cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48428963
I personally do, he actually risked his life to release information about the government spying on people. And there are for sure more advanced ways now. Even your phone is listening.
He is. This shouldn’t even be a question.
Is the Pope catholic?
unquestionably yes.
No such things as heroes
He’s a hero solely for trying to save Atari Teenage Riot.
It’s sad that only 10% of the data he leaked ever made it to the public. From what I’ve read, the unreleased stuff has been lost. I could be wrong and don’t have a source handy for that.
I’d let him hide out in my apartment.
Mam that band has gone off the rails these last few years. Last time I checked they (or just Alec?) were shilling NFTs lol
What’s the link between ATR and Snowden though?
He gave people information that they otherwise wouldn’t have, regarding the surveillance state at the time. Definitely good for the common person, bad for the government.
I do wish there was more done about it. It seems like not enough happened and now things are even worse with the thousands of internet trackers, Google, Meta, Flock, etc… We needed some kind of privacy protections but we didn’t get enough and now we’re here, on platforms like Lemmy, avoiding the all-knowing algorithm as much as possible.
How did we go from “Ahh! The government can listen to our phonecalls and read our emails!” to “Sure Big Tech, train your AI on my personal photos, location, usage habits, and manipulate my internet experience for profit! Please do!!!”
I think he had as much impact as anyone in his position could possibly have, if not way above average for a whistleblower.
The problem is that the public quickly turned on him, in no small part due to the PR strategy of those who DO have the power to change this. And most of the public shrugged and said what are we gonna do?
His contribution was proof that suspected domestic spying under the guise of homeland security was being widely misused. Which is a violation of YOUR constitutional rights. Of course anyone paying attention suspected it before, but he brought receipts. Many people think he should be in jail or worse because of this.
Unless he’s lying, and I don’t think he has been shown to lie, he did attempt to use proper channels. The media has historically been called the 4th branch of government for a reason - and ultimately that’s where he turned.
The man effectively lost much of his freedom and the people he did it for were unable to take it any further.
We are learning as a species that public relations (messaging, propaganda, whatever) is effective, and when the ownership class can put trillions into controlling the masses, it works.
I’d like to think there’s a counter for it, but the worker class seems to be willing to suffer a lot of misery so long as someone else is suffering more than they are.
I don’t really believe in the concept of ‘heroes’ as in unquestionably good people who are to be emulated, but there are people of commendable moral principles, actions, and character that are worth noting.
His actions were unquestionably noble and effective in revealing the depth of surveillance of statesian citizens by a government many of them trusted, but mistakes in how that data was passed to journalists are also worth noting so such actions aren’t self-sacrificing. He’d be more useful continuing to expose how that continues and has gotten worse, and simultaneously deserves a more comfortable life for his efforts. But he was also young and from my interpretation of my reading seemed to almost accidentally find himself at BAH. If someone more experienced and guided by good handlers were involved, his results could have been multiplied, and his efforts better rewarded.
Of course. If you risk your life and freedom for the greater good on your own account you sure are a hero.
Scary thing is he didnt really accomplish much with his sacrifies. NSA is much scarier today and things just goes on.
I don’t think so, while the impact wasn’t as great as he and other people wished, it nonetheless had a big impact, many people started to care, just because of what he exposed.
If it weren’t for him the majority would’ve been still thinking gov spying on citizens is a conspiracy theory hhhhh
If he isn’t a hero to you, I question you as a person.
I had a professor in a cyber security class go off about how you’re a traitor to the United States if you thing well of him. I remember rolling my eyes and wondering why she was drinking so much cool aid.
He did the right thing, but the concept of heros is not a good or useful one, especially when it comes to political actors.
professor in a cyber security class
Maybe she was funded by the NSA?
Never neet your heros and all that i guess.
My thoughts exactly.
Yes
Yup, a hero. Sacrificed himself for a greater good.
He’s unquestionably a hero.
