John Oliver Interviews Edward Snowden

[Perknose]

John Oliver has been on a tear, all of his Last Week Tonight shows are must see.

Agreed. John Oliver has really risen in my estimation. The writing is top notch.

I dont think he did what he did because of ego.

Well agreed.

I think he was justifying the consequences of his actions by thinking the world cared. That face is what you get when you realize you just ruined your life forever and almost nobody knows your name.

I don't necessarily think he was under any illusions that the general publc would know enough to care.

I do think he'd have been perfectly happy if no one ever knew his name.

I think he did what he did out of his own sense of duty, at great personal sacrifice. You can disagree with what he did, or the extent of what he did, or how he did it, but I don't believe you can smear him as a weasel turncoat or a thoughtless twerp or as having been out for personal gain or notoriety.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Yeah, nothing narcissistic about this guy:

He was just another internet asshole until he went full "patriot:"
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...id-leakers-should-be-shot-then-he-became-one/

 

[MongGrel]

A must see episode of The Last Week Tonight...

Ya gotta love it.

:biggrin:

Hide your junk.

:sneaky:

 

[LegendKiller]

Yeah, nothing narcissistic about this guy:

He was just another internet asshole until he went full "patriot:"
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...id-leakers-should-be-shot-then-he-became-one/

I don't even think he went "full patriot". I think he has some irrational idea of how the world works. Similar to how his releases about our spying on foreign "allied" governments was a shock to intarweb rubes.

You know what bothers me about Snowden? He hasn't accounted, truthfully, and factually checked, for every single movement he made. That alone tells me there is *FAR* more to this story than we have been led to believe, by him, by the Russian, Chinese, and the US. Something happened here and the US is too embarrassed to completely out him while the Russians and Chinese are too afraid to ruin their useful tool at continually embarrassing the US.

Personally, I think he is a narcissistic prick who is a complete traitor. If he wasn't he'd come clean as to his shitty timeline, inconsistent story, and complete lies.

What surprises me is that somebody like Oliver hasn't ripped him to shreds over this. He would be utterly discredited in one swipe and whoever did that would get massive ratings. Everything we've seen thus far is a puff piece.

Again, why is that???

 

[Subyman]

I don't see how asking the random person on the street who and what snowden did means much. It is irrefutable that the government spies on US citizens within the US. Absolutely no discussion to be had there any more. That in and of itself is huge. Those individuals they interviewed may not know names, they may not know specific documents, and they may not know exactly how it affects them, but they do know the government spies on them now. The conversation is over about that.

What does mean much is that the people that really do care have the ammunition to push back and put the government in check. Does Nancy down the street need to know about net neutrality and how private companies could bundle up her internet into a tiered service? Hell no, she has advocacy groups fighting for her. That is what matters.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Snowden pulled back the Wizard's curtain and he's done it in a largely very careful and tactful way. Sure the press makes mistakes.

But I say bring him home, pardon him, give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nobel Peace Prize and then make him the director of the NSA!

The only people who have this entire issue right are the Germans after having endured the Gestapo and STASI. The Patriot Act was drafted before 9-11. It was a "cure" waiting for a "disease" to happen. Go ahead and trust your government to collect every single detail about your life.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Send a dick pic that you took with your Android phone over Verizon cell service to your girlfriend's Gmail account who checks it on her Comcast internet from her Lenovo laptop over open wifi and all is fine and dandy but factor in the NSA and all of a sudden it's "OMG my privacy!"

 

[Subyman]

Send a dick pic that you took with your Android phone over Verizon cell service to your girlfriend's Gmail account who checks it on her Comcast internet from her Lenovo laptop over open wifi and all is fine and dandy but factor in the NSA and all of a sudden it's "OMG my privacy!"

You know the interview was a parody right? Its a show that makes news witty and funny (so people will understand it) making fun of the layman needing a dick pic analogy to understand how the NSA spies. Its practically the show making fun of its own audience, you know, the ones that tune in to get the real news compressed into jokes they can understand and be entertained by. Quite ironic.

