cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48428963
I personally do, he actually risked his life to release information about the government spying on people. And there are for sure more advanced ways now. Even your phone is listening.
He is. This shouldn’t even be a question.
unquestionably yes.
No such things as heroes
Is the Pope catholic?
He’s a hero solely for trying to save Atari Teenage Riot.
It’s sad that only 10% of the data he leaked ever made it to the public. From what I’ve read, the unreleased stuff has been lost. I could be wrong and don’t have a source handy for that.
I’d let him hide out in my apartment.
Mam that band has gone off the rails these last few years. Last time I checked they (or just Alec?) were shilling NFTs lol
What’s the link between ATR and Snowden though?
He gave people information that they otherwise wouldn’t have, regarding the surveillance state at the time. Definitely good for the common person, bad for the government.
I do wish there was more done about it. It seems like not enough happened and now things are even worse with the thousands of internet trackers, Google, Meta, Flock, etc… We needed some kind of privacy protections but we didn’t get enough and now we’re here, on platforms like Lemmy, avoiding the all-knowing algorithm as much as possible.
How did we go from “Ahh! The government can listen to our phonecalls and read our emails!” to “Sure Big Tech, train your AI on my personal photos, location, usage habits, and manipulate my internet experience for profit! Please do!!!”
I don’t really believe in the concept of ‘heroes’ as in unquestionably good people who are to be emulated, but there are people of commendable moral principles, actions, and character that are worth noting.
His actions were unquestionably noble and effective in revealing the depth of surveillance of statesian citizens by a government many of them trusted, but mistakes in how that data was passed to journalists are also worth noting so such actions aren’t self-sacrificing. He’d be more useful continuing to expose how that continues and has gotten worse, and simultaneously deserves a more comfortable life for his efforts. But he was also young and from my interpretation of my reading seemed to almost accidentally find himself at BAH. If someone more experienced and guided by good handlers were involved, his results could have been multiplied, and his efforts better rewarded.
What a loaded question. Hero is such a poorly defined yet super high bar. Firefighters who die rescuing children don’t even typically want to be called a hero. This just sets up people to say no and muddy the water.
Did he stand up for democracy and transparency and rule of law? Yes. Did he suffer for his actions from powerful people more concerns for the political harm caused by the exposure of illegal actions? Yes.
Did he do everything right? No, he’s human, and wasnt asking to be lionized or elected anything. He wanted people to look at the materials and demand change from governments. He didn’t get what he wanted, and ended up stuck in Russia, where people can dismiss him as just a traitor, so no, he didn’t do everything right. He could have also thrown himself on the mercy of the American justice system, no matter how doomed that would be. But he’s human, so I don’t expect suicide.
Yeah, gonna go against the grain and say he’s a self-centered douchebag who made everything worse. He didn’t “risk his life”. He risked life in prison - and defected to a MUCH worse country for very, very, very stupid reasons. Any “I did it for freedom” excuses he spouted, or that you ascribe to him, are public relations bullshit.
If he had any integrity he’d have just gone to jail. Instead he went to fucking Putin, like THAT’S supporting freedom.
He didn’t “risk his life”. He risked life in prison
American prisons, famous for their safety
I’ll just address one of the many incorrect things you’ve said, in that this assumption that he “defected to Russia” is utter nonsense. He was trying to get to I believe Ecuador and his passport was revoked while in the Moscow airport. He effectively lived in the airport for about a month IIRC (it’s been a long time since I’ve had to debunk this BS) before Putin granted him asylum.
Bottom line, he’s not in Russia by choice. He’s effectively trapped there, unable to travel, until the US State Department overturns the ban.
yeah, people get snowden and assange confused and that’s a damn shame
You are expecting someone to commit suicide for their values. Thats what life in prison under unjust prosecution is. He would expect to die there, alone.
Yeah, thats the most moral stance he could have taken, but he also didn’t ask us to put our trust in him. He’s not a politician. Those people DO ask us to put our trust in their character and ethics and were demonstrably shown to be lacking when illegal spying was clearly present.
All he asked for was for people to look at the evidence he presented and demand rule of law. He could be a puppy killer, and it wouldn’t matter. He didn’t ask to be elected to anything or put in charge of anything, and he acted like a self-serving human being in the end.
If America lives up to the claim of being just, it didn’t seem to look like it in this case. The instant and well funded propaganda campaign against him was not an indication it would be a case of blind justice.
and defected to a MUCH worse country
Why do you actually think this? Obviously you believe the war in Ukraine was unprovoked and evil, but like, the US does unprovoked and evil wars far more often. The US has far more people in its prisons, and kills more people through both military and economic warfare. The US supports Israel and UAE in their barbarism, while Russia supports anti-colonial governments in the Sahel region (for cynical reasons, because those movements are kicking out the US and France, but the motivations don’t change the results).
Based on the sheer numbers, Russia is at least the lesser evil. The US is still the Great Satan.
I don’t necessarily think hero is the right word, but his actions are commendable, even if they largely had little effect.
I had a professor in a cyber security class go off about how you’re a traitor to the United States if you thing well of him. I remember rolling my eyes and wondering why she was drinking so much cool aid.
He did the right thing, but the concept of heros is not a good or useful one, especially when it comes to political actors.
professor in a cyber security class
Maybe she was funded by the NSA?
Never neet your heros and all that i guess.
My thoughts exactly.
I dislike that he pursued asylum in Russia and I think that doing so potentially damages his credibility and motives. But what he did was important nonetheless.
Let’s be honest, virtually every other country would have extradited him.
North Korea or China might’ve been other options, but hardly better ones. Norway maybe, but they had shown to also cave to American pressure by prosecuting the founders of pirate bay.
No great options, really.Yeah. Probably had to worry about illegal snatch and grabs too. It’s just ironic that he had to turn to autocrats who use much of the same tactics he warned about.
Of course our views on Russia in 2013 were quite different to what they are now, but we always kind of knew they were a mafia state with varying levels of dedication to “playing along” on the world stage.
Yes
I’m still confused. All I took away from it is that it’s illegal to point out someone is committing crimes. A full mask off moment that will echo through history.
They’ve gone the weasel-route by releasing piece-by-piece to not cause drama and censoring names to not endanger them. In the end, this did more damage than good, getting people used to the scandals and feeling helpless. I wonder if that wasn’t on purpose?
