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Because Snowden told the public what they're own government is doing - things they shouldn't be doing. Operations that people would have considered Orwellian a
by atom-morgan 11y ago
Because Snowden told the public what they're own government is doing - things they shouldn't be doing. Operations that people would have considered Orwellian a decade or two ago. Things they've blatantly lied about [1]. Another user in this thread, jordigh, covers why this has been important in the past.
[1] http://rare.us/story/nsa-chief-i-didnt-lie-to-congress-about-spying-on-millions-of-americans-i-just-forgot-about-it/ http://rare.us/story/nsa-chief-i-didnt-lie-to-congress-about...
- dimino 11y agoYou're not really addressing what I wrote -- specifically, the general precedent of allowing state secrets to be leaked without severe punishment seems harmful to any nation state. It makes sense to me that the default reaction to the release of state secrets is that of disapproval. From there, we can of course move further away from acceptance or closer to it depending on the specific scenario, but most folks aren't taking a close look at Snowden -- I'd even argue that they probably don't need to. What matters here is the info he released, not really Snowden specifically.
- jordigh 11y ago> specifically, the general precedent of allowing state secrets to be leaked without severe punishment seems harmful to any nation state. And is it also harmful to the citizens of that nation state? What are our rulers doing that they don't want us to know about? Why should we not know everything that they are doing?
- dimino 11y agoThere's no way to notify your population of an action without also notifying your enemies of that action. No argument exists, to my knowledge, that a nation-state can be successful without hiding some information from other nation-states, and therefore from its people, given my first sentence. It's one reason we elect representatives, in fact.
- jordigh 11y agoHow about the nation state stops having secrets that are making enemies for itself?
- dimino 11y agoConsidering there has never been a time in human history where a nation state has not had any opposition from other nation states, I suspect your suggestion is literally impossible.
- jordigh 11y agoSwitzerland has been mostly without enemies for most of its existence.
- dimino 11y agoSo about those swiss bank accounts, then...
- rorykoehler 11y agoI guess what you are saying is that nation states are not a good governing structure for progress, into the future? Who are our enemies? The enemies of my country are not necessarily my personal enemies. In fact I quite like many people who come from 'enemy' territories. There is a disconnect between the reality I experience in my everyday life and the one put forward but my/our government/s.