Traitor

Outstanding citizen

neither, but he does need his day in court.

We don't abide people fleeing the law in other situations, how is this any different?

Critical thinking is a bitch ain't it?

sure,because our justice system has proven itself to be such a shining example of objective and fair treatment to those who defy the power of this government.

see:bradley manning

with the track record of this and previous administrations in regards to whistleblowers who expose our own governments corrupt and oftentimes illegal practices abroad.snowden played this card exactly how he should have...smart.

due process? gone.
habeas corpus?not anymore.

day in court? please.

critical thinking?
take your own advice.

He's a traitor because he's given away state secrets to Russia and China in exchange for asylum and celebrity. He's a coward because he doesn't want to adhere to civil disobedience; I don't remember MLK or Ghandi fleeing to Russia. He's a narcissist because he could have easily revealed the misconduct of the NSA to the public anonymously instead of showboating like the second coming.

Fuck him, and I hope he suffers the fate of other Russian defectors:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113757/snowden-case-unhappy-history-american-defectors-moscow
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/02/us-usa-security-snowden-russia-idUSBRE97114O20130802

MLK or Ghandi fleeing to Russia???

I am speechless...and a little entertained...:)

Yeah you don't get to ignore a trial simply because you don't think it will be fair. Every criminal ever would be justified in fleeing the law in such a case.

I noticed you didn't answer my question.

We don't abide fleeing the law in any other situation, How come this is different?

We don't live in a country where we pick and choose the laws we want to follow.

Besides, turning himself in is win win. Snowden is virtually guaranteed that he will only die of old age because if anything happens to him, the US will be blamed.

His case is stronger if he turns himself in and argues his case. Fleeing hurts him.

Also, I hate to break it to you. Snowden's fleeing didn't create the public outcry you expected. The jury is in on this. Thanks to GPS and smartphones and other apps that use personal information. The public really doesn't have a lot of problem with being eavesdropped on. Most people already knew it was happening Congratulations, you created numerous internet memes but no actual change.

Attitudes on privacy are changing. Sorry you didn't get the memo.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, October 13th, 2013 10:09am PDT - promote requested by kulpims.

@VoodooV

*redacted

i was gonna match tone for tone but felt it produced nothing of value.
the question you asked was valid and i did allude to an answer but your smug tone leaves a lack of desire to engage.

so have fun in your little bubble of self-righteous certitude.

Also, Elvis is alive.

You and Iron Man can go fuck yourselves. Civil War! jk, I just like science fiction. I get it, SHIELD is just doing its job and they can't tell us the real reasons why.

The Rising Tide is evil and sounds a lot like a Hydra conspiracy. Cthulhu = cephalopod = rising out of the ocean = cephalopod = Hydra

Snowden works for Hydra! Or is he a double agent?

So much of what you are saying here is not terribly accurate.

Fleeing in this case is easier to sympathize with on account of the US's recent history of locking up and torturing whistle blowers for years on end.

You do live in a country where you pick and choose which laws to follow. Constantly. Like most people. Did you have a drink before you were of age? Have you rolled through a stop sign? Did you tear a label off a mattress? Have you smoked weed? Average people break the rules when they think that the rule is dumb and deserves to be broken, or when they think following the rule would be a greater wrong than breaking it. I expect the latter case applies to Snowden.

Turning himself in is hardly win/win. Maybe he's not interested in being locked up and abused for years on end for what he considers a service he did to the US people. It's not everyone's sole goal in life to die of old age.

His case isn't that much stronger if he turns himself in. He's not some rhetorical genius or a mastermind lawyer waiting to uncover his byzantine court strategy. He released some information regarding serious infringements by the US govt, and that's it. His motives are easy to see, and anyone could pick up and argue his case for him. It's just not that deep.

You're right that the outcry didn't follow. People are getting rather well conditioned to being spied on in pretty much everything we do. To me, the much more important revelation was that the US govt had a collection of secret laws that only it knows about, and that it acts based on it. Privacy is just the tip of the iceberg.

Something to keep in mind

@longde got SIX downvotes for merely expressing his opinion, which is more downvotes than any of the most racist, hateful, homophobic shit that bobknight, QM, or shinyblurry typically spout

Yeah, think about that one long and hard. Hope you're proud of yourselves sifters.

Nevermind

I think that's because most Sifters find drive-by comments that don't show even a hint of critical thinking (I'm referring to his first post) more egregious than posts by racists, homophobes, or religious zealots who at last make a token effort to provide support for their own views (no matter how flawed that support may be).

BTW, it took me longer to write the above than to think about it. Yes, I am proud of myself.

Maybe we could have a little less drama and a little more reasonable argument from your posts on this topic? You know that people on the Sift will comment on shit like this (i.e. "censorship"/bias on the Sift in the form of downvotes) forever... if it doesn't look like they're going to get drawn into a flame war in the process.

All I'm saying is that the tone comes off as confrontational. Two commenters above me have already self-censored responses to you pretty much for that very reason. If your goal is to get people to think seriously about this topic, then you'll probably need to change the way you post about it. Of course, if your goal is to troll or sit on your high horse and let the rest of us know how bad our shit stinks then please let me know now so I can put you on my ignore list.

@SDGundamX

beat me to it and did it in such a polite and dignified way.
i would have just come across as a huge dick.
very well put my friend.

I'm not crying about the downvotes (C'est la vie), but the upvotes on the second comment belie your point. As well as the downvotes on my less terse comment later on. I chalk up the downvotes to my hitting a raw nerve on people's extremely flawed hero. Apparently people can't process the fact that Snowden could both do good deeds and commit treasonous acts.