Assange, Manning, Snowden: Heroes or Villains?

[Rassium]

They're just people. You don't have to view things as black or white. Stuff like the NSA spying on us is something we certainly deserve to know about. Only time will tell for sure if the actions of these three people led to good or bad outcomes.

[Archonite]

I cant speak much about the names you mentioned, i dont follow US politics/news well enough to judge their actions. However in general i think whistleblowers are more hero than villian. No official institution should be so self-governing and evaluating their own performance. I believe that people always try to show their best side, so if you allow them to regulate themselves and the information they release, you only get to see the good sides. The more closed off people or groups of people are, the more alienated they become in their judgements. If my government feels it needs to resort to dirty business, wether its torture of prisoners, drone strikes or violation of privacy, i want to know about it. I want to know what actions are being performed in my name, in the name of my country. In my perfect world there wouldnt be a need for whistleblowers, but id rather have them than a group of unknown people who do unknown things saying its for my own good.

[PACOX]

Big time hero is what he is. Anyone that thinks he is a villain scares the hell out of me since really do folks want to have it just like in 1984. That was written as a warning about what bad government can do not a blueprint on how to make it.

Really US is watching over its own citizens in a way that STASI etc in the old DDR would have wet dreams about being able to do.

Exposing that is what a true hero does. he is paying the ultimate price for your freedom and the thank you give him is calling him a villain.

All 3 of them needs a nobel peace price since they are right now the 3 most important human beings on the earth when it comes to exposing crimes against innocents all in the name of national security.

Remember hitler and company always had missions in place to make sure national security was handled and they did it illegally as well.

And like all the spy on people lovers think if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about well that is totally wrong,

And i will give a tiny little story to prove why it is totally wrong

Every friday afternoon you bring you and your car to Malmskillnadsgatan ( hot spot for hookers ) and every week your car and you and your info gets logged into the database. In the database they will soon see you have been there hundreds of times. So they rightfully assume you are a John.

Well story wasnt that simple since you just parked there and you where helping your old grandmother with her weekly shopping but that will never show in that database the only thing that will show and be assumed from the data in the database is that you have been on hooker street 300 times in the last 5 years.

The big bad government is spying on us and yet they can't find the parole violator down the street?

[Goradan]

Heroes to some, villains to others. Same could be said about anyone, really.

Indeed instead of still having black-and-white morals. one should have "colored" morals and be able to have a varied and open minded view on the matter. Not this he's 100% good or bad because the is a retarded and primitive ways of see things FFS this is complicated, but my money is the whistle blowers because I doubt the sincerity of the media ATM and it's all able power, alliances and money etc.

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Like almost everything in life, it is far more complicated than them just being bad or good.

I agree. this is deep.