
Whistleblowers Dont Need Elite Credentials to Help Protect Us from Gov Overreach - DiabloD3
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/12/whistleblowers-dont-need-elite-credentials-help-protect-us-government-overreach
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throw2016
I think 'soft power' needs credibility and the increasingly desperate use of
euphemisms and sophistry by those in power and their apologists instead of
tackling the issues head on is evidence some in the state have decided to
empower themselves at the cost of the people and long professed values. Who
can resist uncontrolled and unaccountable power?

But too many people have cottoned on to what is happening. It's only when the
next attempts at global grandstanding and posturing about human rights,
dissent and democracy is met by open mockery and derision that most will
realize the sheer scale of the loss.

In the interim no amount of lipstick is going to help, credibility once lost
is almost impossible to regain, and foreign policy will have to rely on
'transparent propaganda' and brute force.

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squozzer
Amen. But it may go a little deeper. One could argue that The Pentagon Papers
leak advanced the agenda of a DC faction, namely the anti-Nixon crowd. I say
this knowing most of the documents Ellsberg leaked came from the Johnson or
maybe even Kennedy administrations. It doesn't matter, as people will conflate
actions of various administration, especially when such conflation has a
political use.

Snowden's leaks advanced the agenda of a faction generously described as the
tinfoil hat brigade, and no one else. Which may explain the umbrage taken by
Mr. Gladwell.

Both parties want Gitmo - probably to deal with future enemies, not current
ones.

Both parties want the NSA for the same reason.

After all, it was none other than Hillary Clinton who said just a few weeks
ago that her greatest enemy was not the Russians or even the NRA, but
Republicans.

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exolymph
> Snowden's leaks advanced the agenda of a faction generously described as the
> tinfoil hat brigade, and no one else.

This is false. Sure, conspiracy theorists used the leaks as fodder, but
Snowden's bravery also brought a lot of government overreach to public
attention. Ask organizations like EFF itself about people's interest in these
issues pre- and post-Snowden.

