Does anybody remember this movie about him released in 2016 too?
The government is outsourcing its spying to private companies. Now private companies build dossiers on every human alive. The government betrayed us on an epic scale by no longer protecting our privacy. It was a great shift few people even realize and has set the stage for a future of control.
Nah, dawg, ya gotta get ahead of the game and these Illuminati bitches got all these individuals acting all autonomously, like, fuck, imagine if you was the same damn authority as God. And that’s why we speak with the authority of our Father in the CIA. You are what you are and we are all one interconnected being of consciousness defined by the entanglements we make with our “selves.” The shit you believe is real ain’t as real as ya think.
My memory goes back to the NSA combined with AT&T spying in San Francisco from the 2000s, of course. That was the first time I remember knowing, for sure, that the spy agencies were spying on millions of Americans whenever they possibly could… And some of us cared about it, but the vast majority of the population either didn’t listen or didn’t care.
If they didn’t care then, then of course they didn’t care about Snowden, or Assange, or [insert whistleblower’s name here]. And that’s not to blame the individual people. Of course they have a responsibility to learn. But they also need institutions, such as universities and libraries and media companies, to get their asses in gear helping people understand the tech enough to know exactly when it’s fucking them over.
I have the biography and I need to start it.
Just to add my 2 cents: the list of countries that the US can’t extradite is not that long, especially when you exposed government corruption of the highest degree and you are considered a traitor.
Against his personal safety he told the world what was going on. I feel its unfair to demand that he should have chosen a better country to flee in order to not be thrown in some forsaken US hole with the time he had…
I feel like call him traitor is fundamentally misunderstanding the sacrifice of one safety to alert your country that your own country is spying on you. Like the Army guy that went to jail for speaking out against the current regime (forgot the name).
These are the people doing the sacrifice no one is willing to do for Americans and the World. In my eyes they are heroes just by standing up for everyone
He actually offered to return to the US if they accepted that he would be given a public trial and not a military trial.
Obama’s administration rejected the idea and said that their only guarantee they would give was that they wouldn’t torture him.
Just to add my 2 cents: the list of countries that the US can’t extradite is not that long, especially when you exposed government corruption of the highest degree and you are considered a traitor.
EDIT:
Just to add my 2 cents: the list of countries that the US can’t extradite is not that long, especially when you exposed government corruption of the highest degree and you are considered a traitor.
Just to add, Snowden also indirectly exposed the US’s leverage in several countries that you would otherwise assume would not cooperate with the US in any capacity.
The fact that he ended up in Russia was because he couldn’t proceed to Ecuador which was his original planned location of asylum after leaving to Hong Kong.
There are really very few countries the US can’t realistically coerce or run a black ops mission to go after him. China didn’t want the political baggage for no gain and Iran can’t even protect its own leaders from strategic bombing.
That leaves basically Russia and its less than ideal former soviet allies.
Obama just said he wouldn’t give him a pardon, but the administration did say they would give him legal protections and thought he would get a fair trial. One thing to remember is that we typically have 3 branches of government. These days, not so much it feels like
(forgot the name)
Currently known as Chelsea Manning.
These are the people doing the sacrifice no one is willing to do for Americans and the World.
if you’re going to sacrifice yourself don’t stop at the hand, take the whole head.
In my eyes they are heroes just by standing up for everyone
heroes don’t need people to defend their actions because the actions of a hero need no validation.
Snowden is just a man. he’s no hero.
I watched that movie with my girlfriend at the time and her father. After the movie had ended and the credits rolled, her father turned to us and simply said “He is a traitor”. I fucking hated her father so much lol
Well, he is, and that’s why he’s based. He betrayed the state and stood with the people
lol wtf
TBF he did attempt to flee to China then successfully fled to Russia.
Where was he supposed to go? London? Paris? You think US allies wouldn’t hand in over when asked?
France did speak out against the USA publicly after the news broke, so that was one option, yes. TBH Snowden had no reason to believe Russia or China would keep him after he already outlived his usefulness, unless perhaps they still think he’s useful even now.
After the US had revoked his passport, while he was already in Russia, en route to Ecuador.
Then he shouldn’t have picked China and Russia as his first two options. While speaking with reporters he was already in Hong Kong intending to cross into China but realized they have an extradition agreement with the USA.
intending to cross into China
This is simply not true. Source?
It simply makes no sense otherwise why he would go to Hong Kong before leaking the intel, and then with China puing strings to get him into Russia after his failure to reach Cuba or Ecuador.
Almost everyone forget easily and move on, as few – mostly activists – know who he is and what he did believing it was the best for humanity.
ITT: “bro he tried to flee to China and then fled to Russia” ad nauseum.
