Ok, seriously, are we chimpanzees? We've decided we need to debate whether Ed Snowden is personally a dick rather than what he's revealed?
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) June 11, 2013
If you think, say, John McCain is a ego-maniacal jerk... does that make what he did in Vietnam less heroic?
— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) June 11, 2013
Edward Snowden saw something, said something.
— Daniel Lin (@DLin71) June 9, 2013
"Invisible bonds"? Check. "Fraying social fabric"? Check. Demon individualism? Check. Yep. It's David Brooks. mobile.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/opi…
— radleybalko (@radleybalko) June 11, 2013
I mean...you do realize that Snowden in all likelihood outed himself to make it harder for the government to kill him, right? Given what he has firsthand knowledge of, I think it is fair to say that his assessment of his chances of being found out might be...slightly better than average.
So fine, speculate about his motives, his politics, and whether or not he'd make a good neighbor. But maybe, just maybe, it is worth considering that he knowingly put himself at considerable risk for a cause he considered much greater than himself.
4 comments:
But maybe, just maybe, it is worth considering that he knowingly put himself at considerable risk for a cause he considered much greater than himself.
That's the way to bet.
I'll 100% believe that Snowden believed that outing himself would make it more difficult for someone to kill him--but even my cynical, DC-despising self is having a touch of trouble believing folks there would actually do it.
Willing to be educated on this one, though. I would have bet until this morning that no police force in the world would indict someone for DUI who had blown .0000 on the Breathalyzer, too.
Sure, it's an important distinction between what Snowden believed might happen to him, and what actually would. It's one I'm happy to make, and I'd certainly prefer to believe that him being quietly offed would not have been on the table. And in any case, I'm sure that layers of plausible deniability would have removed any such decision far from the realm of policy.
But I do think that his paranoia--such as it is--is a bit more informed than your average tin foil hat wearer.
I was actually expecting that you'd have about five or ten examples to show me. :^)
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