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.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    I consider him a true American patriot.

    Nothing is more patriotic than wanting your country to do better.

    Implementing drag net surveillance was a terrible decision, and exposing it was truly heroic.

    Sadly, Snowden is now in the clutches of Russia who can and does use him as their pawn.

    It is easy to say that this is where the EU should have stepped up and given him sanctuary, but that would have been less than ideal for him.

    1. Europe and the US have close ties with police and law enforcement, while no EU nation would hand their own citizens over to the US, they would absolutely hand over a US citizen to the US if requested.
    2. During the war on terror, Europe was complicit in plenty of illegal renditions of their own citizens to the CIA, they were then sent to illegal black sites and tortured, plenty of these persons have since been proven innocent.

    Given the high profile of Snowden’s leak, the US still want’s him back, and back then even more so, had Snowden gone to the EU, he most likely would have been extradited, kidnapped or even assassinated.

    By staying in Russia that was a far lower risk to him.

    • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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      6 hours ago

      while no EU nation would hand their own citizens over to the US

      Europe was complicit in plenty of illegal renditions of their own citizens to the CIA

      Make up your mind.

    • Augmented1207@feddit.org
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      9 hours ago

      EU states have handed over their own citizens to the US, if these people have hurt us citizens enough. There is a nice episode of the darknet diaries that just came out

    • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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      He’s at lower risk from the US, but speaking out about Russia would probably be riskier. It’s an unfortunate situation for him to be stuck in Russia and not some other safe country.

      I think the Swiss should have offered him assistance in an embassy or Vietnam or somewhere other than Putin’s Russia (which we knew was bad even back then).

      Really though, Obama should have pardoned him.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        Eh, the EU makes a big deal of freedom, and has stood up to the US in the past, but here there are actual laws and regulations to follow, and if we stop extraditing US citizens to the US, the US would stop extraditing our citizens to us.

              • stoy@lemmy.zip
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                1 day ago

                Hey, thanks for telling me, I know about tankies, as well as the instances they run, though I don’t check every user to see where they come from.

                I’ll tag him accordingly.

                  • pucker4676@lemmy.ml
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                    7 hours ago

                    Are you not familiar with imperialism? I can provide more links, but you seem to be having a difficult time consuming the material I’ve already provided.

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                23 hours ago

                I don’t generally dwell on the libshits like yourself, some will never learn the art of thinking critically, but I would like to point out that the best way to control the population is to divide it. You’re either a fed or unknowingly lending them a hand.

                • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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                  18 hours ago

                  The irony of calling someone a “lib-shit”, over what is, in the grande scheme of things, a minor quibble, in the literal same sentence they talk about how people are dividing the population intentionally to control them.

                  Lmfao, you’re the one dividing the population you unselfreflective dipshit. Grow up.

                  • pucker4676@lemmy.ml
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                    7 hours ago

                    The irony of simping for the west in an Edward Snowden thread. Kindly go fuck yourself.

              • merc@sh.itjust.works
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                1 day ago

                That article made me vigorously expel air from my nose.

                What’s the #1 way that France still controls its former African colonies?

                “1. These countries must officially speak French”

                Did you know England controls the United States? How? England makes the US speak English. I’m super serial! This isn’t a laughing matter, so stop laughing at this matter.

              • stoy@lemmy.zip
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                1 day ago

                Oh, I had no idea about this…

                The colonial tax seems especially evil.

                • ptu@sopuli.xyz
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                  9 hours ago

                  Luckily it seems entirely fabricated like many other claims on that post in Pulse Nigeria’s Food and Travel section

    • brachiosaurus@mander.xyz
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      1 day ago

      Nothing is more patriotic than wanting your country to do better.

      Is being patriotic and wanting your first world country to do better something heroic?

      • Rumo161@feddit.org
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        1 day ago

        Well that highly depends in what you deem good. If wantig to do better is stopping the support of any goverment that suppresses its people and/or invades other countrys and you put your life in the line for that goal, i think thats very heroic.