Thread: Edward Snowden and his stay in Russia

Originally Posted by Deborski

Actually, public opinion in the US has swung in favor of Edward Snowden. There were a lot of people calling him a traitor in the beginning, but as more information came out and it became clear just how vast the scope of government surveillance truly is, more people started calling him a hero. And these days, the majority of Americans already KNOW that the mainstream media is bullshit. There has been a rise of alternative news sources and citizen journalism, which on the one hand I applaud, but at the same time it also gives rise to a lot of conspiracy theories and fake news stories which garner more attention than they should.

Most of the people I know are like me - they gather their news from a variety of sources both foreign and domestic. In that way, we can deduce what is true and what is not true.

Poll: Americans say Snowden isn’t a traitor — MSNBC



It is clear that Snowden's revelations have also succeeded in getting people TALKING more about the police state we live in here. It isn't just the extremists talking about it either, now it has become a mainstream discussion. Everyone I know is talking about it, and everyone I know agrees that the NSA has gone too far.

Deb, you've been so much talking about the "black-and-white thinking" lately, and here you just demonstrate another example of it. I for one have never thought of that guy as a traitor or a hero, I think those are too strong words for a guy like him. He just did something not very smart and got busted.

Originally Posted by Eric C.

Deb, you've been so much talking about the "black-and-white thinking" lately, and here you just demonstrate another example of it. I for one have never thought of that guy as a traitor or a hero, I think those are too strong words for a guy like him. He just did something not very smart and got busted.

:shrug: I was quoting a poll taken of US citizens, so I am not sure how I personally engaged in "black or white thinking" here. My own opinion is that he's more hero than traitor. He broke the law, certainly, but sometimes there are higher laws which we have to abide by, which supersede petty legalities. A crucial factor is that Snowden did not sell the information for money. In my mind, that separates him from those who steal US secrets for the sake of making a personal profit.