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Edward Snowden: 'The People Are Still Powerless, But Now They're Aware' (theguardian.com)
Edward Snowden has no regrets
five years on from leaking the biggest cache of top-secret documents in history. He is wanted by the US. He is in exile in Russia. But he is satisfied with the way his revelations of mass surveillance have rocked governments, intelligence agencies and major internet companies. From a report Snowden, weighing up the changes, said some privacy campaigners had expressed disappointment with how things have developed, but he did not share it. "People say nothing has changed: that there is still mass surveillance. That is not how you measure change. Look back before 2013 and look at what has happened since. Everything changed."
The most important change, he said, was public awareness. "The government and corporate sector preyed on our ignorance. But now we know. People are aware now. People are still powerless to stop it but we are trying. The revelations made the fight more even."
The most important change, he said, was public awareness. "The government and corporate sector preyed on our ignorance. But now we know. People are aware now. People are still powerless to stop it but we are trying. The revelations made the fight more even."
Narrator: "Unable to bare the thought of his fellow Americans being spied on by their government, our hero releases the top secret documents and flees to... *pauses... squints at script...* Russia."
That is the sound of inevitability... o wait maybe i confused inevitability with futility...
Snowden gave up everything for a bunch of morons that for the most part don't give a shit. They deserve whatever comes next.
to not know, and continue to be blissfully ignorant, or suffer the pain of knowing, and being unable to do anything about it?
There are things you can't change, things that only our legislators can affect, but you can still take back a measure of your privacy moving forward -- you just have to be willing to do what it takes to make that happen.
We are swarmed with real and fake information all the time. Real information may be used out of context, Fake information can be made to sound realistic, and if it fits into your particular world view it makes a lost of sense.
We are no better off knowing the truth, when it is mixed in a bunch of lies, except for the fact we are now anxious about it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The real agents are the people who expose Russian agents for what they are? Sure...
I'll bet you think it's treasonous for me to point out that Trump has blatantly committed treason in his election campaign and his protecting and rewarding Russia for attacking our country.
"Privacy is Treason." Straight out of 1984 right there.
Sorry, but nothing has really changed. In fact it's probably worse now.
Users used to be unaware, and they didn't give a shit about security or privacy. Now they're fully aware, and they STILL don't give a shit about security or privacy. It's willful ignorance.
And what people are truly powerless over, are their own internet addictions and peer pressure. It's FAR more important to overshare and generally be the internet narcissist society expects you to be than it is to recognize and respect any risk involved with that activity.
Did I miss something?
I know that Trump colluded with the Russian government's attacks on our country, and continues to serve and protect the Vladimir Putin.
You do? Amazing! Everyone will want to see this!
Where's the evidence you have of this? Can I see it?
Trump Jr's treason-meeting at was explicityly to collude with the Russian government's attacks on our country.
Donald Trump's campaign manager is under house arrest likely headed to prison for witness tampering during his house arrest.
You can pretend not to notice the mountains of evidence of treason laid out before us, but Donald Trump's campaign manager is wearing an ankle bracelet and will soon be wearing a jumpsuit in prison.
You Sir, are a frog on the boil.
Trump isn't smart enough to collude with himself, and Russian intel wouldn't want an operative like him, because it jeopardize the operation.
Russian interference in the election, for which evidence is limited to a modest budget of shit-tier memes, generally trends more anti-Clinton than pro-Trump, but overall, it's just low-level trolling. Thus, people who keep repeating "Trump is a traitor" ad nauseum are the real useful idiots.
And for the record, my stance is that the greatest insult to American democracy was the lack of an option on the ballot to send both Clinton and Trump on a rocket headed towards the sun.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
To be fair, your chances of sleeping with a supermodel greatly increase when you win the lottery. Not saying it's a 90% chance, but it is much higher than the 0.0000000000000000001% chance I have right now.
Never being able to go home. Right, Snowden?
With that said, Snowden deserves his exile and more. Whatever your arguments are the fact remains that Snowden is in fact a low life thief and a traitor.
If you're wife were cheating on you and giving her lover money from your checking account, setting up cameras in your office at work to spy on you, and sending your kids to Nazi school instead of homeschooling them like you thought...
Would you be pissed off and ready to hang the person that told you? Get a grip man. Snowden did the right thing, and the only thing he could do. He's more American than 99% of our politicians.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
There is good evidence in either direction at this point.
Stop arguing as though these two things are mutually exclusive. It's just as possible that he's helping Putin on purpose because he's incompetent, rather than in spite of it.
being aware and powerless isn't much different than having power, yet being unaware.
The end result is the same.
Nothing changes.
We don't know that for sure.
+1 funny
Would you be pissed off and ready to hang the person that told you?
No. I would get pissed off and ready to hang the fuckwit after he copied all of my personal documents, banking/financial info, browsing history, chat histories, and home-made porn collection, dumped a bunch of it randomly on the internet, and then fucked off and offered it to my neighbour in exchange for getting to hide in his house.
The AC with day jobs that have security clearances can only use the AC part of sites like this.
To put their side of the collect it all story.
The color of law fiction they got told that makes decades of illegal domestic spying feel legal.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The Snowden bashers are all hired trolls. All decent red blooded Americans admire national hero Snowden, and demand he be awarded the Medal of Freedom he deserves.
"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Comrade Snowden has spoken and thus it is true!!
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
He didn't say that so you are a lying sack of shit. He rightly pointed out that Snowden is a traitor in the pay of Russians who have been interfering in U.S. politics and using the information they got from Snowden to do it.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
The police can't punish everyone, though, so if you go along with it, chances are very good that you can maintain a reasonable quality of life, even in a police state. Speak out, and your risks of being noticed by the machine go up exponentially.
Currying favor with the machine is the best defense when you no longer control the machine. This si much easier to do when we convince ourselves that the machine is righteous and the dissenters are evil. Such notions become a very easy sell to the people when aquiesense is inevitable anyway. We all live in varying degrees of delusion. It's how we survive.
it's the illusional of control
The average IQ of the USA is 98. Those with IQ's > 120 represent single digit percentages of the population.
True critical or abstract thinking begins around 110.
Roughly 2/3rds of Americans are under this. They far outnumber the votes of those who think critically. How do people without critical thinking learn? Via repetition. This is why candidates buy ads, and run them frequently.
Democracy is idiot rule. Okay, that's a bit extreme, it's actually rule by those of average intelligence. That's kind of scrary in and of itself, though, as history has proven repeatedly that masses cannot effectively govern themselves, and their ability to choose governors is not significantly better. Some of the worst actors have been popularly elected.
Wait, wait, RECORD high labor non-participation rates and this is "Good times"?
Not in any reality anywhere
The problem is, that 70% is the solid majority.
Ruling elites love Democracy because it's easily corruptable, and they can effortly dilute the votes of the smartest citizens by out-voting them 2-1 with citizens of average and below cognition.
Democracy gives the most intelligent segments of society quite a bit less say in governance than it does those of average and below average intellect.
That "the masses" accept abuse is nothing new. They always have. We've just sold the smart people on the notion that Democracy somehow prevents such abuse, when the truth is, it does no such thing. Evil people will always find it trivial to manipulate the average majority, and once they've done so, those in the higher tiers who care are powerless to do anything. You know, because "the people had their say at the ballot box".
Smart-than-average people are forced to accept what the bottom 70% will accept, and they're usually quite upset at having to do so.
It's not a new problem.