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America’s Open Wound

edwardsnowden.substack.com

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Re: America’s Open Wound

#221

Post by Chris2048 »

slg wrote: post #169
cronix wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing as how he's stuck there with nowhere else to go except prison in the US, and owes what little freedom he has to them, I think it's fairly obvious and smart to not speak ill of your host, especially considering what they're capable of. I'm quite sure he would have a LOT to say about it were he not stuck there. Yes, we know, if it were you you'd be condemning them to their face.

> he's stuck there with nowhere else to go except prison in the US, Meanwhile Chelsea Manning is walking the streets of the US as a free person. Why do people pretend that Snowden's only option was and is to live in Russia, a country that is diametrically opposed to everything he ostensibly stands for?

Chelsea Manning got a presidential pardon - what was Snowden's option?

Re: America’s Open Wound

#222

Post by prox »

ssnistfajen wrote: post #154
jnovek wrote: post #87

Has everyone on Hacker News lost their minds? I come here to read and sometimes participate in rational discussions. These comments are some of the lowest effort, least rigorous, paranoid bullshit I’ve ever seen on this site. We’re a step above Facebook comments on NPR articles, here. Partisanship, viciousness and lazy conspiracy theories are not a good look for this site.

Or perhaps we don't need HN exceptionalism? Intelligence isn't translated universally onto all subject matters. Just because someone is good at writing code doesn't make them well-suited to understand any non-programming topics to have a well-informed or rational discussion about it. There's no reason why HN should have a higher quality discussion on these subjects than some generic subreddit or FB comment sections.…

The culture and rule of “curious conversation” should remain high, and that at least counteracts “lol becuase I say so” comments or old rehashes. Higher forms of discussion is what makes this place better. Curious conversation also makes way for “greyscale” discussion, where there is room to critique your own views and that of another, as I find the black-and-white thinking in discussion an example of unthoughtful or unhelpful discussion.

Re: America’s Open Wound

#223

Post by tootifrooti »

CodeMage wrote: post #178
ssnistfajen wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or perhaps we don't need HN exceptionalism? Intelligence isn't translated universally onto all subject matters. Just because someone is good at writing code doesn't make them well-suited to understand any non-programming topics to have a well-informed or rational discussion about it. There's no reason why HN should have a higher quality discussion on these subjects than some generic subreddit or FB comment sections.…

> Or perhaps we don't need HN exceptionalism? It's not exceptionalism to lament the downfall of the tradition of carefully cultivated discourse. I still remember when this community used to be different, and this site was the one I went to first. > There's no reason why HN should have a higher quality discussion than some generic subreddit or FB comment sections. Yes, there is. HN uses to have a higher quality discus…

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Re: America’s Open Wound

#224

Post by MisterBastahrd »

actionfromafar wrote: post #197
belltaco wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could have remained silent, but he used the opportunity of the run up to the war to spread Russian propaganda about US agencies and media to his 5 million twitter followers. E.g. his tweet from not even 2 weeks before the invasion: >There is nothing more grotesque than a media pushing for war. https://mobile.twitter.com/snowden/status/149222362658580890... Why would he blame western media and intel agencies for Pu…

As long as he stays there, I will assume he might be under duress. Pardon him, then let's see.

Let's never do that. Because he doesn't deserve it.

Re: America’s Open Wound

#225

Post by emptyparadise »

euphetar wrote: post #198

So many people comment about how Snowden can't say things like this because he is in Russia. I wonder: how does it invalidate the facts? He links to Wikipedia. Maybe you don't want to believe Snowden, him being a traitor. Don't you believe Wikipedia? I don't see how Snowdens identity is even relevant to the subject.

Snowden is stuck in a lose-lose position. Do you choose to go behind bars or do you embrace the hypocrisy in the hope that you can still do some good?

This is the interpretation I choose to believe, until I see any proof to the contrary. Ultimately his whistle-blowing was a good thing.

Re: America’s Open Wound

#226

Post by briantakita3 »

diputsmonro wrote: post #214
lambdasquirrel wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of convenient that Snowden has been pushed into that corner, isn't it?

As with any complicated situation, there are multiple conflicting interpretations that could be possible. Since we can't collapse the uncertainty, we must take the grain of salt. I do generally trust Snowden, but I can't deny that Russia would likely do everything they could to leverage the information he has against the US. Has he given them NatSec secrets in return for asylum? Unlikely I think, but possible. IMO, R…

No post body was provided.

Re: America’s Open Wound

#227

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494157921...

  Snowden is "a serial exaggerator and fabricator" who told a series of untrue stories about his health, education and performance reviews.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/...

  Obama, at an August news conference, specifically said that “I signed an executive order well before Mr. Snowden leaked this information that provided whistleblower protection to the intelligence community — for the first time.”

Re: America’s Open Wound

#228

Post by NaturalPhallacy »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #227

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494157921... Snowden is "a serial exaggerator and fabricator" who told a series of untrue stories about his health, education and performance reviews. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/... Obama, at an August news conference, specifically said that “I signed an executive order well before Mr. Snowden leaked this information that provided whi…

>* Snowden is "a serial exaggerator and fabricator" who told a series of untrue stories about his health, education and performance reviews.*

Oh look, propaganda in the form of an ad hominem fallacy.

Re: America’s Open Wound

#229

Post by [deleted] »

jnovek wrote: post #87

Has everyone on Hacker News lost their minds? I come here to read and sometimes participate in rational discussions. These comments are some of the lowest effort, least rigorous, paranoid bullshit I’ve ever seen on this site. We’re a step above Facebook comments on NPR articles, here. Partisanship, viciousness and lazy conspiracy theories are not a good look for this site.

[deleted]

Re: America’s Open Wound

#230

Post by CharlesW »

Note for writers: In paragraph 3, Snowden uses the word "premises" but means "premise". These are similar-looking words with very different meanings.

My inner paranoid now wonders if Snowden wrote this, because in my experience this is a mistake most commonly made by ESL writers. It would be interesting to perform stylometry on his history of work to see if there's a break.

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