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I think you do Snowden a disservice when you lump him in with Assange. Snowden you can easily argue is a whisleblower. You can't argue that with Assange since
by slg 7y ago
I think you do Snowden a disservice when you lump him in with Assange. Snowden you can easily argue is a whisleblower. You can't argue that with Assange since he doesn't have first hand knowledge of what he is leaking and instead actively recruits people to feed him information to leak. He also seemingly encourages people to commit crimes to get more information for him. Snowden did that all himself. In addition, Assange does not have the high bar that information must meet in order to warrant a leak. He instead leaks everything that he has that fits his political goals. A whistleblower needs to be more precise and targeted with what they disclose. Snowden gave his documents to journalists to sift through, judge, redact, and publish. Assange just throws everything up on his website. Lastly, like multiple people in these comments mentioned, there is the question of their relationship to Russia. Knowingly or not, Assange has clearly been used as a tool of Russian Intelligence. Snowden being compromised is more of a conspiracy theory at this point with little (but some) real world evidence.
- wallace_f 7y agoYou are right that Snowden deserves special recognition, but not at the expense of Assange.
- madengr 7y agoSnowden also leaked everything he had. It certainly was not targeted.
- roywiggins 7y agoHe leaked it all to journalists he trusted to make decisions about how, when, and what to publish. It's not quite the same.
- wolco 7y agoEverything was 100% vetted through two respected journalist. They decided what to leak and when and what to protect. Very well done by any standard.
- monocasa 7y agoAnd those journalists even gave a heads up to the DoD in case there was a compelling reason on that end to redact that they didn't realize.
- loup-vaillant 7y ago> I think you do Snowden a disservice when you lump him in with Assange. Correct. Snowden is a Whistle-blower. Assange is a journalist, though perhaps not the kind Snowden would have trusted his stolen data with.
- pstuart 7y agoAssange is an attention whore. I had such high hopes for wikileaks but it was, in the end, a vehicle for him to promote himself.
- boomskats 7y agoIt was & is far, far more than that.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Miner49er 7y agoYou think Assange put himself at as much risk as he did to promote himself? He spent 7 years locked in an embassy (to great detriment to his health and was arguably worse then jail), is now in jail, and is facing at least life in prison, if not the death penalty. You really think he did all that just to promote himself and for some attention?
- pstuart 7y agoIt's not like we think everything through when we set out on a journey. He probably went in with good intentions but was blinded by the lights of fame.
- throw0101a 7y ago> He spent 7 years locked in an embassy ... To avoid criminal charges for things unrelated to his political/journalistic exploits. Plenty of people run when faced with possible jail time, e.g., Roman Polanski.