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Is Edward Snowden a traitor or a patriot?

Patriot, Traitor, or something else?

  • Traitor (Elaborate)

    Votes: 12 25.0%
  • Patriot (Elaborate)

    Votes: 21 43.8%
  • Other (Elaborate)

    Votes: 12 25.0%
  • I don't know

    Votes: 3 6.3%

  • Total voters
    48
  • Poll closed .

Michael Stewart

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As the question asks, is Snowden a traitor, patriot, or something else in your eyes? Why or why not?
 
When you choose to break the law, you are a criminal.
 
I wish people who stop using the word 'patriot' like it's a sock at a college dorm room full of WoW players.
 
In my view, Snowden is neither a traitor nor a patriot - had he disclosed the information while remaining in America, a true act of civil disobedience in order to shine a light on government misdeeds, he may have been a patriot, but by fleeing the country he lost that moral high ground.
 
You can be a patriot even while the state brands you a criminal. You should know that from a depth of American history.

... and you can be a criminal even if you do something important.
 
When you choose to break the law, you are a criminal.

Are there any instances where breaking the law is the right thing to do?
 
There are many instances where breaking the law is the only right thing to do.

Many would agree, but you can also be judged by what you do after breaking the law. Snowden isn't making himself look better.
 
Doing what Snowden did was one thing and if he hadn't run off to China, Russia, perhaps Cuba, and God knows where else, my opinion of him ( not what he did ) would be a lot different.
 
Doing what Snowden did was one thing and if he hadn't run off to China, Russia, perhaps Cuba, and God knows where else, my opinion of him ( not what he did ) would be a lot different.

So he should allow the government to torture him at gitmo?
 
When you choose to break the law, you are a criminal.

Then the US government are criminals. I'm pretty sure that these surveillance programs violate many different kinds of constitutional and human right standards. If not, the system is seriously ****ed up and it's high time to finally make laws that prevent the government from grotesquely spitting into the face of Western values.

Snowden is a hero fighting against a government that grossly oversteps its competence in an authoritarian fashion (and no, I don't think Obama is any more to blame than the Presidents in office before him).
 
Snowden is not making a good case for himself based on the company he is keeping. Supposedly he is in Moscow preparing to fly to Ecuador, which is coincidently where Julian assange of wikileaks is hiding out.
 
So he should allow the government to torture him at gitmo?

Well all they'd do is waterboard him. According to some, that's not torture.

I'm not sure about Snowden. On some level he's both and on some level he's neither.
 
Well all they'd do is waterboard him. According to some, that's not torture.

Water boarding is torture.

We are as corrupt as the old Soviet Union.

We are accepting odd things in this land of liberty.

Washington was a criminal and traitor who forced people to fight. He is a hero.

Snowden blew the whistle on government tyranny and people are all put him in prison.
 
Well all they'd do is waterboard him. According to some, that's not torture.

I'm not sure about Snowden. On some level he's both and on some level he's neither.

If wanted to stand on principle he could have just released the information while he was still in America. Doing so in another country may protect him in the short term, but it begs the question of who else did snowden release the information to.
 
Did George Washington defect to Russia, where presumably he's singing his guts out? I missed that part of history.
 
So he should allow the government to torture him at gitmo?

He had other choices. To deliberately choose the Russians says everything you need to know about him.
 
Then the US government are criminals. I'm pretty sure that these surveillance programs violate many different kinds of constitutional and human right standards. If not, the system is seriously ****ed up and it's high time to finally make laws that prevent the government from grotesquely spitting into the face of Western values.

Snowden is a hero fighting against a government that grossly oversteps its competence in an authoritarian fashion (and no, I don't think Obama is any more to blame than the Presidents in office before him).

Absolute unequivocal nonsense. I really expected more from you than that. The man took his secrets and left for Russia! What is there about treason you don't understand.

As for spying, I don't give a crap. If they stop another 9/11 by listening to phone calls, good for them.
 
If wanted to stand on principle he could have just released the information while he was still in America. Doing so in another country may protect him in the short term, but it begs the question of who else did snowden release the information to.

Doesn't his destination answer that question? Not only is he a traitor, he's gutless.
 
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