• AllonzeeLV
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        83
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” ― Anatole France

        • FlickOfTheBean
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          dhs

          Well that makes more sense than the Obama admin coming up with it

          Bout to say, I could have sworn I was hearing that well before Obama was president. That’s a Bush admin slogan, isn’t it?

          • ArgentRaven
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            I think they had that phrase on WWII propaganda posters as well. More to do with potential espionage of enemy countries, though.

            Edit: totally wrong, it was coined on Sept 12, 2001 by New York advertising executive Allen Kay.

            • FlickOfTheBean
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              2 years ago

              Oh ok so I had the source wrong, that’s quite an effective ad exec.

              It definitely was a major background color to the early 2000s atmosphere.

    • moormaan@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thanks for reiterating this and posting a source. Every time I see an article on Snowden year over year, someone brings up the tired old “argument” that because he is now trapped in Russia, that somehow makes everything he did “wrong”, and invalidates everything he exposed the government for doing. The media campaign against him was apparently quite effective, and these soundbites are ever ready to jump out of people’s mouths without any research or critical thinking.

    • MxM111@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      95
      ·
      2 years ago

      And of course, the next logical step is to leak gigabytes of secret and sensitive information.

      • AllonzeeLV
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        96
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        …Leaked to a reputable member of the fourth estate to decide what was safe to report. Do you disagree with the founders of the United States about the importance of the fourth estate’s role in keeping leadership honest?

        The only other steps short of that would have been to either quit and shut the fuck up or continue participating and shut the fuck up.

        Sounds like you just wanted him to shut the fuck up about your freedoms being eroded by the government that’s supposed to protect them.

        I don’t believe willful ignorance is a defensible position, ever.

      • Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        55
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        It very much is, if the offense is egregious. And the NSA spying on everyone and their employees trading nudes the NSA collected very much is egregious. And to make it sound like he just dumped the raw leaks does not make your argument seem more credible.

        • MxM111@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          73
          ·
          2 years ago

          Or, you know, he could have talked to journalists without such security breach.

          • Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            40
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            The security breach was the NSA letting anyone fiddle with the data. They should be thankful Snowden leaked them instead of a foreign intelligence service listening in for years unnoticed.

            • scottywh
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              9
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 years ago

              Yeah… It honestly just made clear how damn inept everyone involved is and has been for a very long time…

            • SCB
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              12
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              Except it’s exactly what David Grusch did, with no proof, and yet we have multiple oversight hearings and amendments to the defense authorization, and he made international news

                • SCB
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  spending billions illegally

                  That is literally what Grusch testified about.

          • scottywh
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            That’s basically what he did…

            🤣

              • scottywh
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                15
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                2 years ago

                Lol… He gave the egregious “secret data” that Americans fully deserved to know about to a fucking journalist (Glenn Greenwald)

                So, I disagree.

                • SCB
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  6
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  Glen Greenwald is not a “journalist” lol

      • Grant_M@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        34
        ·
        2 years ago

        You’re getting downvoted for stating what Snowden out for what he is – a Kremlin operative traitor.

        • Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          He had no other choice. Russia was not his first goal to find refuge in. But germany and other countries did not take him in.

          • Grant_M@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            12
            ·
            2 years ago

            No one wants to take in a criminal. No one, except war criminal Putin, of course.

          • SCB
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            17
            ·
            2 years ago

            Because taking in a compromised Russian operative is a bad idea

  • flop_leash_973
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    127
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 years ago

    Snowden is a textbook example of why organizations should not be allowed to police themselves or control the avenues of reporting misconduct.

    There should be a memorial to him in DC. Ruined his life to tell the people what their elected officials are doing with all of the power we grant them.

    But no, to save face, ego, etc we drove him into the willing arms of Putin to be able to use as a propaganda tool so he wouldn’t be killed for daring to speak truth to power.

    Support for prosecuting him did untold damage to my opinion of Obama.