 

[LegendKiller]

Snowden pulled back the Wizard's curtain and he's done it in a largely very careful and tactful way. Sure the press makes mistakes.

But I say bring him home, pardon him, give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nobel Peace Prize and then make him the director of the NSA!

The only people who have this entire issue right are the Germans after having endured the Gestapo and STASI. The Patriot Act was drafted before 9-11. It was a "cure" waiting for a "disease" to happen. Go ahead and trust your government to collect every single detail about your life.

He didn't pull back much, if anything. But he did put America's position in the world at risk.


he is a traitor SD the vast majority of Americans think that.


It's funny that you blindly accept his half-assed explain at ion of what happened yet won't trust the government at sll. That is a huge bias ad one that shows your ignorance.

 

[MongGrel]

You know the interview was a parody right? Its a show that makes news witty and funny (so people will understand it) making fun of the layman needing a dick pic analogy to understand how the NSA spies. Its practically the show making fun of its own audience, you know, the ones that tune in to get the real news compressed into jokes they can understand and be entertained by. Quite ironic.

You seem not to realize it was a parody with a lot of real truth behind it, or didn't watch most of it.

 

[Subyman]

You seem not to realize it was a parody with a lot of real truth behind it, or didn't watch most of it.

I watched all of it. I never spoke to its truth, if you reread what I said. Gonad was trying to draw conclusions on NSA spying within the tiny framework in which the show was packaging the story (dick pics.) He obviously missed the point.

 

[MongGrel]

I watched all of it. I never spoke to its truth, if you reread what I said.

My bad.

:thumbsup:

 

[JD50]

I don't even think he went "full patriot". I think he has some irrational idea of how the world works. Similar to how his releases about our spying on foreign "allied" governments was a shock to intarweb rubes.

You know what bothers me about Snowden? He hasn't accounted, truthfully, and factually checked, for every single movement he made. That alone tells me there is *FAR* more to this story than we have been led to believe, by him, by the Russian, Chinese, and the US. Something happened here and the US is too embarrassed to completely out him while the Russians and Chinese are too afraid to ruin their useful tool at continually embarrassing the US.

Personally, I think he is a narcissistic prick who is a complete traitor. If he wasn't he'd come clean as to his shitty timeline, inconsistent story, and complete lies.

What surprises me is that somebody like Oliver hasn't ripped him to shreds over this. He would be utterly discredited in one swipe and whoever did that would get massive ratings. Everything we've seen thus far is a puff piece.

Again, why is that???

:thumbsup:

It's amazing how many people believe everything he says without any kind of fact checking. The problem is that all of the people that can rebut most of his half truths and lies simply can't due to obvious reasons. Snowden clearly didn't understand the majority of the things that he's leaked.

This whole thing has turned a lot of otherwise smart people into fools. A quick thought experiment for those that are quick to believe Snowden. Think of something that you are intimately familiar with that has made it into the news for one reason or another. How knowledgeable were the reporters? How accurate were the articles and reports? Did they really understand what they were talking about?

 

[Subyman]

:thumbsup:

It's amazing how many people believe everything he says without any kind of fact checking. The problem is that all of the people that can rebut most of his half truths and lies simply can't due to obvious reasons. Snowden clearly didn't understand the majority of the things that he's leaked.

This whole thing has turned a lot of otherwise smart people into fools. A quick thought experiment for those that are quick to believe Snowden. Think of something that you are intimately familiar with that has made it into the news for one reason or another. How knowledgeable were the reporters? How accurate were the articles and reports? Did they really understand what they were talking about?

I think you have to look back at the very beginning. You have a mid twenty something year old guy that is obviously very intelligent, but he does not have the capacity to predict the ramifications of leaking thousands of secret documents. He knows there is risk involved, but he believes the NSA and the government is being far too spurious with the public and reckless with their data collection. Others within the NSA have expressed their concerns to their superiors and it went no where.

