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Comment by benreesman | Hacker News Reader

My opinion is based on a lot more first hand experience than most, some of which I’m at liberty to share and some that I’m not and therefore becomes “color”.

But I’m a nobody, Edward Snowden has a far more convincing track record on calling abuses of power: https://community.openai.com/t/edward-snowden-on-openai-s-de...

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Here's Edward Snowden heroically waffling about "nuance" when asked why he hasn't spoken out more about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On a crypto website. He became a full citizen of Russia in autumn 2022, by the way.

https://www.coindesk.com/video/edward-snowden-explains-why-h...

I don’t know why people who risked their life to expose something a certain injustice (NSA surveillance in this case) that they had ample firsthand knowledge of, should be expected to sacrifice their life to expose every other injustice out there.

He can get arrested and killed if he speaks out like that against Russia, especially because Putin personally intervened to give him and his wife citizenship. There is an understanding that his actions made the United States look bad and that's why he is getting this and that's pretty much it. If he causes problems in Russia he can go bye bye.

Right. It's fine for him to be as cowardly as everyone else! But then he's not a hero who speaks truth to power, unlike say Vladimir Kara-Murza.

He did upend his entire life to stand up for something he believed in and now is in the sights of the US gov until the day he dies. The fact that he does not also want to be a sacrificial lamb to speak out on Ukraine doesn’t really compromise that fact in my mind.

Snowden is not seeking death, he seeks justice. You won't get the latter by speaking up against a dictator while being in his hands.

In contrast Chelsea Manning did not run off to a country run by a dictator but had some sense of conviction.

Snowden is sadly now a useful idiot.

Snowden didn't choose Russia, the USA chose for him by cancelling his passport (!).

I guess it beats Venezuela, Iran, North Korea or other places less comfortable.

Much easier to get out of harm's way when you've already got the example of Manning showing you that you need to.

What has he said that you consider ‘idiotic’?

The term "useful idiot" refers to Lenin - basically it is folks who might not be for the communist cause but are propaganda tools and usually ignorant they are being used.

The term "useful idiot" was invented by conservatives in the West during the Cold War, as a slur against social democrats.

Lenin never used it. It didn't even exist during his lifetime.

It was a slur against collaborators with communism, not against social democrats: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/08/22/useful-idiot/

The slur was originally directed against social democrats by conservatives who accused them of helping communism.

Later, the term became a much more general slur used by conservatives against anyone who wasn't sufficiently "tough" against the USSR.

Tbf he already has 1 superpower after his head.

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