    • CoolSouthpaw
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      Same. Honestly, fuck Obama. He’s not as bad as Trump, but he’s still a corporate Democrat shill.

    • vettnerk@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Snowden deserved Obamas pardon a lot more than Manning. I get the sense that Manning leaked stuff for the sake of leaking stuff, while Snowden uncovered a vast domestic and unconstitutional espionage program to which the general public was unaware.

      • raspberriesareyummy
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 years ago

        NSA being an angry little child with a napkin aside, I believe there was a legal hurdle to Snowden being pardoned: You need to be tried & sentenced before a presidential pardon can be applied, as far as I understood.

        • Exatron
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          17
          ·
          2 years ago

          Surprisingly, that actually isn’t required. Nixon was pardoned without even being indicted.

          • raspberriesareyummy
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 years ago

            hmm - interesting. I thought this topic was debated when the orange turd was thinking about pardoning itself preemptively…

            • Exatron
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 years ago

              That’s a different issue since it’s not clear whether a president has the power to pardon themself.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 years ago

      Of course he’s not a traitor. He exposed politicians who were actively violating the constitution. Those politicians are the traitors, traitors to American ideals and laws. At the very least, they’re criminals.

  • Refract@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    2 years ago

    Meme aside, I’m commenting to show appreciation for the correct use of quotation marks. Grammar nazi stamp of approval.

    • AllonzeeLV
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      43
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 years ago

      “Grammar nazi stamp of approval.”

      This is a sentence fragment.

        • SatansMaggotyCumFart
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          17
          ·
          2 years ago

          Thanks for the information but jeez that makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason.

          • candybrie
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            2 years ago

            It’s like the unclosed paren (but correct (craziness).

            • sgtlighttree
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              2 years ago

              I’ve never seen this, but maybe since sentences with a parenthesis in it very rarely get a line break in the middle?

              • nodiet@feddit.de
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                edit-2
                2 years ago

                It is rather common in books, where you often see direct speech spanning multiple paragraphs.

                Edit: sorry, I misinterpeted/misread the comment. I’ve never seen the double parentheses thing either

                • thrawn
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  The quotation mark one is common in books yeah, but the parentheses one referred to by the comment you responded to isn’t. I haven’t seen that one either.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            Being a programmer finally won out over my writing background. For example, I know the rule in the US is to include punctuation inside the quotation marks, but I just can’t do it anymore if the punctuation mark is not actually part of the quote. “The British do it right, in my opinion”.

        • Nora@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          2 years ago

          As a native English speaker I feel like I get a say in this. This is the worst rule I’ve seen proposed. Unbalanced quotation marks are confusing as hell.

          • Gork@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yeah what the hell. It’s like having unmatched parentheses when coding.

          • SouthernCanadian@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            2 years ago

            While we’re at it, putting punctuation inside quotation marks when it’s not actually part of the quote also needs to be fixed. And the whole he/she thing.

        • sgtlighttree
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          YES! I’ve seen this formatting a lot in published books but never on the internet.

    • IndiBrony
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      2 years ago

      "Correct use of “quotation marks”

      I don’t think OP’s meme used quotation marks correctly… 👀

      • moody@lemmings.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 years ago

        Normally if a quote spans multiple paragraphs, you don’t close the quote at the end of the paragraph, but you do start the next paragraph with quote marks.

        This is just one sentence with three sets of double quotes.

        • MBM@lemmings.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 years ago

          I can’t imagine it being grammatically sound to have a sentence span multiple paragraphs though.

    • gullible@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      39
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 years ago

      There’s no chance he’ll be allowed back in the US after, understandably, becoming a piece of the Russian propaganda pie. He’s basically trapped in Russia. On the bright side, it’s a gilded cage where he resides with his family.

    • AllonzeeLV
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Not even an impossible task. We just need a President that actually loves what America professes to aspire to. It’s what the Presidential pardon is for.

