade a sovereign country that is hosting him? That will no go over well with the international community, many of whom are starting to tire of America's shit. The only traitors are those who are opposing "We the people", those who are violating their oath to protect America and her citizens from threats both foreign and domestic. He exposed wrong doings when others remained silent. He is a hero and frankly more need to do as he does. Don't like it? Tough. What have you done for humanity?
Support your local school shooter, give them your firearms.
tl;dr: Edward "LookAtMeI'mAnAttentionWhoreHidingInRussia" Snowden is at it again, and you won't believe what he said this time!
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He held a clearance. To do so, it was required that he make several legally-binding promises. Among them, he would have promised (in no particular order):
There is no wiggle room.
He did report through appropriate channels and in the correct order. The reason he had to go through the other appropriate channel was because the first one turned out to be a traitor. Snowden would never have leaked the information if the first channel had followed the law.
And no, there is no wiggle room, the constitution goes above the others. Negotiating away the constitution or suppressing it would make you a traitor.
So you think exposing and revealing state secrets willy-nilly harms no-one and is totally desirable?
The same goes for any other crime. Exposing crimes harms the criminals and is undesirable to them. Systematic and wide-spread violations of the Constitution of the United States by government employees who are paid by the people to uphold the Constitution they have sworn an oath on is highly criminal, and we are talking about organized crime on a large scale here.
So why are you mad at those crimes on the payroll of the American people being exposed? Are you a participant?