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I agree with you somewhat. It seems that he initially wanted to buck the system and expose secrets for the purpose of exposing secrets and anarchy. It's possibl

I agree with you somewhat. It seems that he initially wanted to buck the system and expose secrets for the purpose of exposing secrets and anarchy. It's possible this was a fantastic cover and he's always worked at someone's behest. Agreed completely with your 2nd phase. I don't think it works for Snowden. I actually believe he was ardently an American patriot who wanted to expose what he thought were illegalities and essentially corruption but didn't think he's survive or get a fair trial here (both of which are unfortunately very possible). I don't think he ended up in Russia at his choosing. I believe he had an original destination in mind (correct me if I'm wrong) but wasn't able to get there before his visa/passport was revoked? Something like that.

4ad 8y ago
> I actually believe he was ardently an American patriot Assange is Australian.
- kjeetgill 8y ago
  They're reffering to Snowden.
- hnmonkey 8y ago
  The second paragraph wholly refers to Snowden as referenced in the first sentence of it.
roywiggins 8y ago
Yup, I'm agreeing with you there- I don't think Snowden ever intended to end up exiled in Russia. He might be beholden to the Russians now- for his physical safety- he's very likely more blameless in that than Assange might be, I haven't seen actual evidence that he wanted to end up in Russia. Whereas Assange might have (depending on the facts) happily taken help from the Russian state in the name of sowing chaos. Assange has no particular ties to the US, and might have found a way to square it with whatever his morals are. Or he found an encrypted archive in his email and he just published it, provenance unknown.
lern_too_spel 8y ago
He absolutely didn't end up in Russia of his own choosing. He planned to stay in Hong Kong, and he leaked a list of hacked Chinese targets in an attempt to gain the PRC's favor, but they kicked him out as soon as he had nothing more of interest, just as you would expect. https://amp.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1266777/exclusive-snowden-safe-hong-kong-more-us-cyberspying-details-revealed https://amp.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1266777/exclusiv...

4ad 8y ago

> I actually believe he was ardently an American patriot Assange is Australian.

kjeetgill 8y ago
They're reffering to Snowden.
hnmonkey 8y ago
The second paragraph wholly refers to Snowden as referenced in the first sentence of it.

roywiggins 8y ago

Yup, I'm agreeing with you there- I don't think Snowden ever intended to end up exiled in Russia. He might be beholden to the Russians now- for his physical safety- he's very likely more blameless in that than Assange might be, I haven't seen actual evidence that he wanted to end up in Russia. Whereas Assange might have (depending on the facts) happily taken help from the Russian state in the name of sowing chaos. Assange has no particular ties to the US, and might have found a way to square it with whatever his morals are. Or he found an encrypted archive in his email and he just published it, provenance unknown.

lern_too_spel 8y ago

He absolutely didn't end up in Russia of his own choosing. He planned to stay in Hong Kong, and he leaked a list of hacked Chinese targets in an attempt to gain the PRC's favor, but they kicked him out as soon as he had nothing more of interest, just as you would expect. https://amp.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1266777/exclusive-snowden-safe-hong-kong-more-us-cyberspying-details-revealed https://amp.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1266777/exclusiv...