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Newsmax reports that according to according to KRC Research about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him. However 56 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 have a positive opinion of Snowden which contrasts sharply with older age cohorts. Among those aged 35-44, some 34 percent have positive attitudes toward him. For the 45-54 age cohort, the figure is 28 percent, and it drops to 26 percent among Americans over age 55, U.S. News reported. Americans overall say by plurality that Snowden has done “more to hurt” U.S. national security (43 percent) than help it (20 percent). A similar breakdown was seen with views on whether Snowden helped or hurt efforts to combat terrorism, though the numbers flip on whether his actions will lead to greater privacy protections. “The broad support for Edward Snowden among Millennials around the world should be a message to democratic countries that change is coming,” says Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “They are a generation of digital natives who don’t want government agencies tracking them online or collecting data about their phone calls.” Opinions of millennials are particularly significant in light of January 2015 findings by the U.S. Census Bureau that they are projected to surpass the baby-boom generation as the United States’ largest living generation this year.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday April 23 2015, @03:56PM
The question isn't whether he damaged U.S. interests abroad; it's whether that damage is worth it to try to make our government better.
It's easy to say, "He betrayed the U.S.! BURN HIM!" It's much harder to explain to people why he did it.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @04:17PM
"U.S. interests" are not the interests of the public, but are the interests of the elites and military industrial complex. The real question is how effective the latest spooky threat (ISIL) has been at convincing the public to give up all rights. Of the Americans that bother paying attention to the news, most fail to notice that the recent "foiled terrorists plots" are just FBI stings of the mentally ill. The public was starting to forget the measly thousands killed on 9/11, so it's time to blow ISIL out of proportion. Even Rand "filibuster the drone war" Paul has to force himself to sound hawkish. Jihadi Tsarnaev's kawaii solitary confinement middle finger proves that we must remain at war eternally.
2015: The worst year of our lives until next year. And the year after that ×∞
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday April 23 2015, @11:44PM
There was no damage. All damage was caused by the US government itself for violating the constitution and people's fundamental liberties. A messenger does not cause damage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 24 2015, @02:21AM
Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
Why are you mad at the NSA? They are simply the messengers. It is the people who would act on that information you should be mad at. The NSA is just carrying information. How can you do damage merely by releasing information?
If you don't think a messenger can cause damage, you are pretty dull.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday April 24 2015, @03:20AM
Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
Yes, and?
Why are you mad at the NSA? They are simply the messengers.
And in collecting the information, they violate the highest law of the land, as well as people's fundamental liberties. They're not messengers for anything. Then, many who refused to play their game were destroyed by the government (an action), and there is also the matter of all the equipment they have to install everywhere under threat of force to even begin the mass surveillance, and the taxpayer dollars they have to use to do all this. Messengers my ass.
If you don't think a messenger can cause damage, you are pretty dull.
No, just logical. Whereas you might take a more "common sense" approach where you mindlessly repeat common fallacies, I prefer not to.