this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Privacy
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Yeah, gonna go against the grain and say he's a self-centered douchebag who made everything worse. He didn't "risk his life". He risked life in prison - and defected to a MUCH worse country for very, very, very stupid reasons. Any "I did it for freedom" excuses he spouted, or that you ascribe to him, are public relations bullshit.
If he had any integrity he'd have just gone to jail. Instead he went to fucking Putin, like THAT'S supporting freedom.
American prisons, famous for their safety
I'll just address one of the many incorrect things you've said, in that this assumption that he "defected to Russia" is utter nonsense. He was trying to get to I believe Ecuador and his passport was revoked while in the Moscow airport. He effectively lived in the airport for about a month IIRC (it's been a long time since I've had to debunk this BS) before Putin granted him asylum.
Bottom line, he's not in Russia by choice. He's effectively trapped there, unable to travel, until the US State Department overturns the ban.
yeah, people get snowden and assange confused and that's a damn shame
You are expecting someone to commit suicide for their values. Thats what life in prison under unjust prosecution is. He would expect to die there, alone.
Yeah, thats the most moral stance he could have taken, but he also didn't ask us to put our trust in him. He's not a politician. Those people DO ask us to put our trust in their character and ethics and were demonstrably shown to be lacking when illegal spying was clearly present.
All he asked for was for people to look at the evidence he presented and demand rule of law. He could be a puppy killer, and it wouldn't matter. He didn't ask to be elected to anything or put in charge of anything, and he acted like a self-serving human being in the end.
If America lives up to the claim of being just, it didn't seem to look like it in this case. The instant and well funded propaganda campaign against him was not an indication it would be a case of blind justice.
Why do you actually think this? Obviously you believe the war in Ukraine was unprovoked and evil, but like, the US does unprovoked and evil wars far more often. The US has far more people in its prisons, and kills more people through both military and economic warfare. The US supports Israel and UAE in their barbarism, while Russia supports anti-colonial governments in the Sahel region (for cynical reasons, because those movements are kicking out the US and France, but the motivations don't change the results).
Based on the sheer numbers, Russia is at least the lesser evil. The US is still the Great Satan.