I listened to that interview, and purposefully didn't include my take on it above because I didn't want my crazier belief to distract from my crazy belief. Let's dive into the deep end of my personal crazypool: he came off very politicany to me, even down to the purposeful missteps. People trust a speaker more when the speaker says something a
little bit offensive, probably because it's a sign that the person will speak their mind regardless of what anybody else thinks. That moment where he said that no judge would refuse to sign a warrant for "Abu Jihad" or "Boris Baddenov" looked just like this to me -- it's offensive, but immediately juxtaposes an offensive faux-Muslim name with an offensive faux-Russian name, and it's weirdly still socially acceptable to make fun of Russians this way while the Muslim statement is not socially acceptable, so any in-depth discussion of the faux pas can get bogged down unpacking the distinction between these two and making the Muslim characiture seem more understandable in context. The bit where he keeps pulling Rogan away from specific lines of questioning in the beginning, not to avoid them but instead to tell his whole life story leading up to the leaks, seemed like the sort of thing an aspiring politician would do when presented with a microphone and a long format. He acted like his first book had to be autobiographical because the publisher insisted on it, but really, we all know
Snowden could find a publisher for a non-autobiographical book. It's an obvious deception; he wants to familiarise the public with his personal story while also acting like he isn't trying to do that. If Snowden gets pardoned sometime between 2024 and 2032 and subsequently makes a run for President, I'm gonna be scared that one of the TLAs has a mole at the top of the one-eyed pyramid.
I'm not making any conspiratorial claims about this part, but as an aside it was weird to me that he claimed cellphone IMEIs can't be changed. It's not normally done, but it can be. I wasn't sure if that was dumbed down for Rogan's audience, a misspeak, or actual ignorance on Snowden's part.