He’s a hero solely for trying to save Atari Teenage Riot.

It’s sad that only 10% of the data he leaked ever made it to the public. From what I’ve read, the unreleased stuff has been lost. I could be wrong and don’t have a source handy for that.

I’d let him hide out in my apartment.

He gave people information that they otherwise wouldn’t have, regarding the surveillance state at the time. Definitely good for the common person, bad for the government.

I do wish there was more done about it. It seems like not enough happened and now things are even worse with the thousands of internet trackers, Google, Meta, Flock, etc… We needed some kind of privacy protections but we didn’t get enough and now we’re here, on platforms like Lemmy, avoiding the all-knowing algorithm as much as possible.

How did we go from “Ahh! The government can listen to our phonecalls and read our emails!” to “Sure Big Tech, train your AI on my personal photos, location, usage habits, and manipulate my internet experience for profit! Please do!!!”

I don’t really believe in the concept of ‘heroes’ as in unquestionably good people who are to be emulated, but there are people of commendable moral principles, actions, and character that are worth noting.

His actions were unquestionably noble and effective in revealing the depth of surveillance of statesian citizens by a government many of them trusted, but mistakes in how that data was passed to journalists are also worth noting so such actions aren’t self-sacrificing. He’d be more useful continuing to expose how that continues and has gotten worse, and simultaneously deserves a more comfortable life for his efforts. But he was also young and from my interpretation of my reading seemed to almost accidentally find himself at BAH. If someone more experienced and guided by good handlers were involved, his results could have been multiplied, and his efforts better rewarded.

What a loaded question. Hero is such a poorly defined yet super high bar. Firefighters who die rescuing children don’t even typically want to be called a hero. This just sets up people to say no and muddy the water.

Did he stand up for democracy and transparency and rule of law? Yes. Did he suffer for his actions from powerful people more concerns for the political harm caused by the exposure of illegal actions? Yes.

Did he do everything right? No, he’s human, and wasnt asking to be lionized or elected anything. He wanted people to look at the materials and demand change from governments. He didn’t get what he wanted, and ended up stuck in Russia, where people can dismiss him as just a traitor, so no, he didn’t do everything right. He could have also thrown himself on the mercy of the American justice system, no matter how doomed that would be. But he’s human, so I don’t expect suicide.

I had a professor in a cyber security class go off about how you’re a traitor to the United States if you thing well of him. I remember rolling my eyes and wondering why she was drinking so much cool aid.

He did the right thing, but the concept of heros is not a good or useful one, especially when it comes to political actors.

I’m still confused. All I took away from it is that it’s illegal to point out someone is committing crimes. A full mask off moment that will echo through history.

I think he had as much impact as anyone in his position could possibly have, if not way above average for a whistleblower.

The problem is that the public quickly turned on him, in no small part due to the PR strategy of those who DO have the power to change this. And most of the public shrugged and said what are we gonna do?

His contribution was proof that suspected domestic spying under the guise of homeland security was being widely misused. Which is a violation of YOUR constitutional rights. Of course anyone paying attention suspected it before, but he brought receipts. Many people think he should be in jail or worse because of this.

Unless he’s lying, and I don’t think he has been shown to lie, he did attempt to use proper channels. The media has historically been called the 4th branch of government for a reason - and ultimately that’s where he turned.

The man effectively lost much of his freedom and the people he did it for were unable to take it any further.

Yes

He’s a hero and Aaron was a martyr.

I don’t necessarily think hero is the right word, but his actions are commendable, even if they largely had little effect.

He’s unquestionably a hero.

If he isn’t a hero to you, I question you as a person.

I think he did the right thing even though it meant sacrificing his freedom. People are more aware of government surveillance around the world, even if it’s only increased in other ways. We can try to fight it in the open, now.

Scary thing is he didnt really accomplish much with his sacrifies. NSA is much scarier today and things just goes on.

Yes