      Any decade now…

  • BilboBargains
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    2 years ago

    Not like that! Do it how we meant to say but couldn’t quite bring ourselves to say publicly. The way that protects the military industrial complex and the corporations and the lobbyists and the government officials from any charge of mendacious greed.

    My favourite moment of that era was when Obama told us he was just about to drop dime on all the spying and Snowden beat him to it. Dang it Snowden, now I gotta eat shit on live TV. The American state simply cannot be trusted whatsoever.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 years ago

    Unrelated question, but ever since Snowden became a citizen of the Russian Federation, could be be drafted during a round of conscription? Or would they use him for cyberwarfare?

    I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to fight Ukrainians.

    • adrian783
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      2 years ago

      his value is anti-west propaganda so I doubt he will fight in any way

  • duviobaz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    2 years ago

    And now they’re on Russia’s payroll

    • Microw@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      40
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      2 years ago

      Wasnt a choice for Snowden. He wanted to go to South America, they trapped him in Russia. Now he has to wave and smile to whatever happens there politically.

      • SCB
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        90
        ·
        2 years ago

        Snowden could have

        • been an official whistleblower and avoided prosecution

        • leaked only to US papers and avoided prosecution

        • leaked only non-classified information and avoided prosecution

        Snowden sold classified info to enemies of the US. He made his bed.

        • Fiona@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          77
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          You are so full of shit, it isn’t even funny:

          Snowden could have been an official whistleblower and avoided prosecution

          He literally tried to do that and was ignored.

          leaked only to US papers and avoided prosecution

          You mean like the American Branch of the Guardian and the Washington Post? Aka the Newspaper that he leaked to?

          leaked only non-classified information and avoided prosecution

          Leaking unclassified information about a classified program. How do you imagine that?

          Snowden sold classified info to enemies of the US. He made his bed.

          No, he literally did not.

          How about you stop getting your info from Fox News?

          • SCB
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            46
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Lmao I don’t watch Fox News. I just understand reality.

            If Grusch can leak unclassified info about classified programs, so could Snowden

            • DTFpanda
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              31
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              2 years ago

              I just understand reality.

              This statement is actually more braindead than the takes on Fox.

                • 4lan
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  18
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 years ago

                  where is your retort for the other points of yours that were dismantled above?

                  It’s very clear that you will believe whatever is most convenient for you to believe.

                  Snowden is an American hero, and the war criminals he exposed faced no repurcussions

                  There are exactly 0 instances where the information he released got our service members killed, despite what the media tries to suggest. You better believe our Government would be jumping at the chance to show the people how ‘whistleblowing BAD’

                  If reality offends you, you may be living outside of it

        • Glowworm6441@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          32
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          2 years ago

          He didn’t sell anything. After trying to raise internal concerns about his work, he leaked classified information to The Washington Post and The Guardian.

          Then the DoJ cancelled his passport due to “espionage” and he got stuck in Russia, where he still lives today.

        • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          2 years ago
          • penguins fly faster than eagles
          • mankind can survive in the vacuum of outer space
          • burritos were invented in a cave in Yugoslavia
          • just saying things doesn’t make them true
          • SCB
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            9
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yeah like saying Snowden isn’t a traitor.

            • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 years ago

              So how do you propose an ethical person expose corruption to the people of this country when the people in power that he would normally report it to are part of the corruption? The constitutional violations were approved, in secret, all the way up to the President of the United States of America. Or are you of the belief that anything is patriotic & acceptable if you’re in charge and you give it a catchy name like The Patriot Act?

              • SCB
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                2 years ago

                You literally have an example of this happening right now with David Grusch and possible embezzlement in the DoD

  • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 years ago

    You’re not supposed to speak up about real things. Just roleplay dumb shit like the alien WAP being talked about in court with zero evidence of course.

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    18
    ·
    2 years ago

    The things he leaked were already known in a general sense to anyone that wasn’t a teenager at the time.

    But the details helped foreign adversaries. Which is why he lives in Russia now.