re: #40 Charles Johnson

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Hilarious to see how the strongest leg in the Dudebro/Snowden/Greenwald stool, the thing which is supposed to convince us that the jewel heist-like act of thievery of NSA documents was a patriotic act that only occurred after Snowden’s appeals to his superiors failed. I was so confident that they’d have this base covered, that I didn’t even try to find out what these supposed conscientious communiques purported to contain.

But it makes sense now, as others have pointed out, that if Snowden was such a genius superspy, why didn’t he keep a record of his attempts to resolve his ethical concerns through the proper channels? Further, if I were Greenwald, if such documents existed, I would lead with the device that covers the arse of my source if only to clear up first and foremost his status as a whistleblower and not expose him for a traitor.

This is why I do not believe that Greenwald directed Snowden to send a perfunctory email detailing any concern, however disappointingly uncritical it turned out to be.

Greenwald was smart to keep this facet of the story an assumed truth and let the overblown content of the documents themselves dictate the direction of the story. Snowden’s realisation of the reality of his current living arrangement is the turd in the punchbowl. Thanks to the Williams interview, the details of Snowden’s deception are being exposed, even if the initial thrust of it was the kind of poor journalism that has dominated the issue to date.

Snowden is a narcissist who bit off more than he could chew.
Greenwald has deliberately deflected attention away from his narrative’s weakpoints.
Now the whole thing is unravelling.

What act are we in now, I wonder.