Running off to a police state to complain about a growing police state does harm credibility
Isaac Send a noteboard - 09/12/2013 07:30:59 PM
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View original postSame, there is a feeling, I think, that his motivations weren't particularly brave or pure, and that he hadn't really exhausted legitimate channels first. I'm glad the excesses are coming to light, but his flight, justified by fairly over the top claims of fear of torture and assassination, all couple to other things making him seem less a whistle blower and more anti-American. As soon as he was a international celebrity his most ethical choice would have been to come home and face the music, torture and assassination obviously being off the table at that point, though I don't think they ever were.
View original postEven if that was the only valid option to stay free - it just makes it look as if he cared more about discrediting the US than improving it. Or didn't mind being blatantly used by those who do, anyway. Even Cuba or Ecuador would have been better (though not Venezuela).
He should have known his freedom in any meaningful sense was over no matter what he did once he pulled the trigger on this. He damaged his own cause in a huge way by running and running to place like Russia where any talk about freedom is tainted by association. Had he said, "As soon as I'm convinced that this is out so far no one can bury it, and that I won't be shuffled off to a place so dark it has its own event horizon, I will come back, even if they charge me High Treason and ask for the Death Penalty." then a sizable number of people on the fence or against him would have been swayed, whereas none of his supporters would have changed their minds but only grown in their accolades.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
Guardian person of the year
- 09/12/2013 02:52:49 PM
1116 Views
Good choice. Snowden is a true patriot.
- 09/12/2013 03:13:15 PM
730 Views
You know....
- 09/12/2013 04:11:09 PM
716 Views
Agreed
- 09/12/2013 05:38:36 PM
719 Views
Why go to prison when you know you've done the right thing?
- 09/12/2013 06:25:46 PM
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To prove it was the right thing?
- 09/12/2013 07:12:34 PM
662 Views
Better to be free in Russia than rot in some American prison
- 09/12/2013 09:10:20 PM
636 Views
Better for who?
- 09/12/2013 09:51:09 PM
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Perhaps more in the eyes of the Americans?
- 09/12/2013 11:10:10 PM
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In this context American opinion is the important one, since it is US policy under discussion
- 09/12/2013 11:41:07 PM
712 Views
It would have been the right thing, and best for the anti-NSA movement
- 10/12/2013 02:07:49 AM
732 Views
He did kind of lose his credibility by running to Moscow.
- 09/12/2013 06:58:48 PM
656 Views
Running off to a police state to complain about a growing police state does harm credibility
- 09/12/2013 07:30:59 PM
671 Views
Screw that. He's not obligated to martyr himself.
- 11/12/2013 06:23:43 PM
652 Views
Of course he isn't. It's his own credibility and he can do what he likes with it. *NM*
- 11/12/2013 10:00:59 PM
304 Views
Snowden deserves a bullet in the head for his betrayal of the US.
- 10/12/2013 03:42:37 PM
725 Views
In another news: Is Edward Snowden The Hottest Whistleblower?
- 09/12/2013 09:15:34 PM
787 Views
But if he was sincerely hot, he would have come back to be on America's Next Top Model. *NM*
- 10/12/2013 02:33:02 AM
576 Views
It's the Guardian, so this isn't very surprising or conclusive
- 10/12/2013 02:15:56 AM
702 Views