[hmmmcurious1]

Explain how you can have snowdens discussion and this thread in public? Doing the same critique of government policy in russia or china would get you disappeared real fast.

[enriquto]

It's funny that you mention Snowden, a person who exposed a whole lot of anti-democratic stuff going on in his own country and became a widely celebrated patriotic hero for his courageous work. I guess the people guilty of anti-democratic behavior went to justice, while Snowden himself was offered protection and a well-deserved respectable position to continue his fight for human rights. Just like other notorious human-rights activists like Manning, Swartz or Assange.

[bogtog]

> became a widely celebrated patriotic hero for his courageous work

When leaks happened, traditional opinion polls seemed to show a 1:1 split on support vs. disapproval. Online polls seemed to show a 2:1 split, favoring support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentary_on_Edward_Snowden%2...

[solarengineer]

One possibility: You are allowed to have such discussions because these will be ineffective and forgotten within half a day while bringing about zero policy change. Most of us around the world do not know how to bring about a change in policy. Intellectual exchanges over such forums are certainly not the way.

[barfbagginus]

Seems like Snowden had to become a fugitive and seek asylum in a foreign nation to have his discussion. This is quite human.

[raincole]

It's just like how we can tell "Epstein didn't kill himself" joke online.

Because what we discussion doesn't really matter.