If Snowden were popular in the sense that matters, there would be protests down the thoroughfares of American cities to free him. Sadly he is not popular in the

If Snowden were popular in the sense that matters, there would be protests down the thoroughfares of American cities to free him. Sadly he is not popular in the sense that matters. He's not popular in the same way that free abortions are popular. He's not even popular in the way that legalizing marijuana is popular. He's just popular enough that libertarian-types (of whom I count myself as one) scream indignant outrage at the grim reality that has been exposed to us (and which many of us have long suspected existed). Most of the rest of the population is already yawning and moving on to the next story. The Economist lead with a piece today barely acknowledging the Orwellian nature of the PRISM program, blandly stating "Our point is not that America's spies are doing the wrong things, but that the level of public scrutiny is inadequate". The true lesson to those of us who cherish freedom is the awful extent to which we have lost.