A Democratic Scandal Is Unfolding in Denmark | Hacker News Reader

A Democratic Scandal Is Unfolding in Denmark

politiken.dk

59 pointsdgellow13 comments

http://web.archive.org/web/20220127221912/https://politiken....

The first line reveals the most important question in the article:

>"The Danish state is moving in an authoritarian direction by charging whistleblowers under sections of the law that should only be invoked against traitors."

The question of who is a traitor is (somewhat) answered later in the article, but I see the answer as unsatisfactory. The real question is that of political authority: does the government have a right to coerce, and does the populace have a duty to obey. It is my view that Michael Huemer answered these questions best: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Problem_of_Political_Autho...

edited to clarify question

so, there is something rotten in Denmark

Send for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

The real traitors are the politicians who have sold out to the US for decades.

> "The real traitors are the politicians who have sold out to the US for decades."

^^^ So much exactly this, yet for some inexplicable reason we have entire segments of the population that worship the politicians of their chosen "party" as celebrities or saints.

Snowden interviewed from Moscow, complaining about the intelligence services in Denmark.

Hard to imagine how one could be a more useful idiot for the Russian intelligence services.

I appreciate Snoden and understand him. But you're probably right, Russia is far worse than anything the NSA did.

I’m sure he’d love to move to a better place if a certain government didn’t make that impossible.

Let's talk about what "impossible" means.

If he had done, or were to do, to Russia, what he did to the United States, he would be dead. Full stop. Pun intended. And then, he truly would have moved to a better place, if you believe that sort of thing.

He could attempt a return to a country in the US orbit, and he would have to go to jail for a while. So, not in a better place, in a way. But he would be alive, and in a place with some integrity, which is better in other ways.

It is not impossible, in other words, for him to move to "better" places. We see very clearly his priorities in his decision while on Russian soil to speak to the actions of other intelligence services while maintaining silence on the actions of Russian intelligence.

If he had any integrity at all he would at minimum maintain silence.

As if Russia was relevant here. He leaked info about your own state spying on you. If you just accept that because said government points its finger to a far off useful antagonist, like it has done in the last election, I don't think throwing around terms like useful idiot is too adequate.

It sounds like you are not in the US, and don't have a solid grasp on the dynamics. I count myself among those who stand for democracy, of which the US is a poor but still extent example. Russia is, needless to say, not a democracy.

For all the faults of the US, humans in the world would be vastly less well off with Russia, or China, in positions of supremacy.

Snowden's actions, at the end of the day, were damaging for democracy. And every day he does the work of Russian intelligence- wittingly or no- is another day he damages democracy.

I'm sorry if that isn't clear to you. It is to me. Best wishes.

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