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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Brooks: Edward Snowden is the worst traitor EVER!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/opinion/brooks-the-solitary-leaker.htmlThe Solitary Leaker
By DAVID BROOKS
...He betrayed honesty and integrity, the foundation of all cooperative activity. He made explicit and implicit oaths to respect the secrecy of the information with which he was entrusted. He betrayed his oaths.
He betrayed the cause of open government. Every time there is a leak like this, the powers that be close the circle of trust a little tighter. They limit debate a little more.
He betrayed the privacy of us all. If federal security agencies cant do vast data sweeps, they will inevitably revert to the older, more intrusive eavesdropping methods.
He betrayed the Constitution. The founders did not create the United States so that some solitary 29-year-old could make unilateral decisions about what should be exposed. Snowden self-indulgently short-circuited the democratic structures of accountability, putting his own preferences above everything else.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)Barf, indeed.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)actions. The left want the rights of the Constitution reestablished. No Patriot Act, no domestic spying and no indefinite detention. Where do you stand?
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Can you say the same?
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)kind of questioning whether I am allied with you or not.
Not cool.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)was aimed at the left. And my question about where you stand was not intended to be disrespectful. It is often hard to tell how a poster leans from short posts. I apologize.
BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)I seem to be apologizing about once a day now.
sadbear
(4,340 posts)whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)Now watch his sentiments echoed ad nauseam by democrats on this board.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)He got his nose out of Republican ass long enough to write about Snowden?
noise
(2,392 posts)Has Brooks been tested lately for PED's? This is world class bullshit.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)WHAT DEBATE?
BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)Disclosing the existence of a deeply controversial secret program betrays the cause of open government. Ha ha ha.
Brooks also opens by noting that Snowden wasn't a very nice neighbor. Apparently this has something to do with something.
Quite an illustrious list of people who support the NSA's surveillance program. Ari Fleischer, John Yoo, Karl Rove, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, David Brooks, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
boilerbabe
(2,214 posts)reformist2
(9,841 posts)Soma, anyone?
Nay
(12,051 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)I offer Snowden my support. Continue to suppose this system of corruption. We've had enough of it.
It's too bad this skull fuck hasn't a clue, now isn't it? If he'd stop for one second and realize that corporations can invade our privacy (pick up your smart phone and survey something, then get a thousand pings from related retailers trying to sell it to you. These entities who don't even exist as humans leak information to other entities - intra-governmental ones, so that PEOPLE can't make one move commerce or otherwise without corporations knowing it.
And, here come the "whistleblowers" who want to get Mr. and Mrs America to wake the fuck up.... THEY are the problem?
Please fuck yourself, David.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)As I watch ads of shit I searched up.
This shit has to STOP.
Tor will be installed this weekend.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)reformist2
(9,841 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)some extent and we need to know what's going on. Obviously our government wont tell us without whistle-blowers opening the door. Attacking the whistle-blowers doesnt clear the air. Something is going on in secret and we are being told to trust our government.
Well go ahead and trust our government, put your fingers in your ears, close your eyes and sing the Star Spangled F'in Banner, but just remember that in a few years someone you dont worship may hold the controls of this surveillance machine.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)He betrayed the cause of open government by leaking the fact that there are secret programs that are being used to collect privated data? Huh?
He betrayed the privacy of us all because if the government can't do a small intrusion they'll do an even bigger one? Huh??
He betrayed the Constitution, that meaningless piece of paper, because he decided to inform the citizenry of what its government was doing instead of letting it stay secret? HUH????
Serious question: what drugs is this guy on?
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)That will fuck your head up far worse than any drug.
Basically Brooks is a propagandist for the 1%.
Brooks always starts with his conclusion and writes the article in order to reach that conclusion, usually he's a bit more facile but this was a particularly difficult stretch so it's not up to his usual standards.
