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Comment by opportune | Hacker News Reader

What’s the reasoning then? As far as I can tell he thought he was doing the right thing at the time, even if you might think he was naive or misguided. Surely the support for his actions indicates to you there are people out there who would have done what he did if they were in his position no?

I guess, to me being a traitor has connotations of deliberate intent to do harm due to some kind of external loyalty. While he certainly betrayed the IC, besides him ending up in Russia (which realistically is like one of a handful of countries that would take a guy like that), I’m not aware of any signs he was acting on behalf of anybody except himself

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It seems either like his goal was treason, and going public was a bargaining chip to avoid being extrajudicially disappeared somewhere or whistleblowing was his goal and doing it in an adversarial country with loads of confidential documents that have nothing to do with any possible NSA wrongdoing was a bargaining chip to avoid US prosecution.

The latter seems far more likely to me as an observer, but in either case, both public revealation AND harm to the US were on the table.

> As far as I can tell he thought he was doing the right thing at the time

That’s what he said, that’s not necessarily what was actually true. I no longer believe him given his subsequent actions.

> Surely the support for his actions indicates to you there are people out there who would have done what he did

If you’re suggesting that there could have been genuine patriotic whistleblowers, I agree. But Snowden’s actions have proven he’s not genuinely patriotic but a supporter of a genocidal regime.

> to me being a traitor has connotations of deliberate intent to do harm due to some kind of external loyalty

That’s not what the word means. Betrayal of country can occur for any number of reasons, for instance ego or greed are often involved.

Sounds like you expect him to die in Russia. To prove to an internet nobody that he’s loyal—very privileged take there.

I’m guessing you never risked anything in your life, ammirite?

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