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NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

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Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#61
post #54
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does letting everyone know the government is listening jeopardize National Security? If anything, I expect it would increase National Security, as everyone will toe the line more and more for fear of getting caught.

Those who are concerned about privacy should first protest against Google/Facebook/Yahoo etc for selling your private data to advertisers. PRSIM project was in place to catch potential terrorists and thanks to Snowden for blowing it up and now good luck catching the bad guys. I have nothing to worry about or hide because I'm not doing anything bad and I don't understand why everyone is so mad about privacy all of a s…

The government couldn't keep thousands of diplomatic cables, videos, the War logs and now the existence of PRISM confidential. What makes you so confident that someone who as the same access has this guy did isn't selling your data to companies for his own personal benefit?

If you think this guy is dangerous, how can you be OK with the NSA collecting all this data about you, when they trust dangerous people with it?

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#62
post #3

46 points in fifteen minutes and not a single comment? This NSA issue is seeming less and less like a discussion topic and more like a echo chamber, despite the rampant lack of information on all sides of the event.

This whole story has had a baffling effect on HN. For the last few days 4/5ths of everything on the frontpage has been related to the NSA. I'm not saying that its not an important issue, but Christ do we need to have every bloggers opinion upvoted to the top? Even Apple was only able to make the top of front page for a short time. This is HN and Apple's latest news is not the top story. It's like I'm on a completely…

You're not wrong that it doesn't feel the same his week, but is that a bad thing? Seems to me that even from a technology business perspective this is vastly more important than any iOS revelation could possibly be as fun as it might be to read about. I find the constant NSA discussion depressing and exhausting but not baffling. Its very relevant to hn IMO.

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#63
post #10

This applies today more than ever. Up vote if you agree. First they came for the conservatives, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a conservative. Then they came for the tea party member, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a tea party member. Then they came for the Libertarians, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a libertarian. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.…

At least post the original and not some paranoid screed.

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#65
post #60

I wish everyone would wait more than 24 hours before drawing such concrete conclusions. We barely know that much of the story here yet, and I imagine a lot more of it is going to come out in the next few days (such as his true location, more about his career in the IC, etc.). In the past there have been dissidents like this where it turned out years later that a foreign intelligence service was behind them the whole…

Will you believe ANYTHING the news puts about him? I won't. With a very few exceptions (Guardian) the MSM are suspect. It's all state driven misinformation. The US gov's "trash his reputation machine" is in overdrive.

That's irrelevant. Given the scale of the issue, there is almost no way we could confidently come to any conclusion about him in such a short amount of time. You're free to ignore input from the MSM, but you still need to allow time for more facts to surface.

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#66
post #60

I wish everyone would wait more than 24 hours before drawing such concrete conclusions. We barely know that much of the story here yet, and I imagine a lot more of it is going to come out in the next few days (such as his true location, more about his career in the IC, etc.). In the past there have been dissidents like this where it turned out years later that a foreign intelligence service was behind them the whole…

Will you believe ANYTHING the news puts about him? I won't. With a very few exceptions (Guardian) the MSM are suspect. It's all state driven misinformation. The US gov's "trash his reputation machine" is in overdrive.

The Guardian has the the distinct edge of having exclusive access to the few actual facts in this case. That is a clear advantage, no doubt about that. But make no mistake, the Guardian has a substantial arsenal of axes to grind.

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#67
post #3

46 points in fifteen minutes and not a single comment? This NSA issue is seeming less and less like a discussion topic and more like a echo chamber, despite the rampant lack of information on all sides of the event.

I read the first page of the lawsuit, determined it looked liked a valid filing and when I Googled Larry Elliot I learned that he is known as the founder and the former chairman of Judicial Watch, a public interest and non-profit law firm, Klayman was a prosecutor in the United States Justice Department and was on the trial team that succeeded in breaking up the telephone monopoly of AT&T - Hence this post was 24kt gold.

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are three crowds on hn/reddit: Those who vote, those who comment, and those who actually read the article!

Make that four crowds: Those who are waiting for the comment pages to come back to life.

... and those who use the comments to proxy article quality before reading.

Five. There are five crowds of people on reddit/HN. The commenters, the voters, the readers, the waiters, and the lazy. And also the submitters. Six. There six crowds of people on reddit/HN! And... ;-)

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#69
I know one thing and that is that I would not play the role of whistleblower and it is exactly because I do not care how much the US is spying as being someone from another country. So, I can only conclude that this makes him a patriot from my point of view, because why would he risk his job, etc.!?

Re: NSA leaker is a patriot, not a traitor

#70
post #60

I wish everyone would wait more than 24 hours before drawing such concrete conclusions. We barely know that much of the story here yet, and I imagine a lot more of it is going to come out in the next few days (such as his true location, more about his career in the IC, etc.). In the past there have been dissidents like this where it turned out years later that a foreign intelligence service was behind them the whole…

Will you believe ANYTHING the news puts about him? I won't. With a very few exceptions (Guardian) the MSM are suspect. It's all state driven misinformation. The US gov's "trash his reputation machine" is in overdrive.

Be careful - what you are swearing to is refusing to hear anything that would sway your preconceived notions of what has happened here.
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