Note that ten DUers have recced this piece of blithering idiocy by a noted Republican apologist.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)I've been asking BOrGers if they put their posts through Google Translate because I honestly cannot understand what they are writing. I've never seen so much convoluted thinking in my life. It's blowing my mind. They're really coming out of the dark shadows on this one.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... on another thread. If someone new comes through DU right now and reads this crap, they will get lost in about 2 minutes.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Secrecy is Informed Consent
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)who ends up be turned in by his own kids. It's helping me understand Jonestown though. Sheer fucking mass hysteria.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)as it will not leave theirs once the implications of this intrusion implicate them.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)you forgot that one
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)You have got to be shitting me!
All the casualties from phony wars and murdered intel assets don't count?
We have been wiretapped and spied on for a long time. This is nothing new. Just the scale.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)What a stupid column.
xocet
(3,872 posts)Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Well, no, he can't. My ass is nice.
He can kiss my garbage can.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)Abq_Sarah
(2,883 posts)What? His argument is if the government can't spy on all of us... they will spy on all of us?
Ford_Prefect
(7,919 posts)I think he did.
The rules he "broke" in so doing are still subject to a higher moral truth. Unlike some he was not "only following orders".
I think we cannot accept at face value the denials of those in power, regardless of party or office. If there was a truth to defend that would stand the light of day they would have presented it. Instead they tell us not to look at the men behind the curtain.
There are far too many precedents to this event to accept the excuse that we are better off not knowing how the secret world acts on our behalf and that we can trust it to behave responsibly without oversight.
I refer you to Senators Mark Udall and Ron Wyden: http://www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=3479
Too Many Secrets...
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... that wasn't fit to print! Did I read the word conscience in that article anywhere? If so, it did not stick out at me. All I could see was David Brooks "view" of Snowden's mistake of NOT being blindingly loyal to an "oath" to the National Security State (NSS).
The reason we didn't see the word "conscience" is that David Brooks doesn't have one. To him, one's conscience is forfeited when you take the oath to the nether world of the NSS of our government. Without a conscience, you go about your business of doing the unconscionable, like it's factory work. Like a hit man. No conscience, no problem. Hey, you have a job! And a good paying one too.
But Edward Snowden goofed up bad. He let his conscience creep in and felt he just could not go on. And by God, he felt he needed to get it off his chest. It wasn't enough to just quit, walk away and keep his mouth shut. He might not have felt any loyalty to the NSS, but he did feel loyalty to the Constitution of the USA.
I've done allot of reading in my life and when he called Snowden "unmediated" in the first paragraph, I had to stop and look up the word. WTF does "mediate" mean. The definition of that word in my mind didn't match up with Brook's usage of it. Sounds faintly like a Union term. What I found in the old fashioned dictionary could barely match Brooks definition. Basically, his NYTimes editorial put-down of Snowden defined the word.
Oh yeah, and now since ES "betrayed the cause of open government", there will have to be even MORE secrecy. Really. I can't imagine MORE secrecy.
The closest Brooks gets to Snowden's "conscience" he calls "his own preferences" or his "moral dilemmas."
And the last paragraph is absolutely incomprehensible. This man needs to be taken away in a straight-jacket. He has left his mind.
I have never read such garbage in my life. Not even by David Brooks.
What. A. Prostitute. For the National Security State.
Thanks, jsr, for the OP. I had not heard of this editorial yet.
RANT OFF
In the words of Paul Simon:
I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest...
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)It's worse than sabotaging the Hanoi peace talks to extend the Vietnam war and win an election.
It's much worse than sabotaging the Iran hostage release negotiations to win an election.
It's worser than lying about a countries threat capability in order to launch a premeditated, pre-emptive war against them, killing tens of thousands and spending trillions.
It's certainly much worse than turning your back on your country to lead a rebel army against the USA, thus prolonging a conflict that took hundreds of thousands of lives.
It's even worse than selling out fellow spies for money, and seeing those spies killed by our enemies.
Yes it is!