It would feel less like astroturfing if it wasn’t like verbatim the same thing over and over again.
but it’s literally what happened.
you want people to make shit up like the magats?
edit: ahhh, I get it. the magats love Snowden because of course they would. he did everything every magat wants to do.
- sell out Americans to the Russians and Chinese
- play the victim
- pretend to be the hero
- do less than nothing to support change
- flee to Russia
the only thing he didn’t do was want to fuck kids, but I suppose we can overlook that since he’s technically no longer American.
For some reason I read that as Roger Stone and I was confused.
I’m still surprised how the whole Snowden scandal happened and… we kept going. Same for the Panama papers and in a slightly different way also the 2008 crisis and Covid. All moments we could have used to steer the wheel but nobody did
And now we have the Epstein files ☺️
all the same people
redacted
at this point i wonder what kind of scandal would it require for people to not just keep going
Expensive gas
Widespread starvation.
As long as the “working masses” can still feed their children, the vast majority of us bow to whatever authority wants to rule them.
It’s the same here in Germany.
Human history and existence is one big ball of “just keep going” doused in a heap of “this is awful but imma make some babies because horny” so it just keeps going.
It’s pretty messed up but here we are. Going. Because what’s the alternative?
I think the Epstein Files have done that. Look at how much defense Trump has been forced to play.
I saw a documentary once where a wasp had a specific routine when arriving back home, and they showed the routine normally several times and then they showed the wasp doing the exact same thing after having been beheaded- no head to clean, but the wasp swiped its foreleg in the general area, then continued on the rest.
This was given as a difference between wasps and humans, or more generally, between instinctual and considered actions.
At first I worried a little, because I noticed how much I did on autopilot. Then I realized how much everyone does on autopilot and then I worried a lot.
I think if we were able to continue walking around without our heads, people absolutely would.
As someone recently pointed out, the breaking point seems to be when people don’t have to eat.
The crash of 1929. Because rich people lost money.
Pretty sure people would forget Thanos.
“I’m for the jobs the halvening will provide”
Not until the US runs out of borrowing capacity will they balk at anything I think. There is no shame, only money to be stole.
I’m shocked that Europe and others happily saddle themselves under US surveillance fully knowing the details.
There hasn’t really been an alternative before now, the USA was a technological superpower offering services which only existed there and to a lesser extent in China (who wants to kill the EU and NATO to make conquests easier).
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A whole lot came about from the Panama Papers, you just stopped paying attention.
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Very few people trust the guy who attempted to flee to China and successfully fled to Russia. For good fucking reason, too.
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There have also been a lot of discussions and legislatures involving the NSA and surveillance since then, though people keep voting for Trump (in part because of Russian and Chinese psyops supporting him) so not as much legislation as I’d like.
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Watch a better movie about him: Citizen Four
What’s weird is JGL did this twice. Once with Edward Snowden and once with Philippe Petit.
Stone’s film isn’t that good, Citizenfour is much better. You can watch it here: https://archive.org/details/citizenfour-2014
At least it mentioned Ed and recognized his importance.
Stone is fast and loose with historical details.
I liked the documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenfour
Watched it when it came out…can’t believe it’s been 12 years! Very good doco.
Companies like Google profit enormously from data-mining of your personal searches, behaviour and habits. There is more money in selling that data than in selling a product. It’s surveillance capitalism. It really is a new kind of totalitarianism
ironically this is not what snowden brought to light - that was the government hacking and access everything, from which there has been little to no downside
the greatest threat to our society has been facebook, x, and all the other shitty media that has corrupted our democracy and aided totalitarians and monsters like russia
spying on terrorists has been a great asset
snowden is now just another russian asset
stone is a lunatic fantasist, but also a great artist
that was the government hacking and access everything, from which there has been little to no downside
Attention everyone screaming about tankies: this is the guy you neet to watch out for.
My 20 year old son doesn’t know who Snowden is.
That’s intentional. It’s the same reason no one will be reading about Jan6 in history books anytime soon.
Just another business plot
I worked with a woman about ten years ago who was probably about 40 who didn’t know who he was. I immediately lost respect for her.
And now you gotta wonder about what other activists you never heard about, yourself
I should know the relevant ones of at least three decades. My interest started with Bamford.
Snowden is a direct catalyst for Trump. :/
been saying this for at least since 2022. you’re going to get downvoted to oblivion but you’re right.
How so
He gave the means to manipulate governments through the internet to Americas enemies.
Ah. Thanks.
Oh no.
Or, ya know, the person it was based on. Who gave up his life and fled the country to blow the whistle and we did nothing.
I don’t think you read the whole title lol. I mentioned him. He is a true American.
I read the title. It’s just insulting to invoke the film as the warning, in my opinion. Most of all because the warning actually came 10 years earlier than that.
The film is now 10 years old. This was all in good intentions.
Article from South China Morning Post lol
