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ale5

with so much drama over the years and even a recent movie made about him, what do you think?

ale5

I think it took a lot of guts and personal commitment to do what he did to expose the truth about the goverment.
the movie was a good representation that painted him in a very positive light.

agsr

I will not vote for neither options. I think situation is not binary for what Snowden did. The surveillance by the government was inappropriate and he did a good thing to raise concerns.  That said, how it leaked out, putting secret information at risk was far from ideal.  It is easy to judge people when we are not in their shoes. I don't think he benefited from the information leak and not sure how much he enjoys being an outcast from the country.  The movie did portray him as a hero, but that's also a movie and may paint a biased view.  I will tell you though that after watching that movie, I would not leave an open laptop without a piece of tape over it, unless you enjoy being randomely watched by whomever.

inc4t

Snowden is a hero. As per related debate on this site, Trump and Putin should workout his return.  Snowden in some ways is like Trump, he is willing to stand up for his country to protect American people, even if he does that in politically incorrect way. Both Snowden and Trump say it how it is. The only difference is that Trump now lives in the White House and Snowden is exiled in Russia 

islander507

The way Snowden went about it exposed security of our Coutry. That's not right.  If he comes back also it should not be portrayed as a "gift to Trump". 

ale5

Snowden took bold action and gave up his lifestyle to tell everyone the truth. His a actions resulted in meangful change in understanding whats acceptable or not for the Big Brother monitoring. He exposed 1984-like practices that were used by government to spy on all of us.

WhyTrump

In light of more goverment exposed surveillance in the news today, when will people get tired of all the exposure ..or embrace the exposure? I womder what Ed Snowden involvment was in all of this is.

statesjoderon_17

He's a full on hero. 

Pino

This piece of treacherous filth applied for,and accepted a position of trust in the full knowledge of the nature and the type of work which the post entailed.
After securing the job for which he applied he swore allegiance to his country along with an oath of confidentiality.
 The traitor then proceeded to ''steal'' confidential data to which he was not authorised to have access and then published the highly secretive information to a range of recipients including the sworn enemies of the United States.
His unforgivable treachery has cost the lives of a number of field agents and compromised the work of those who had decaded their lives to the security of their country. 

joecavalry

I agree with @Pino  position and evidence as well.

agsr

Overall I Agree with @Pino , although what Snowden exposed was that Government inappropriately monitored innocent people

ale5

Snowden showed us the truth and made a personal sacrifice. 

Logic

I agree with @ale5 . But if you want random people watching you, Then he is a 'villain' He gave us the truth, Who cares if he was working for whoever. You were being watched, And he helped you.  

inc4t

@Logic, I agree with you.  snowden gave up his personal freedom and exiled himself to another country to do what's right for the people.

therep

I agree with @inc4t and @logic .

George_Horse

He is a hero. He opened the eyes of millions on how the government monitors and spies on the people. 

MayCaesar

His information did not tell anyone anything people did not already know - however, it did constitute a violation of a non-disclosure agreement he voluntarily signed, and it also put a lot of people in danger due to his violation of people's privacy by releasing precise information on them.

I would not say he is a villain, but, rather, he is an idealist whose actions are guided by emotions and not by pragmatic calculation. I completely support his sentiment that "a state that has secrets from its people should not be trusted by the people" - however, this is not the time to act on this sentiment and get away with no consequences. Maybe in a century...