Edward Snowden In 2009: Leakers Should Be 'Shot In The Balls'

[last1standing]

28. I also don't think his history is up for debate.

His history is what it is - his history. I'm not calling Snowden a hero and I'm not personally invested in making him out to be one. I do think that the fact that the White House is allowing the NSA and other groups to use his past to personally smear him disconcerting and it makes the point that we shouldn't be letting these groups have our personal information without a proper search warrant instead of a rubber stamp.

I wouldn't want my personal information easily accessed and used to smear my name if I did something unpopular with the ruling government at the time. Would you? I'm no so vain as to think I have nothing to hide.

But I am serious. I think that Snowden's heroism might just lie in offering himself up as a sacrificial lamb (at least so far as his reputation is concerned) in order to spotlight the gross indifference this government has for our personal privacy and malicious purposes to which they are willing to put the information they collect.

So if the government needs to shoot Snowden in the balls as retribution for releasing this information and changing their practices, I say go for it. It won't be Snowden's actions that end up making him a hero, it will be the government's overreaching smear job that makes him a martyr.

Just something to think about.