Edward Snowden in Hindsight
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Edward Snowden in Hindsight
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Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#2I simply see both acts as completely divorced from each other i.e.: revealing the spying and being silent post Ukrainian invasion. First is an act of bravery, second an act of cowardice and well, those are the choices he made and they aren't in contradiction of each other. He was brave once and now he's not, and the truly important thing is what he revealed more so than our opinion of his character.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#3>> Snowden has chosen the path of silent compliance with Russian law, and in doing so traded in the same free speech he has so hypocritically called America to task for over the years. One cannot act the part of hero and claim to have convictions, only to then run away from every form of accountability.
A big part of freedom of speech is the freedom no to do so. I'm not going to fault someone for going silent. I will fault them for being publicly active and not speaking out but I would never criticize someone for withdrawing from public life, nor would I read anything into that withdrawal. Sometimes people just want to move on. There is no obligation to explain such actions... at least not until you come back.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#4> Ideals are meaningless without sacrifice.
He sacrificed his life in Hawaii with his then-girlfriend. He didn't know that she would want to follow him. He didn't know if he would have a home again, and where it would be, but he was going in exile (and has remained so).
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#5I simply see both acts as completely divorced from each other i.e.: revealing the spying and being silent post Ukrainian invasion. First is an act of bravery, second an act of cowardice and well, those are the choices he made and they aren't in contradiction of each other. He was brave once and now he's not, and the truly important thing is what he revealed more so than our opinion of his character.
Snowden has shown that he is intelligent, very cautious and plans long in advance. I don't know his situation in Russia, but it must have been pretty precarious already. Maybe he's planning to leave Russia, but I don't know what his options are.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#6> During his time in Russia, we have seen the whistleblower system work effectively here at home. The details of Trump’s Ukraine call, and the subsequent freezing of security aid seems rather relevant today. More impressively so, this same whistleblower system Snowden criticized worked against a sitting president having no capacity for restraint.
It's just laughable to believe that "the system works" because certain leaks and whistleblowing was permitted in order to harm Donald Trump. Makes me wonder if the author even knows there is such a thing as "the intelligence community" with its own autonomy, imperatives, and loyalties which are not necessarily in lockstep with every sitting POTUS.
It's actually a bit distressing to see that after everything which has happened after the past several decades, someone could still come to the conclusion that Snowden would have been treated the same as Mr. X.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#7Absolutely nutty to me how many bloggers who (apparently) liked Snowden before have done a complete 180 after Russia attacked Ukraine. Look, basically nothing about Snowden's personal situation is changed, except that he probably has even less incentive to speak out.
Why now? It really comes off as an attempt to be seen as supporting $CURRENT_THING instead of a genuine ideological disagreement with Snowden.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#8This is fairly transparent slander, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has a “company” relative.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#9I mean if you're Edward Snowden, you get to make one enemy. Yeah he could keep on playing hero and make more and more enemies until he is in jail, but aren't there people in the FSB or something better poised to play that role? Edward Snowden would just be a martyr for its own sake in this case.
Re: Edward Snowden in Hindsight
#10Anyone living in Russia with the level of international profile Snowden has, isn’t speaking out, so I don’t think pragmatism makes you a coward.
Anyone who says so hasn’t been in those shoes!