So to understand the argument...

[jpgray]

Honorable Snowden would have persisted in aiding and abetting practices he believed to be illegal and wrong, never telling a soul.

Brave Snowden would have kept cashing fat checks and cooling his heels in Hawaii with his dancer girlfriend.

Treacherous Snowden speaks out about government practices he believes to be illegal and wrong, not to a government but to journalists.

Cowardly Snowden would enjoy a freewheeling life on the run, skipping from haven to haven in a globe-trotting lifelong vacation. Nothing could be easier than to be wanted and pursued for treason by the most powerful government in the world - a charge to be answered by his death upon apprehension.

Do these words mean what you think they mean?

[JI7]

1. he could have stopped working there and got another job

[jpgray]

4. Ellsberg shoulda gone into plastics.

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Silence is complicity.

[frylock]

18. lalalalalalalalalalala

[KittyWampus]

20. He took the job specifically to steal documents and distribute them to other countries.

[Narkos]

2. Or just spilling the beans on our

perfectly legitimate intelligence efforts against our adversaries. You left that part out

[Gravitycollapse]

6. My God, you think data mining hundreds of millions of phone calls is "perfectly legitimate."

We're all fucked.

[Narkos]

10. Arguing w someone like you

Is really like arguing w a climate denialist. It's very sad

[frylock]

19. you're the one in denial in this scenario

[jpgray]

8. All the canniest spies do tedious interviews with Glenn Greenwald, I'm sure

[JI7]

3. if he has a problem with those govt practices why did he go to a place like hong kong

[jpgray]

7. Sex tourism?

We need a kink angle if we want a smear to hold anyone's attention.

[JI7]

9. then it's not bringing attention to the issue whatever that is supposed to be

[frylock]

21. you mean the issue that EVERYONE is talking about?

that's the issue he's not bringing attention to? you want to stick with that?

[leftstreet]

11. Candidate Obama said he'd strengthen whistleblower laws

Has he kept ANY promises he made?

[okaawhatever]

16. I don't think you've been paying attention to all the good that has been done. That or

you don't want to admit it. Either way you don't seem very well informed.

[frylock]

22. what does that have to do with the whistleblower laws?

you sound like the neocons telling us about all the good we've done in Iraq. look at all the schools we've built! just please overlook all the schools we destroyed.

[JI7]

12. didn't he complain about not making more money

or at least the 6 figures not being enough to buy other things he wanted ?

[jpgray]

14. $3,000 more a week and he would have been an honorable true-blooded American

[cthulu2016]

13. "cowardly" is now a term of art. It means disagreeably brave.

flying airplanes into buildings is evil, but obviously not cowardly.

putting ones self in the cross-hairs of the USA by publishing secrets using your freaking name and face (!) is whatever it is, but obviously not cowardly.

In general, people who go out of their way to place themselves in extreme danger are not being cowardly. They may, however, be extremely evil.

It's just some pathetic shit people say because it implies that they (the speakers) are courageous for running their fat mouths.

[jpgray]

15. Why don't people understand you can be brave and an obnoxious asshole at once?

[JI7]

17. in this case i just don't think he is brave

because he ran off to hong kong

[frylock]

23. but he would be brave if he were rotting in gitmo..

correct? is that your argument?

[marions ghost]

24. was just thinking about this a little while ago--

how it has become so hard these days for people to imagine that someone like Snowden would act out of conscience.

He MUST be a spy, or giving things to foreign governments. If that were true, would he do it so publicly? It's hard for me to believe people actually think this way. "Everyone out for themselves" = the modus operandi of the entire nation? If Snowden wanted to work for China, would he do it this way? He had the means to do so much more effectively and secretly.

I have to chalk it up to the fact that some Americans just can't imagine the guy feeling compelled to act because a monstrous wrong should be righted. It's too idealistic. He's got to be distributing some secrets or other for something in return. Why when the secrets are already being exposed for all the world to see. And it does not reflect well on the US or our government. That's the problem. The truth hurts too much.

Instead of being receptive to the idea that Snowden acted on behalf of the people of the US and the world, a segment of the population wants to paint him as villainous, cowardly and stupid. And as you say, the "brave and honorable Snowden" would have shut up about it, suffered in silence and taken up heavy drinking. Not very noble really.

good OP
K&R