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I'm on the side of good, justice, and the American way. I just can't decide which side that is. (Joking) The truth is Snowden committed a crime and those guys

I'm on the side of good, justice, and the American way. I just can't decide which side that is. (Joking) The truth is Snowden committed a crime and those guys are never going to let it slide or else their whole secret community falls apart. Am I glad that this information came to light? Definitely. Would I ever do the same thing he did? Never. I would never take an oath to keep something a secret and then expose it to the world, knowing full well I was going to do it from the beginning. That's deceitful and I think that explains the caution around Snowden. We need to see the whole story come out over time before making judgements. But I can dislike the NSA programs and also dislike Snowden's maneuvers. They are separate issues. In other words, simply claiming it's black and white doesn't make it so.

sopooneo 13y ago
An undercover cop, who swears allegiance to a gang he is infiltrating, only to testify against them later, is he deceitful? Wrongly so? It may be that Snowden did an immoral thing. But I think it is possible to hold allegiance first to a higher ideal, and break later promises to uphold it.
- ianstallings 13y ago
  Damn, good point. But I could counter that the cop has been appointed by society to uphold certain laws. Now that dives down into the whole philosophical question regarding authority where I'd rather not go, but I think the minimum we ask of people acting on behalf of society is to inform us first that you will be acting on our behalf. Otherwise we get vigilantes acting outside of our justice system and doing what they feel is just. Let's at least agree on it first. I think that's what really ticks me off about this whole thing. That there was no mechanism in place to voice concerns about the system and our representatives completely failed us by writing a blank check to the watchers. So we get vigilantes.

sopooneo 13y ago

An undercover cop, who swears allegiance to a gang he is infiltrating, only to testify against them later, is he deceitful? Wrongly so? It may be that Snowden did an immoral thing. But I think it is possible to hold allegiance first to a higher ideal, and break later promises to uphold it.

ianstallings 13y ago
Damn, good point. But I could counter that the cop has been appointed by society to uphold certain laws. Now that dives down into the whole philosophical question regarding authority where I'd rather not go, but I think the minimum we ask of people acting on behalf of society is to inform us first that you will be acting on our behalf. Otherwise we get vigilantes acting outside of our justice system and doing what they feel is just. Let's at least agree on it first. I think that's what really ticks me off about this whole thing. That there was no mechanism in place to voice concerns about the system and our representatives completely failed us by writing a blank check to the watchers. So we get vigilantes.