Holy... just wow. Like out of a movie, can't quite believe what I'm watching. Snowden the political candidate? Snowden the mouthpiece? Snowden the hero? I'm looking forward to reading the HN discussion on this.
Can you really see him as a political candidate? personally I think he the government will pardon him sometime in the near future and he will end up working for one of the unicorns (fb/google etc).
He has less chance of a pardon than a drunken proposal on Christmas.
Pardoning him would set a precedent indicating leaking top-secret documents when you think you have a higher moral purpose is an 'acceptable' thing to do. I'm wholly on Snowdens side in these particular circumstances, but even his case is, sadly, subjective. I believe knowing you could lose your freedom is a healthy filter to ensure people act as responsibly as possible.
I still believe he might get pardon for two reasons:
1. to make sure he won't leak anymore information.
2. because most of the public think he did a good thing
> "A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that's a problem, because privacy matters"
I think that's the most important part of his message.
Could agree more. But just for the sake of discussion, why privacy matters? why do you care if some computer is listening /analyzing what you say to your friends/family?