He believed the only recourse would be to let the press decide and thereby the public. If ANYTHING Snowden may have been too patriotic with his ideals. He believed so much in liberty that he threw his entire life away to give the American public a chance to examine what their government was doing behind their backs. Remember, going along with the government does not make you a patriot, risking your life for American ideals is what makes you a patriot. I believe he fits the definition whether he himself was reckless or not.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

:thumbsup:

It's amazing how many people believe everything he says without any kind of fact checking. The problem is that all of the people that can rebut most of his half truths and lies simply can't due to obvious reasons. Snowden clearly didn't understand the majority of the things that he's leaked.

This whole thing has turned a lot of otherwise smart people into fools. A quick thought experiment for those that are quick to believe Snowden. Think of something that you are intimately familiar with that has made it into the news for one reason or another. How knowledgeable were the reporters? How accurate were the articles and reports? Did they really understand what they were talking about?

It also highly irritates me how he defended the media as good people trying to do the right thing despite making some mistakes, while painting the NSA/government as all twirling their black mustaches as they plot steal all your naughty pictures or secret brownie recipes or whatever else completely irrelevant thing that's so private.

 

[Subyman]

It also highly irritates me how he defended the media as good people trying to do the right thing despite making some mistakes while painting the NSA/government as all twirling their black mustaches while they plot steal all your naughty pictures or secret brownie recipes or whatever else completely irrelevant thing that's so private.

Are you speaking to the interview? The interviewer (John Oliver) started and continued the dick pic analogy for comedic effect. Snowden would have rather spoken in normal terms and from what I saw, he didn't paint them as cliche villains tying dames to rail road tracks. He has said many times that the culture within the NSA has become reckless, not necessarily evil.

 

[Fenixgoon]

:thumbsup:

It's amazing how many people believe everything he says without any kind of fact checking. The problem is that all of the people that can rebut most of his half truths and lies simply can't due to obvious reasons. Snowden clearly didn't understand the majority of the things that he's leaked.

This whole thing has turned a lot of otherwise smart people into fools. A quick thought experiment for those that are quick to believe Snowden. Think of something that you are intimately familiar with that has made it into the news for one reason or another. How knowledgeable were the reporters? How accurate were the articles and reports? Did they really understand what they were talking about?

so, how exactly does one fact-check a program that is extremely secretive, that the US government would likely deny to exist, and whose documents are almost certainly exclusively classified?

if not for Snowden's leaks, how would anyone even know that this was going on in the first place? how would anyone understand, with even the slightest clue, the existence, let alone the actions, of the FISA court?

 

[MongGrel]

I think you have to look back at the very beginning. You have a mid twenty something year old guy that is obviously very intelligent, but he does not have the capacity to predict the ramifications of leaking thousands of secret documents. He knows there is risk involved, but he believes the NSA and the government is being far too spurious with the public and reckless with their data collection. Others within the NSA have expressed their concerns to their superiors and it went no where.

He believed the only recourse would be to let the press decide and thereby the public. If ANYTHING Snowden may have been too patriotic with his ideals. He believed so much in liberty that he threw his entire life away to give the American public a chance to examine what their government was doing behind their backs. Remember, going along with the government does not make you a patriot, risking your life for American ideals is what makes you a patriot. I believe he fits the definition whether he himself was reckless or not.

Good points.

He obviously was intelligent enough and idealistic enough to get into that position to begin with, the NSA just didn't take into consideration at that age he would be idealistic enough to say "This is wrong" and bail on the whole situation once he saw it full scope.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

so, how exactly does one fact-check a program that is extremely secretive, that the US government would likely deny to exist, and whose documents are almost certainly exclusively classified?

if not for Snowden's leaks, how would anyone even know that this was going on in the first place? how would anyone understand, with even the slightest clue, the existence, let alone the actions, of the FISA court?

Maybe by reading the paper.

SECRET COURT SAYS F.B.I. AIDES MISLED JUDGES IN 75 CASES
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: August 23, 2002

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/23/u...misled-judges-in-75-cases.html?pagewanted=all

 

[LegendKiller]

so, how exactly does one fact-check a program that is extremely secretive, that the US government would likely deny to exist, and whose documents are almost certainly exclusively classified?

if not for Snowden's leaks, how would anyone even know that this was going on in the first place? how would anyone understand, with even the slightest clue, the existence, let alone the actions, of the FISA court?

