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Comment by dead_phish | Hacker News Reader

I have very little sympathy for his monetary plight. He made his bed, let him sleep in it.

Or rather, when your giant paycheck comes from the government, maybe torquing off that government in the most flamboyant way possible isn't the best of ideas.

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I'm very disappointed with people that share your attitude. He gave up a lot to disclose unethical (and downright illegal) behaviour - for the betterment of society, knowing full-well the consequences. He also explicitly stated that this was not about him - so your flamboyant statements are WAY off the mark.

Here's the tip: research a topic before posting misinformation, unless you endorse breaching the 4th amendment, and lies all the way from Obama down.

But ... i'm heartened that very few people share your view.

So true. The comments section on time.com almost got me a heart attack. Thought that HN would not be infected with that breed of ignorant nationalistic sheeps.. Thank you for restoring my faith

If he wanted to do the right thing, he should have gone to his Congressman, or the oversight arm of the NSA (it does exist, regardless of how inefficient it seems to be).

I'm stuck in the odd position of thinking both Snowden and the government are wrong, which seems to piss both sets of hardliners off. I'm not arguing that the NSA is right to slurp our data, and I'm not trying to defend that - I think it's reprehensible. However, I also think that Snowden did not exhaust all his legal options before deciding to play secret agent and scarper off to Hong Kong. I think if it truly wasn't about him, he wouldn't have gone to the press first thing. If he'd been shutdown after going through those channels? Sure, leak everything. He chose instead to play the hero.

Yeh, let's all roll over. Who would want to do the right thing when you can do the easy thing?

Who's saying he did the right thing? There's more then 1 perspective on this.

The opposite argument to saying he did the moral thing is to say he did the immoral thing, not to say "serves him right for upsetting the people paying his salary"

I would argue other wise, on two counts. What I said was that I have no sympathy for him biting the hand that feeds.

Second, I think that the situation has been vastly over complicated by attempts to colour matters as some sort of grand moral crusade. Snowden is not a white knight, nor is he a traitor. He's a man who did what he thought was right. I disagree with his methods, and think that his actions (leaking to journalists rather than going through the appropriate oversight channels (or even just dropping a USB drive off at his Congressman's office, with a break down of what it all means)) negates any sort of 'moral right' that the community has been ascribing to Snowden.

The moral crusade is against the NSA, not for Snowden. There's a distinct difference between the two.

Yes, a Constitutional one and an unconstitutional one.

Yeah you are right. There is no doubt that revealing the truth is a disobedient act and must be severely punished in order to restore peace and public blindness. Now watch TV and go to sleep and feed the economy, will ya?

There's an irony in how aggressive people are in downvoting any comment which doesn't toe the "Snowden is clearly right" line loudly.

Dissent, ironically, must be crushed on this issue it seems.

It's not like you're making an argument, you just call what some would consider doing the public a service "torquing off that government in the most flamboyant way possible". If you're gonna dissent, argue... but don't be silly, and then pretend the reaction to that sillyness is an argument ;)

You might note I'm not the author of the comment you're referring to.

So I guess you're not going to say thank you.

Wow, you are a dick. Or completely clueless.

please replace "or" with and

Well, yes I am a dick, but I also think the situation is more nuanced than 'rah rah free Snowden'.

Sorry, the comment you're replying to makes an actual argument. Your reply of "wow, you're a dick" does not.

I find no objection that dead_phish should express this view if that's how he feels. It is a valid viewpoint even if it is not shared. I also commend him for expressing it in a community like HN which, let's be honest, does not tolerate dissenting views of Snowden.

It's kind of sad that his dissenting view is downvoted and your name-calling is not.

Thank you. I was a little disturbed by how quickly this turned to "you're an ass for not thinking this way." I expected disagreement, but not, well, so much rage.

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