re: #285 gunnison

Let me add, regarding your assertion that Snowden has made the conversation about survellance “difficult”;
Had it not been for what Snowden did, we would not, in my opinion, be having this conversation at all.

In some ways, correct, although not from lack of interest by some parties. The Patriot Act is a very flawed piece of legislation that clearly needs to be revisited and there’s plenty of people who’ve wanted to have that conversation for a while, only to be shut down.

I would argue that it was very possible for Snowden to have brought this topic forward without stealing classified documents or (if you feel he would have needed to show some proof) providing a data dump directly to foreign intelligence agencies in China and Russia. Those actions, combined with the MEMEME bleat from Greenwald, have turned this story away from the conversation that needs to be had and more into what Snowden did.

Also, while principle and self-interest may not be mutually exclusive, stealing and releasing classified information because the government “shouldn’t spy on its own citizens” and then fleeing to Hong Kong and Russia does not exactly correlate.