Snowden's Advice: Look to Yourself and Stop Obsessing over Presidents

[Suzanimal]

...
Naturally, the topic of Donald Trump came up a few times. At one point Snowden was asked, “if the outcome [of the election] was better or worse for your case.” (I presume the question was referring to Snowden’s prospect of receiving a presidential pardon.)

Snowden deflected the part of the question that spoke to a possible pardon, saying the election was not about him. But as he continued his response got interesting.

After criticizing the authoritarian tone of the campaign, Snowden said people should stop focusing so much on presidents.

"This is the thing I think we begin to forget when we focus too much on a single candidate. The current president of the United States, President Barack Obama, campaigned on a platform of ending mass surveillance in the United States. He said no more warrantless wiring tapping. He said he’d investigate and end criminal activities that had occurred under the prior administration…. And we all put a lot of hope in him because of this. Not just people in [the United States]…but people in Europe and elsewhere around the world. It was a moment where we believed that because the right person got into office everything would change. But unfortunately, once he took that office we saw that he actually didn’t fulfill those campaign promises.

Snowden highlighted Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo Bay and end mass warrantless surveillance as specific broken campaign promises. Snowden said he was bringing up these points simply to drive home a larger message.

“We should be cautious about putting too much faith or fear into elected officials,” said Snowden. “At the end of the day, this is just a president.”

He said if people want to change the world, they should look to themselves instead of putting their hopes or fears in a single person. “This can only be the work of the people,” Snowden said. “If we want to have a better world we can’t hope for an Obama, and we should not fear a Donald Trump, rather we should build it ourselves.”

The crowd erupted in applause following Snowden’s monologue.

Snowden makes a great point, and I found his choice of words interesting.

He says people are putting too much "faith" in politicians. Faith. It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that people increasingly treat politics as a religion and political leaders like gods or demigods. Modern man looks to political leaders for hope and sustenance and often blames them (in their hearts, if not in words) for their pain and misfortune.
...

https://fee.org/articles/snowdens-ad...er-presidents/

[jmdrake]

Smart man.

[CaseyJones]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Snowden again...

[ChristianAnarchist]

Snowden gets it...

[undergroundrr]

Beautiful and true...

... but then what if Snowden was president?

[Spikender]

Snowden continues to be the man. I wish people like him, Assange, Manning, and others could lead normal lives. They don't deserve the suffering placed upon them for simply telling the truth and waking people up.

[Zippyjuan]

[JohnM]

Why hasn't this man been given the Nobel peace prize??

[UWDude]

Fake news Infowars covered this Q&A live.
Real news CNN, MSNBC, NBC ABC and CBS said little to nothing of it.

[Seraphim]

Why hasn't this man been given the Nobel peace prize??

He hasn't bombed innocent brown women and children yet.

[timosman]

Why hasn't this man been given the Nobel peace prize??

Good question. Just like Obama he prevented Hillary from becoming the POTUS.

[UWDude]

Good question. Just like Obama he prevented Hillary from becoming the POTUS.

That was probably DNC staffer Seth Rich who leaked the podesta emails, and Assange & wikileaks who published them. Snowden has been unable to do much of anything in Russia

[Zippyjuan]

Trump CIA nominee:

[Anti Federalist]

American Hero, exiled in Russia.

Liberty loses in 2016 again.

Stay where you are Ed, this country doesn't deserve you.

[dannno]

OMG, maybe you need to tweet that video to Snowden????

[Son_of_Liberty90]

American Hero, exiled in Russia.

Liberty loses in 2016 again.

Stay where you are Ed, this country doesn't deserve you.

at 16:18 - "My country is something that travels with me." - Snowden


Would love if that POS Oliver would have let him finish expounding upon that idea instead of interrupting him.

[AZJoe]

A little Snowden tribute from Jeffrey Tucker:

[Snowden] worked in a massive professional machinery of enormous power, prestige, and money. His world was the pinnacle of achievement for his skill set. Everything about the massive surveillance state broadcast that there was no escape. Everything about his environment demanded compliance, service, and submission. His job was to check at the door his individualism, integrity, and character and become a faithful cog in a machinery of superiors.

Everyone else went along. They didn’t question it. If they did question the goings on, it was purely abstract. Surely there was no real escape. You could only adapt, enjoy the power, take the money, and die someday.

