...
People, and unfortunately many other whistleblowers who did not have the guts to do what it takes, try to dismiss the importance of Snowden's act of selflessness. I find this reprehensible. I know so many of us are so jaded by the endless litany of utter defeats of reason that it is just about automatic to take the very most negative view... because just statistically that is the safest bet... but, again repeating myself, ad nauseam, statistics are shit.
They aren't life. They aren't real. Manipulating them serves some useful purposes which only pretend to be viable. Yes, yes, they do tend to be some sort of yardstick for dealing with stuff we don't know, can't really know, but relying on them for anything beyond getting yourself in the ballpark is not only plain lazy. It frequently is lethal.
Math has its place, but not the one usually ascribed to it.
Yes, there is, because of the statistics, reason to suspect he had help... from insiders... in advance... giving him assurances he would not be caught and hanged... but if you sit with it for a while your only reason to suspect the psychopaths put him out there to have a chilling effect is just completely out of touch with what the psychopaths feel is in their best interest... which is their only motivator.
Ever.
Not everyone in positions of influence, and privy to information we are drowning for lack of, is too cowed to act in the best interest of all humans. Altruism is not dead. Only less noisy. The generals who were fired for blowing the whistle on the illegal movement of nukes ought to have been enough proof of this for even the most cynical among us.
Edward Snowden and everyone, known and unknown, helping him are heroes.