How does one NOT fact check and hold Snowden accountable for this whole fiasco?

There are more holes in his story than swiss cheese but you guys suck on his wang like a $.50 crackhead hooker looking for a fix.

His story makes absolutely NO sense. None. None of it checks out, none of it jives with any other part. His whole timeline is an utter mystery.

Not a single "journalist" has made any inroads into making sense of this. That NBC jackass was a puffer for him. Even Oliver was a fucking joke.

Nobody is holding him accountable.

 

[MongGrel]

How does one NOT fact check and hold Snowden accountable for this whole fiasco?

There are more holes in his story than swiss cheese but you guys suck on his wang like a $.50 crackhead hooker looking for a fix.

His story makes absolutely NO sense. None. None of it checks out, none of it jives with any other part. His whole timeline is an utter mystery.

Not a single "journalist" has made any inroads into making sense of this. That NBC jackass was a puffer for him. Even Oliver was a fucking joke.


Nobody is holding him accountable.

 

[JD50]

Good points.

He obviously was intelligent enough and idealistic enough to get into that position to begin with, the NSA just didn't take into consideration at that age he would be idealistic enough to say "This is wrong" and bail on the whole situation once he saw it full scope.

He didn't "see it full scope", he didn't even understand the majority of the stuff that he leaked, which is a huge part of the problem. Also, I don't understand why people think he's so intelligent. He was an SA/SE with a clearance, big whoop.

 

[LegendKiller]

I think you have to look back at the very beginning. You have a mid twenty something year old guy that is obviously very intelligent, but he does not have the capacity to predict the ramifications of leaking thousands of secret documents. He knows there is risk involved, but he believes the NSA and the government is being far too spurious with the public and reckless with their data collection. Others within the NSA have expressed their concerns to their superiors and it went no where.

He believed the only recourse would be to let the press decide and thereby the public. If ANYTHING Snowden may have been too patriotic with his ideals. He believed so much in liberty that he threw his entire life away to give the American public a chance to examine what their government was doing behind their backs. Remember, going along with the government does not make you a patriot, risking your life for American ideals is what makes you a patriot. I believe he fits the definition whether he himself was reckless or not.

Obviously very intelligent? I don't get that at all. I see a liar who got caught up in his ideals and decided to "get back" at his employer.

What I find interesting is that you people think he was a patriot but have no fucking clue who he is, what he stole, why, or how. You don't know who he might have given the data to or whether he got paid. You have not tracked down his timeline. For all you know he was an actual spy and now he's being used by his masters to further embarrass the US.

The problem with him, and people like you, is that you think you know more and are more intelligent than the "sheep". You think you need to guide everybody. You think you are messianic. You, like him, are nothing but a naive prole.

I applaud his actions to bring some of what he brought into the light, but everything else has trashed that. Had he stuck to *JUST* that, I would hail him a hero. However, he didn't.

Why?

 

[LegendKiller]

He didn't "see it full scope", he didn't even understand the majority of the stuff that he leaked, which is a huge part of the problem. Also, I don't understand why people think he's so intelligent. He was an SA/SE with a clearance, big whoop.

Because he fits their narrative. He's a geek that struck out against "the man". In reality he was a loser.

He lied from the beginning. His "letter" to his superiors didn't raise any questions.


With all of the documents he stole, why couldn't he just print out a fucking letter and show the world that he actually did what he said.

Hell, I save emails that prove I was right as a CYA.

But shit, he's so fucking smart!

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Are you speaking to the interview? The interviewer (John Oliver) started and continued the dick pic analogy for comedic effect. Snowden would have rather spoken in normal terms and from what I saw, he didn't paint them as cliche villains tying dames to rail road tracks. He has said many times that the culture within the NSA has become reckless, not necessarily evil.

Merely "reckless" doesn't justify his such very drastic actions. His whole position hinges on the NSA being some sort of big government boogeyman. Evil, untrustworthy, oppressive, take your pick.