Snowden is Not a Chinese Spy, He's a Hero

The bourgeois media is trying their damndest to discredit Edward Snowden, in the same way that they did Julian Assange when he exposed the surly activities of the American (and other nations') military.

While watching propagandist fronts like MSNBC, CNN, and FOX yesterday, I was surprised (more so from the so-called liberal media channels) that such an effort was made to discredit the man.

Even CNN's pseudo-liberal Jeffrey Toobin, who was furious after the Wikileaks revelations, had vitriol to pour on Snowden. In his op-ed (gleefully published by the highbrow New Yorker publication), he says that Snowden is "Not a Hero," and seems to prefer a leaker to use endogamous, non-public channels to release information.

Toobin, a left-brain prisoner due to his legal training, would much rather see rule of law followed (no matter how unjust those laws are), than have any disruptions to the bourgeois, bureaucratic system. He would have preferred that Snowden release his information to "Congress" or to "take advantage of federal whistleblower laws," rather than bring it to the public arena.

In a way, Toobin is right. To ensure rule of law, we should operate within the guidelines that the law provides. But what he fails to express (mostly because he is an altogether protected figure, operating within the comfort of the mainstream media, and a person who I'm sure receives many of the benefits of the current order) is that this system is inherently corrupt at this present stage.

He makes it seem like the administration is altogether comfortable with challenges to their authority, but under Obama, we've seen unprecedented aggression towards whistleblowers. Even the ATF director, Todd Jones, released an intimidating statement that told new recruits that they must "find the appropriate way to raise (their) concerns."

If I live in a society where the corrupt people in power are warning me not to release their corruption to the public, but to . . . go through them? Well, I don't really even need to explain why that is a problem.

Hopefully, Snowden will be vindicated. The public tends to love rebels, and no one enjoys the fact that the government (and corporate contractors) is spying on them. The best outcome from these events is that there will be more Edward Snowden's. Maybe more codebreakers and surveillance technicians and Blackwater employees and other insiders will come forward with more information. We're sure that it will make Jeff Toobin angry, again and again, but it's the only way to end the corruption.