[dead_phish]

I have very little sympathy for his monetary plight. He made his bed, let him sleep in it.

Or rather, when your giant paycheck comes from the government, maybe torquing off that government in the most flamboyant way possible isn't the best of ideas.

[rustynails77]

I'm very disappointed with people that share your attitude. He gave up a lot to disclose unethical (and downright illegal) behaviour - for the betterment of society, knowing full-well the consequences. He also explicitly stated that this was not about him - so your flamboyant statements are WAY off the mark.

Here's the tip: research a topic before posting misinformation, unless you endorse breaching the 4th amendment, and lies all the way from Obama down.

But ... i'm heartened that very few people share your view.

[dead_phish]

If he wanted to do the right thing, he should have gone to his Congressman, or the oversight arm of the NSA (it does exist, regardless of how inefficient it seems to be).

I'm stuck in the odd position of thinking both Snowden and the government are wrong, which seems to piss both sets of hardliners off. I'm not arguing that the NSA is right to slurp our data, and I'm not trying to defend that - I think it's reprehensible. However, I also think that Snowden did not exhaust all his legal options before deciding to play secret agent and scarper off to Hong Kong. I think if it truly wasn't about him, he wouldn't have gone to the press first thing. If he'd been shutdown after going through those channels? Sure, leak everything. He chose instead to play the hero.

[repnescasb]

So true. The comments section on time.com almost got me a heart attack. Thought that HN would not be infected with that breed of ignorant nationalistic sheeps.. Thank you for restoring my faith

[padolsey]

Yeh, let's all roll over. Who would want to do the right thing when you can do the easy thing?

[XorNot]

Who's saying he did the right thing? There's more then 1 perspective on this.

[Pitarou]

So I guess you're not going to say thank you.

[general_failure]

Wow, you are a dick. Or completely clueless.

[asveikau]

Sorry, the comment you're replying to makes an actual argument. Your reply of "wow, you're a dick" does not.

I find no objection that dead_phish should express this view if that's how he feels. It is a valid viewpoint even if it is not shared. I also commend him for expressing it in a community like HN which, let's be honest, does not tolerate dissenting views of Snowden.

It's kind of sad that his dissenting view is downvoted and your name-calling is not.

[dead_phish]

Well, yes I am a dick, but I also think the situation is more nuanced than 'rah rah free Snowden'.

[Ronny12345]

please replace "or" with and