He took it upon himself to inform us Yes. And there would seem to be merit to his claims of unconstitutional domestic surveillance, but I'm not wasting any more time explaining that he released much more than that. It's impossible to understand, but only because it isn't true. You are completely and undeniably wrong. Look at the disclosures so far. It is plain to see that he released information concerning constitutionally permitted activity undertaken in the pursuit of legitimate national security objectives, e.g. Al-Qaeda surveillance programs. Of course not everything released has been in the best interest of the nation, but it's been in the best interest of the nation's people. This is debatable, and not in the bad way. It speaks to much larger questions of government responsibility and accountability and your personal feelings on the conduct of the war on terror. I will assert, however, that national defense objectives have been and will continue to be adversely impacted by his disclosures and that has a direct impact on the people of this nation. No one has said he's been perfect, only that he did what needed to be done. He did one thing that needed to be done. The rest are unquestionably illegal and well over the line into treason. The mental gymnastics it takes to believe he's somehow in the wrong are astounding. Olympic-level. Ur dum to lol. Best take a seat because I'm heading into my final floor routine next. That tells me everything I need to know about you. An utter lack of nuance, and a facile view of morality. Ad Hominem attacks with no bearing on the argument, immediate assumption of moral superiority, snap character judgments, overuse of flowery language, indications of a limited education in moral theory...There's a Fedora somewhere with your name on it, if not on your head right now. Fight the urge. And the irony of that statement does not escape me. What does that even fucking mean? That we're all supposed to put up with it because we're American? That's fucking astoundingly stupid. You should >be ashamed of writing it. Why thank you for asking. First, you should recognize that I was referencing this: or was this a knee-jerk regurgitation of oversimple moral lessons you learned as a kid that didn't mature when you did? and not anything Eddie "Benedict Arnold 3.0" Snowden did. What it means is: You cannot argue this issue from a perspective devoid of practical considerations. This is to say that when the great wailing and gnashing of moral teeth ends, wherever you find the issue on the moral spectrum is immaterial, because the question of whether this was good for our national security (which I will conflate with the security of the people for the sake of argument) has only 2 answers. It's actually a well constructed point and I'm not ashamed of having written it. Again, this is quite telling. That you'd broadly paint all of this--presumably including what Snowden did--as "wannabe counter-culture bullshit" tells me >that you're one of those Murica Morons who thinks that the only thing that matters is what the government tells us matters. You're incapable of >thinking for yourself, so you defer your critical brain to someone else. I just explained that the counterculture comment wasnt about Edward "Aldrich Ames Ain't Shit" Snowden, but about you. This is where I descended into personal anger. I can't wrap my head around the astounding ignorance that pervades large swathes of my beloved 'merica. A certain "fuck the man, man" that I thought had maybe grown up into a mature, critical viewpoint on government accountability and just rubs me oh-so-wrongly. And tinfoil? Motherfucker, there is no tinfoil. All that people had been afraid of has been confirmed, dipshit. Fuck your blanket "national security" >bullshit. Freedom comes at a price. You can't be completely free and completely safe, and I choose the former. So fuck off to some communist state if >you want to be safe. Y'know I think we have more in common politically than you may think. I'm largely libertarian. I own multiple firearms, get buttfucked on taxes, and want the government out of my personal life as much as possible. Where we differ is that I believe a strong stance on national security/defense is not wholly incompatible with small-government philosophy. The rest of your tirade in that last paragraph doesn't really warrant a response.