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.
What a loaded question. Hero is such a poorly defined yet super high bar. Firefighters who die rescuing children don’t even typically want to be called a hero. This just sets up people to say no and muddy the water.
Did he stand up for democracy and transparency and rule of law? Yes. Did he suffer for his actions from powerful people more concerns for the political harm caused by the exposure of illegal actions? Yes.
Did he do everything right? No, he’s human, and wasnt asking to be lionized or elected anything. He wanted people to look at the materials and demand change from governments. He didn’t get what he wanted, and ended up stuck in Russia, where people can dismiss him as just a traitor, so no, he didn’t do everything right. He could have also thrown himself on the mercy of the American justice system, no matter how doomed that would be. But he’s human, so I don’t expect suicide.
I don’t necessarily think hero is the right word, but his actions are commendable, even if they largely had little effect.
I’m still confused. All I took away from it is that it’s illegal to point out someone is committing crimes. A full mask off moment that will echo through history.
Yes
Yeah, gonna go against the grain and say he’s a self-centered douchebag who made everything worse. He didn’t “risk his life”. He risked life in prison - and defected to a MUCH worse country for very, very, very stupid reasons. Any “I did it for freedom” excuses he spouted, or that you ascribe to him, are public relations bullshit.
If he had any integrity he’d have just gone to jail. Instead he went to fucking Putin, like THAT’S supporting freedom.
and defected to a MUCH worse country
Why do you actually think this? Obviously you believe the war in Ukraine was unprovoked and evil, but like, the US does unprovoked and evil wars far more often. The US has far more people in its prisons, and kills more people through both military and economic warfare. The US supports Israel and UAE in their barbarism, while Russia supports anti-colonial governments in the Sahel region (for cynical reasons, because those movements are kicking out the US and France, but the motivations don’t change the results).
Based on the sheer numbers, Russia is at least the lesser evil. The US is still the Great Satan.
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.
My thoughts exactly.
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.
He’s a hero and Aaron was a martyr.
He’s unquestionably a hero.
I dislike that he pursued asylum in Russia and I think that doing so potentially damages his credibility and motives. But what he did was important nonetheless.
Let’s be honest, virtually every other country would have extradited him.
North Korea or China might’ve been other options, but hardly better ones. Norway maybe, but they had shown to also cave to American pressure by prosecuting the founders of pirate bay.
No great options, really.Yeah. Probably had to worry about illegal snatch and grabs too. It’s just ironic that he had to turn to autocrats who use much of the same tactics he warned about.
Of course our views on Russia in 2013 were quite different to what they are now, but we always kind of knew they were a mafia state with varying levels of dedication to “playing along” on the world stage.
Yes
If he isn’t a hero to you, I question you as a person.
I think he did the right thing even though it meant sacrificing his freedom. People are more aware of government surveillance around the world, even if it’s only increased in other ways. We can try to fight it in the open, now.
The alternative hero of that situation is the US government so …
That’s a very weird binary view. Do you think every situation involves one hero and one villain? I’d say many situations involve no heroes at all.
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
