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posted by LaminatorX on Saturday June 07 2014, @10:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the Blaming-the-Messenger dept.

Charles Cooper reports that venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has called former NSA contractor Edward Snowden a traitor for leaking national secrets about US surveillance practices and says that foreign nations may use the disclosures as an excuse to promote their domestic technology suppliers over American rivals. "Obviously he's a traitor," says Andreessen. "Like if you look up in the encyclopedia 'traitor,' there's a picture of Ed Snowden. Like he's a textbook traitor. They don't get much more traitor than that. I will say that I'm in the distinct minority out here. Most people in Silicon Valley would pick the other designation."

Andreessen added that NSA leaks may well wind up getting used as a cudgel by foreign governments against American companies that depend on overseas sales. "There's a big open question right now how successful our companies will be when they go sell products overseas," says Andreessen. "I think there are a lot of foreign companies that are very envious of Silicon Valley and America's domination of tech and wish that they could implement protection policies. And they are going to use this whole affair as a reason to do that ... as an excuse."

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by elgrantrolo on Saturday June 07 2014, @11:04AM

    by elgrantrolo (1903) on Saturday June 07 2014, @11:04AM (#52578) Journal

    It is a fair comment, if all you care about is money.

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07 2014, @11:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07 2014, @11:08AM (#52581)

    Ordinary Americans can't even afford money.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Squidious on Saturday June 07 2014, @03:15PM

    by Squidious (4327) on Saturday June 07 2014, @03:15PM (#52636)

    Yup, he already has his megabucks. Once you reach that point of course you are going to side completely with any agency tasked to keep the serfs in order.

    --
    The terrorists have won, game, set, match. They've scared the people into electing authoritarian regimes.
    • (Score: 2) by Rune of Doom on Saturday June 07 2014, @03:31PM

      by Rune of Doom (1392) on Saturday June 07 2014, @03:31PM (#52642)

      Exactly. From the POV of an oligarch, Snowden is undoubtedly a traitor - he increased the probability that they'll all end up swinging from traffic lights.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07 2014, @05:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07 2014, @05:50PM (#52672)

      For those who don't recognize all the memes at work in Andreessen's screed, first there's Authoritarianism, [wikipedia.org] a form of societal organization by an elite class [wikipedia.org] where the only views that count are those of the rich. [wikipedia.org]
      ...and even when supermajorities of the populous want something|don't want something their desires are ignored. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [popularresistance.org]

      The opposite of that dystopia would be a system where the will of the majority (largely composed of working people) [wikipedia.org] is the way society is governed, AKA True Democracy, following Switzerland's 700-year-old example. [wikipedia.org]

      Step 1 in achieving that is a constitutional amendment to get money out of elections:
      Money is not speech; corporations are not people.
      http://www.wolf-pac.com/the_plan#headline [wolf-pac.com]
      https://movetoamend.org/#main [movetoamend.org]

      -- gewg_

    • (Score: 2, Troll) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 07 2014, @06:34PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday June 07 2014, @06:34PM (#52690)

      Most Americans side with those agencies. Most Americans are happy to put the interests of the plutocrats over their own self-interest, because they really believe that rich people are better than them.

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 08 2014, @12:58AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Sunday June 08 2014, @12:58AM (#52809) Journal

        Or believe they will once be rich and thus must make sure they will be influential.. when they get rich. In the old days the poor were told they would have a better afterlife than the rich ones. Or one can simple believe that rich and powerful people act in their interests, of course because the media they own told you so.. ;)

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 08 2014, @03:33AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 08 2014, @03:33AM (#52840)

          "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves, not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." --John Steinbeck

          -- gewg_