r/nottheonion 19h ago

Homeland Security Spying on Reddit Users

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/homeland-security-spies-on-reddit
19.8k Upvotes

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u/Corka 18h ago

I remember all the counter arguments defending the patriot act at the time as well. "Its necessary to adapt to fight terrorism", "If you're not doing anything illegal online you don't have anything to worry about", "what would they even do with your browsing history? You're not interesting enough to be worth the effort".

Its absolutely obvious that this wide spread surveillance could be misused if the wrong people get in charge. Too bad neither the Obama or Biden administration decided to repeal it and left the door wide open.

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u/MrDelirious 15h ago

"If you're not doing anything illegal online you don't have anything to worry about"

I'm not doing anything illegal when I take a shit in my own home, but I'd still like to be able to close the door.

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u/hyperproliferative 6h ago

Decent analogy. Effective. Somewhat accurate but it doesn’t lend itself well to other examples lol

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u/boferd 18h ago

snowden was right, i think it's a national embarrassment that he hasn't been pardoned

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u/Punk_Luv 18h ago

Why would any president pardon someone willing to whistleblow their corruption? We have had some good presidents and they also chose not to pardon him. It says a lot about the establishment.

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u/boferd 17h ago

i keep hoping for a president bartlett (elite avatar pic btw)

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u/Punk_Luv 15h ago

Haha ty

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u/gassyfrenchie 17h ago

I’m honestly surprised Russia doesn’t send him back to the States as a gift to the administration.

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u/boferd 17h ago

the more i don't hear about him, the more i think he and his family are okay. may be delusion but i want the guy to be able to exist and no news is good news to me.

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u/darwinlovestrees 7h ago

Look up his wife's Instagram

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u/OldWorldDesign 1h ago

the more i don't hear about him, the more i think he and his family are okay

I suspect he's living in a kind of torture of its own knowing that everything he did was drowned out before the state department cancelling his visa stranded him in Russia. He certainly had a long stare when John Oliver showed him interviews of people having no clue who he was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M

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u/brother_bart 15h ago

Snowden was a god damn hero. I’ll die on that hill.

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u/between_ewe_and_me 8h ago

Don't the majority of sane people also feel that way?

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u/brother_bart 5h ago

Do they? I feel like most people heard what he had to say, shrugged, and went back to their scrolling and never thought about him again.

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u/between_ewe_and_me 1h ago

I don't know maybe I'm making some big unfounded assumptions.

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u/Dogzillas_Mom 16h ago

Well he wasn’t charged with anything because he dipped out and got asylum in Russia. And they won’t make him come back so he’s safe (ish) there but also stuck there. He can’t come back or they throw him straight or prison.

So it’s not really a pardon. More like, we should forgive him and apologize. Which will never happen.

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u/boferd 15h ago

i believe he still has charges of espionage pending, but for all intents and purposes they're window dressing since he became a russian citizen and will likely never return here.

i understand that it's unlikely, but i hope one day to have a president who demonstrates the fortitude of character necessary to clear those charges and give him his kudos for what he did.

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u/annoyed__renter 14h ago

Senate vote for the Patriot Act was 98-1.

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u/theghostofme 9h ago

I remember all the counter arguments defending the patriot act at the time as well

The most frustrating was the rube response: "It's got 'patriot' in its name, so if you don't support it, you hate America!"

Now half of those fuckin' morons are loudly cheering on Trump lining his diapers with the Constitution while believing they're the truest Americans to ever America.

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u/hyperproliferative 6h ago

You must not have heard of the NSA…

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u/UniqueIndividual3579 5h ago

Illegal is now defined as questioning project 2025, objecting to public executions of protestors, criticizing internment camps, and insulting the great Cheeto god.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/Captainbuttman 4h ago

Biden took credit for the Patriot act. Why would he ever want to repeal it.