7 ms·
Is it just me or is the term leaker politically charged in the context. For me, Snowden is a whistle blower not a leaker. There's a reason why he revealed secre
by kgarten 6y ago
Is it just me or is the term leaker politically charged in the context. For me, Snowden is a whistle blower not a leaker. There's a reason why he revealed secretes (he also didn't just release them, but was very careful how much he revealed), the secrete programs were unconstitutional -> whistle blower not leaker.
edit: typo.
- duxup 6y agoI've seen him refered to as a leaker before, I honestly didn't think much of it. I don't think that term is automatically negative.
- stubish 6y agoLeaking is a common political tool, frequently seen in news, and popularized on shows such as the West Wing and Yes, Minister. It is only a negative when used against you.
- boomboomsubban 6y agoSnowden's method of whistleblowing was leaking documents to the press. He is both.
- runawaybottle 6y agoWas the Pentagon Papers a leak or whistleblowing? Seems like we have a precedent for this.
- pyuser583 6y agoBoth
- emilsedgh 6y agoUsing "leaker" instead of "whisteblower" is not necessarily wrong, just politically charged. Using "leaker" means you are ignoring that what he did was to blow whistle on illegal activities and only focusing on him.
- briandear 6y agoLeaking was the method. It is a statement of fact that he was a leaker. It’s a statement of values/opinion that he was a whistleblower.
- Lammy 6y agoIt's good manners to avoid calling somebody a word they don't call themselves, and in this case I'd personally defer to The Guardian's articles from 2013 that say "whistleblower": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLjuVyIIrs
- 3763282827 6y agoGrey comments like this are a reminder that the american tech industry has reached a point where you're only allowed to advocate for one set of ideas out loud (what a coincidence considering where SV and SF are). Nothing this person said is wrong or phrased in a hostile manner but the comment is going grey for simply acknowledging the nuance of the topic. As someone who grew up as a dem during a time when dems were the ones preaching tolerance, it's weird that we're the censorship party now.
- Simon_says 6y agoIf I witness a robbery in progress, and I call the cops, am I a leaker?
- ben_w 6y agoOnly if you worked for the robbers and they thought you wouldn’t tell.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- stjohnswarts 6y agoIt's all semantics, he revealed valuable knowledge to the public about how the government was unConstitutionally surveilling them at every opportunity without remorse or apology
- CerealFounder 6y agoIt's not semantics. If you killed someone committing their own separate crime, you'd be both a killer and potentially a hero. It is important to make clear he both committed a very serious crime and potentially blew the whistle in act of bravery.
- gremlinsinc 6y agoNot if they were breaking into your house and it was self-defense. Then you're technically a killer, having killed someone, but you're more a hero, and not criminally culpable at all.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cortesoft 6y agoLeaking is a type of whistleblowing. Not all whistleblowers are leakers, but leaking secret information is one way to be a whistleblower.
- apendleton 6y agoI don't think either is a superset/subset of the other -- the Venn circles overlap, but there are definitely leakers who are not whistleblowers. Like, leaking salacious celebrity gossip to a tabloid is not whistleblowing.
- cortesoft 6y agoYes, you are correct
- propogandist 6y agothey've intentionally selected the word due to it's negative context. The usage of "leaker" allows them to play to the 'orange man bad' narrative, which they value more than getting Snowden pardoned.
- sixothree 6y agoAre there any measurable metrics by which he is doing a good job?
- alexeldeib 6y agoI think the implication was that pardoning whistleblowers is good, if that's what your opinion of Snowden is. But that doesn't fit the desired narrative, so they don't call him a whistleblower.
- austhrow743 6y agoSure, the most important one. Hasn't invaded any new countries.
- dragonwriter 6y agoUnless you count the transformation of our friendly presence in Iraq to a hostile invasion opposed by the government. But, sure, he hasn't invaded any countries that weren't notionally friendly at the time of the invasion.
- Lammy 6y ago> our friendly presence in Iraq Once again I marvel at the flexibility of our English language in describing impossible concepts, such as this one.
- dragonwriter 6y agoSure, it was only a “friendly” presence because we installed a government there after the last invasion. It is, nevertheless, the case that Trump changed that into an invasion again.
- atlgator 6y agoHe was not a Government employee at the time. Contractors don't get to be whistle blowers. EDIT: Turns out the law does protect contractors, so I guess it's circumstantial that employees get branded whistle blowers and contractors get charged as spies.
- cheeze 6y agoWhat? I don't follow your conclusion at all.
- random314 6y agoInteresting. Is this a generally agreed upon rule?
- peacefulhat 6y agoBrilliant, just hire contractors to get around good governance rules :)
- Lammy 6y agoI mean, it works for Google and Facebook.
- luckylion 6y agoA Russian plant in the white house would still be a spy, even though they're an employee. A contractor who isn't working for any intelligence service isn't a spy, even if they publish secret documents.
- dr-detroit 6y agoThis is a historic political event. People who linked the Alt Right to Snowden have been ostracized as having "Trump Derangement Syndrome" up until now.
- andrei_says_ 6y agoThank you for this. He exposed clearly illegal activity and framing him as a leader changes the narrative. He is a whistleblower who upheld his oath to protect the constitution of the US, in the face of severe consequences.
- hrayr 6y agoI'm sure you meant to say leaker not leader, correct?
- andrei_says_ 6y agoYes, seems I didn’t catch an autocorrect. Thank you.
- koheripbal 6y agoThe problem is that he also exposed a lot of not-illegal material. Things that were entirely legal, yet classified. I don't think there's any legal way Snowden wouldn't face a conviction if he was returned to the US, even if you exclude all the "illegal" activity he exposed from evidence against him.
- deanCommie 6y agoI agree with you that legally Snowden was offside. The problem was that I think that a lot of the things that leaked people either A) THOUGHT were illegal or B) Thought that while legal, the government does not do and would not do (particularly because spokespeople have implied under sworn oauth that they do not do. I'm talking about domestic surveillance. If there was any justice, then the thing should have been a wakeup call for the US populace and government and new laws would have been introduced to make the things that he leaked illegal. Alas...
- jgrowl 6y agoThis is known as Russell's conjugation in honor of Bertrand Russell's discussion of the topic on the BBC in 1948 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotive_conjugation