re: #305 gunnison

Apologies on my delays in replying, as I am also frantically packing to get ready to head out on a three week road trip and are going to a play tonight. For which I needed to pull together a picnic dinner.

I think one of the difference we are operating under is that for me, integrity is a big deal. A really big fucking deal. And Snowden’s actions showed he has very little, which makes me very much less inclined to give him the credit of the doubt and also trashes any respect I might have had. It colors my view of events significantly.

It would have been possible to go public with integrity, because sometimes you have to sacrifice your word to uphold a greater good. But for me, part of that would have entailed dealing with the actual consequences of his actions, whatever they might be. His decision to avoid that - to run - says he puts his own self-interest ahead of his integrity and his principles. Fair enough, a lot of people do. But then I have to evaluate why he thought it was in his self-interest to do this in the first place, because it’s hard to argue about “principles” when your “principles” only seem to relate directly to one’s self-interest.

I offer this as insight for why I, at least, have such a negative reaction to Snowden. For me, it smacks of hypocrisy and makes me much less likely to take anything he or his supporters (like Greenwald or his fanclub) say seriously. (Also, seriously, the dude treated his girlfriend like a complete asshole and has apparently had a female Wikileaks “advisor” glued to his side the entire time since he left Hong Kong. Guy could be the best thing since sliced bread and I would be pissed about that - that level of personal disregard for other people is one of my pet peeves.)

Reason also states that, although there can be no real verification either way, the Chinese and Russian intelligence services would not have let that kind of data trove walk out of their reach without investigating it thoroughly.