Snowden: Hero
Six in 10 Americans … say Snowden’s actions harmed U.S. security, increasing 11 percentage points from July. … Clear majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents believe disclosures have harmed national security. … More than half of poll respondents — 52 percent — say he should be charged with a crime. … And 55 percent say he was wrong to expose the NSA’s intelligence-gathering efforts. … Most poll respondents think the NSA’s surveillance program intrudes on some Americans’ privacy rights — 68 percent say this — while 54 percent see intrusions on their own privacy, 49 percent count foreign governments as victims and 48 percent say this of foreign citizens. Among those who say surveillance programs intrude on their privacy rights or those of other Americans, a clear majority say such actions are unjustified. (more)
Though several legislative efforts are underway to curb the NSA’s surveillance powers, the wholesale move by private companies to expand the use of encryption technology may prove to be the most tangible outcome of months of revelations based on documents that Snowden provided to The Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper. In another major shift, the companies also are explicitly building defenses against U.S. government surveillance programs in addition to combating hackers, criminals or foreign intelligence services. (more)
The most limited estimates say that only 1% of the files that Snowden downloaded have been released publicly so far. At the other end of the spectrum, we may only have seen .25% of the files get released. The worst secrets may yet come forward in time. (more)
Overall, we Americans have a stronger attachment to U.S. dominance than to fair play or anyone’s rights. Yeah the NSA lied, went beyond its authority, and hurt us and others. But, we say, the guy who exposed that should be punished for making us look bad. Even though he acted alone, seems personally beyond reproach, suffered substantially and gained little, carefully minimized incidental harm, and showed great competence and self-control in the process.
Geez. I gotta say that Edward Snowden seems one of the best candidates for a classic hero that I’ve seen in a long time. Six years ago I wrote:
In a park near my home is a plaque that reads:
We honor all those who fought for our community.
There is probably a similar plaque near you. I would be more proud to live in a community with a plaque that read:
We honor those who fought against our community when it was wrong.
The Snowden story isn’t over, and maybe it will all look very different later. But for now, he sure looks like someone who such a plaque would rightly honor. Edward, my hat is way way off to you sir.
Stanley Milgram showed that most people are not moral, in any deep sense of the term. Their morality is a superficial consequence of the fact that they possess mirror neurons, and have been operant conditioned by evolutionary pressures to have a certain base-level of concern for the suffering of others. However, if it takes any effort to oppose the suffering of others (even unnecessary and destructive suffering), most people won't lift a finger to offer any help. Moreover, they won't even state their agreement (much less support) with the moral side of the argument.
And "voting for freedom"? Nope. Most people are simply too stupid and uneducated to do that. The Libertarian Party has been on the ballot since 1971, with a platform that almost perfectly offers the precise solution that American needs most: a reduction of state power.
But when it comes time to "decide" whether to support freedom or "free stuff" (stolen from other people), a decision isn't ever even made. Just a general slouching toward "free stuff," with shaky rationalizations made to stupid people who dare question their vote. You'll very quickly notice that if the person who is on the receiving end of those shaky rationalizations is highly-educated and therefore highly-libertarian, the people run away from his counter-arguments. They don't want to find out that they're wrong, and have been acting immorally.
So they perform the intellectual equivalent of a toddler putting their hands over their ears and screaming la-la-la-la.
See no evil, hear no evil, think no evil = mindlessly act as evil desires. Again, Stanley Milgram wrote the masterpiece on this subject. It's called "Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View."
The NSA violates US laws. They swore a oath to protect the constitution. That also straight betrayal. Snowden also believes he's doing the best or the US.