If they made a whole movie about him smacking into that glass, I might watch it. I have to admin a soft spot for fat people smacking into glass.

Reading further "Many of the segments in the documentary were several years old, e.g. from 1996", which was almost 20 years ago now. Not to seem unsympathetic, but every instance cited in there is from a state-level prison. I have no doubt there is some corruption on that level, and horrible crimes against humanity,…

Not sure how that's at all relevant. The Jews were dealing with extermination and oppression. How that relates to espionage is beyond me.

I personally don't believe he has. Exposing the NSA and doing something about it are two different things. The only thing I see that's changed is that the NSA is more careful about their public image.

I'm not sure why everyone is getting hung up on the word 'torture'. America doesn't torture people on its own soil. The one place he's most safe from torture is the US.

You're helping me make my point. North was part of the machine that turned the whole affair into a media frenzy, which certainly contributed to his light punishment. North new it because he manipulated the narrative in his favor.

They went to the Sochi olympics and got beat up. They also got assaulted in a McDonald's in Russia. They've been back.

Plus lying to congress, the whole shredding documents after the fact, etc. Just mentioning him as someone who did some pretty treasonous stuff, stood before his accusers, took his punishment, etc. People wanted him dead but he lives on.

Agreed, and that subject could probably be an entire other thread. I'm all rather blase about it. While I understand the implications of my government collecting everything, I feel like the chances that they're actually looking at little old me's data is pretty slim, so I tend to get enraged about other things.

So's your face. (sorry, had to do it.)

And look at all of us snapping into action! Ha ha.

He's in a movie. He writes. He tweets. He's on TV. He's not exactly a hermit. He's promoting himself for some reason, I just assumed it was because he wants to change something and not leave it up to us yahoos.

'Foreign dissidents' are generally fleeing a military state that executes way more people than we do. You're comparing apples to oranges.

There's a subtle difference between 'monitoring' and 'collecting'. Not that I like either one, and I do take reasonably precautions to keep my private stuff private, but no country, no planet, has the manpower to actually monitor everyone else.

LIke Ollie North? And any number of political dissidents that stood before their accusers? It only works the way you think on TV and in your fantasies about how bad America is.

This was your original quote:

Takes one to know one.

His entire 60 Minutes interview, where he basically gave us double-speak and answered no questions. Every interview or story written about him where he's quoted. They way he answers every question with another question.

And then you run off to Russia instead of trying to affect change at home. Makes total sense. Not.

I'm not sure it's fair to insinuate foreign dissidents come here for refuge, then the other side of your mouth says we're not civilized.