Snowden did however try to run it up the chain of command, and was told to sit down and shut up. Once all legal means have been exhausted, going illegal is generally acceptable, IMO
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.
Not really and a bit hyperbolic. According to Snowden he went to 10 "district officials" of which none of them took action. The NSA as well as other DoD agencies have a channel for complaints like this to go through where they're seen by a group of people, not a district official. Snowden never made reference to filing one of those as far as I can find. All we have is his word he told someone relevant but completely skipped the appropriate channel for such reporting. So I'm not sure he actually exhausted his legal means.
I just don't have the data to say either way. But I'm still not sure I'd go with the "going illegal is generally acceptable" even after that; that's a risky judgement call that I think always has to be contextual.
We know the chain was complicit all the way up to Clapper, and so did Snowden, which then makes "proper paths" illegitimate.
Thats why I said "generally"