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It's a bit surprising that he would choose to disseminate his espionage via uncovering mass secret state surveillence and sending documents to a third party so

It's a bit surprising that he would choose to disseminate his espionage via uncovering mass secret state surveillence and sending documents to a third party so they could publish them. I am not in espionage, but I expect there are considerably easier and more reliable ways to exfiltrate data. I don't think it is as surprising that he took more files than he should have.

throw10920 2y ago
He has also shown narcissistic tendencies, which is consistent with the US government's statements that he did this for publicity and personal recognition/profit. Sorry, when I say "espionage", I mean in the more general sense of dealing damage to the government, not specifically sending the documents to Russia or whatever. There's not a lot of evidence for him being a Russian spy. > I don't think it is as surprising that he took more files than he should have. It's extremely surprising if he claims to have been acting in the public's interest by uncovering domestic spying programs and then over 90 percent of the files he took were completely unrelated to that stated goal. That's a very strong indicator of dishonesty.
- NavinF 2y ago
  Does anyone else use the word "espionage" like that or is it just you?
- aguaviva 2y ago
  He has also shown narcissistic tendencies, which is consistent with the US government's statements that he did this for publicity and personal recognition/profit. "Narcisstic tendencies" is a very common smear / throwaway labelling we hear a lot -- about bosses, exes, manipulative relatives and what not. In some cases it's valid, but in most it's simply not. Unless you can point to specifics, we'll have to include this labelling of Snowden in that category as well. But even if it did apply -- it would also be perfectly consistent with the possibly that he simply considers himself a fearless do-gooder. I don't rule out your alternatives, but Occam's Razor (combined with the fact that there's no visible evidence of him having profited in any way; and his general bearing and demeanor do not correspond to those of the publicity whore type) does favor the former. (Not to say that he is or is not a fearless do-gooder; just that it's not at all unlikely that that's what he considers himself to be).
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]

throw10920 2y ago

He has also shown narcissistic tendencies, which is consistent with the US government's statements that he did this for publicity and personal recognition/profit. Sorry, when I say "espionage", I mean in the more general sense of dealing damage to the government, not specifically sending the documents to Russia or whatever. There's not a lot of evidence for him being a Russian spy. > I don't think it is as surprising that he took more files than he should have. It's extremely surprising if he claims to have been acting in the public's interest by uncovering domestic spying programs and then over 90 percent of the files he took were completely unrelated to that stated goal. That's a very strong indicator of dishonesty.

NavinF 2y ago
Does anyone else use the word "espionage" like that or is it just you?
aguaviva 2y ago
He has also shown narcissistic tendencies, which is consistent with the US government's statements that he did this for publicity and personal recognition/profit. "Narcisstic tendencies" is a very common smear / throwaway labelling we hear a lot -- about bosses, exes, manipulative relatives and what not. In some cases it's valid, but in most it's simply not. Unless you can point to specifics, we'll have to include this labelling of Snowden in that category as well. But even if it did apply -- it would also be perfectly consistent with the possibly that he simply considers himself a fearless do-gooder. I don't rule out your alternatives, but Occam's Razor (combined with the fact that there's no visible evidence of him having profited in any way; and his general bearing and demeanor do not correspond to those of the publicity whore type) does favor the former. (Not to say that he is or is not a fearless do-gooder; just that it's not at all unlikely that that's what he considers himself to be).
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]