this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48428963

I personally do, he actually risked his life to release information about the government spying on people. And there are for sure more advanced ways now. Even your phone is listening.

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[–] whatiswrongwithyou@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I got u.

You wrote:

I don’t know… did he achieve anything lasting? Are we better off? Is he? He tried something, it didn’t work. I’m not convinced he did it out of the goodness of his heart amd I’m fairly certain he did not envision a life sucking off the Kremlin just to remain safe. Don’t get me wrong, this could and should have crippled our trust in all governments… but it didn’t.

The problem is that you don’t know what you’re talking about and are a homophobic liberal.

I don’t mean that as a set of insults. It’s easy to see yourself through your own eyes and hard to see yourself through the eyes of others.

Snowdens leaks had direct results that have shaped the law, media and our understanding of government. They have been extensively reported on, written about outside of the press, used as a framework for other leaks & revelations and ensured that frameworks for safely revealing damaging information existed in the years to come.

So just in the first sentence you lose everyone millennial or older, they know you’re wrong because they saw it firsthand.

Then you go on to say that he didn’t leak out of the goodness of his heart and was “sucking off the kremlin”. There’s a human development hurdle that has to do with recognizing others act for their own reasons and their actions have consequences. I can’t remember the name of it but you’re writing literal baby brained stuff that assumes your reader will look at real events that actually happened in the world with the same level of seriousness and understanding as a Star Wars movie or bioware game. It’s all capped off with using fellatio as a pejorative in the context of a man.

Idk if it’s just latent or you consciously hate gay people. That’s on you to figure out.

You cap it all off by saying snowdens leaks should have crippled our trust in all governments, but Snowden didn’t leak something about all governments, he leaked extensive proof that the US government was illegally spying.

Again, you’re losing everyone who saw it happen and most of the people who know anything about it.

Taken as a whole a reader can’t help but either think “this person doesn’t know what they’re talking about and is a homophobic liberal” or “this person is a fed”. The second comes from the realization most people have that someone saying what you’re saying credulously might be doing it on purpose to shape discussion or gauge acceptance.

[–] phraxen@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Thank you!! I truly hadn't considered it would come across as this... Hence my edits and attempts to explain how terrible I am at communicating, especially when triggered.

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment and again want to thank you for quite a wakeup call! I'm certainly not homophobic nor a liberal, and on top of it all, I'm a millenial. Best explanation I have is that at the time of the leaks I was surprised and frustrated at how surprising it was to so many...

I will still leave all my comments up for posterity because if anything, I want others to learn from my mistakes.

Edit: FWIW, the "sucking off the Kremlin" was intended more in the sense that now he has to play by others' rules instead of living the life he deserves. I do see how homophobic such a stupid phrasing is and will refrain from going so vulgar in future.