Snowden, for whatever reason, decided to take a different direction. Alone, and without consulting even those closest to him, he struck out on his own. He took the unfathomable risk of copying all the most pertinent files. … What he revealed rocked the world.

Throughout it all, he was scared but never indecisive. Unimpressed by the machinery all around him, he saw it not as his master and not even his equal. He saw it all as beatable. He knew that what he was doing was right, and he did it all because – against all odds – he thought he could make a difference. He literally risked his life in the service of human freedom. …

What would drive a man to do such a thing? Many may have thought about it. … But only Snowden stepped up … It’s actually remarkable that such a man exists in our time. … he acted on principle … he showed courage. … “one man can stop the motor of the world.” …

Each person who confronts this machine must make a decision: join it, defend it, ignore it, or fight it through some means. Those who take the courageous route know better than to take up arms. Instead, they do something more devastating. …

Snowden sought to shut down the motor of the state that he was helping to build. And he did it because it was the right thing to do. …

He is now one of the world's most in-demand speakers. He can pack in a crowd anywhere in the world. He is a leading spokesperson for human dignity, privacy, and freedom. Thanks to technology, he now reaches billions … a lifetime of good work ahead of him – all because of the choices he made. …

[Jan2017]

Zippyjuan struck again!

OMG, maybe you need to tweet that video to Snowden????

No, of course not. Tell him something more important, not from Fox News.
Like perhaps . . . Comey's Chief of Staff Rybicki bailed and left Fairfax, Virginia "seller motivated" with the wife the former McSweeney
after the Comey/McCabe/Yates et al. "Woods" violation became apparent to the FISA Court . . .
a "company" could have a calling card sent from a Joubert - or sometin' . . .(?)

[Ender]

A little Snowden tribute from Jeffrey Tucker:

[Snowden] worked in a massive professional machinery of enormous power, prestige, and money. His world was the pinnacle of achievement for his skill set. Everything about the massive surveillance state broadcast that there was no escape. Everything about his environment demanded compliance, service, and submission. His job was to check at the door his individualism, integrity, and character and become a faithful cog in a machinery of superiors.

Everyone else went along. They didn’t question it. If they did question the goings on, it was purely abstract. Surely there was no real escape. You could only adapt, enjoy the power, take the money, and die someday.

Snowden, for whatever reason, decided to take a different direction. Alone, and without consulting even those closest to him, he struck out on his own. He took the unfathomable risk of copying all the most pertinent files. … What he revealed rocked the world.

Throughout it all, he was scared but never indecisive. Unimpressed by the machinery all around him, he saw it not as his master and not even his equal. He saw it all as beatable. He knew that what he was doing was right, and he did it all because – against all odds – he thought he could make a difference. He literally risked his life in the service of human freedom. …

What would drive a man to do such a thing? Many may have thought about it. … But only Snowden stepped up … It’s actually remarkable that such a man exists in our time. … he acted on principle … he showed courage. … “one man can stop the motor of the world.” …

Each person who confronts this machine must make a decision: join it, defend it, ignore it, or fight it through some means. Those who take the courageous route know better than to take up arms. Instead, they do something more devastating. …

Snowden sought to shut down the motor of the state that he was helping to build. And he did it because it was the right thing to do. …

He is now one of the world's most in-demand speakers. He can pack in a crowd anywhere in the world. He is a leading spokesperson for human dignity, privacy, and freedom. Thanks to technology, he now reaches billions … a lifetime of good work ahead of him – all because of the choices he made. …

AMEN.

And I'd +rep you again, if I could.

[A. Havnes]

Perfectly true words. Kind of like, "be the change you want to see in the world." Unfortunately, it doesn't appeal to the lazy masses. It's in human nature to want to place our faith in "the one" or a kind of chosen person because then we don't have to put in the effort ourselves. Someone will fix the economy, stop the foreign wars, etc.; all we have to do is have the courage to like something on Facebook in a show of support.

[Jan2017]

Perfectly true words. Kind of like, "be the change you want to see in the world." Unfortunately, it doesn't appeal to the lazy masses. . . .

+ rep
all we have to do . . . is NOT sit on our hands too much like the lazy VP Pence and the lazy Sen. Cornyn