RE Snowden, not to condescend or anything, but you may not be old enough to have been aware of all the context…
Snowden was basically just acting out the post-Watergate whistleblower script without really having uncovered any major concrete harms. The NSA program he leaked on was basically just mass metadata gathering with an algorithmic analysis layered on top to determine suspicious patterns that might lead to probable cause for further investigation. It was never linked to any major systemic rights abuses or unjust prosecutions.
It was really just Snowden wanting to see himself as a hero like so many bad Xer freedom-fighting hacker movies from the 80’s and 90’s. Most of the public outcry was really stupid and just sustained itself on vibes and innuendo.
This is very good to know, thanks! Honestly, as I think about it now, most of my knowledge of the Snowden affair comes from a pretty hagiographical John Oliver segment. I really maybe should've known better...
Yeah, Oliver and Stewart covered that stuff with a lot of credulity because it fit perfectly into their own Xer moral universe. Not sure if they ever looped back around to skewer Snowden’s eventual turn to Russia, but the turn itself is pretty solid evidence that Snowden was always just looking out for himself and trying to be self aggrandizing.
RE Snowden, not to condescend or anything, but you may not be old enough to have been aware of all the context…
Snowden was basically just acting out the post-Watergate whistleblower script without really having uncovered any major concrete harms. The NSA program he leaked on was basically just mass metadata gathering with an algorithmic analysis layered on top to determine suspicious patterns that might lead to probable cause for further investigation. It was never linked to any major systemic rights abuses or unjust prosecutions.
It was really just Snowden wanting to see himself as a hero like so many bad Xer freedom-fighting hacker movies from the 80’s and 90’s. Most of the public outcry was really stupid and just sustained itself on vibes and innuendo.
This is very good to know, thanks! Honestly, as I think about it now, most of my knowledge of the Snowden affair comes from a pretty hagiographical John Oliver segment. I really maybe should've known better...
Yeah, Oliver and Stewart covered that stuff with a lot of credulity because it fit perfectly into their own Xer moral universe. Not sure if they ever looped back around to skewer Snowden’s eventual turn to Russia, but the turn itself is pretty solid evidence that Snowden was always just looking out for himself and trying to be self aggrandizing.