“If we want to have a better world we can’t hope for an Obama, and we should not fear a Donald Trump, rather we should build it ourselves,” says Snowden.
Now that Donald Trump is President-elect of the United States of America, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has come out of hiding long enough to offer some insight on the business tycoon’s recent win. Snowden, who is still a fugitive in the U.S. for leaking sensitive NSA documents revealing the government’s surveillance program, appeared on a camera via livestream to talk about privacy and, of course, the nation’s future president.
When Snowden was asked “if the outcome [of the election] was better or worse for your case” (likely referring to his chances of receiving a presidential pardon, he deflected the pardon reference and stated that the election is not about him. After criticizing the authoritarian tone of the campaign, he brought to attention the fact that regardless of who is in office, it is every citizen’s duty to help themselves.
“This is the thing I think we begin to forget when we focus too much on a single candidate. The current president of the United States, President Barack Obama, campaigned on a platform of ending mass surveillance in the United States. He said no more warrantless wiring tapping. He said he’d investigate and end criminal activities that had occurred under the prior administration….And we all put a lot of hope in him because of this. Not just people in [the United States]…but people in Europe and elsewhere around the world. It was a moment where we believed that because the right person got into office everything would change. But unfortunately, once he took that office we saw that he actually didn’t fulfill those campaign promises.”
IntellectualTakeout relays that the NSA whistleblower then brought to attention the many promises Obama has made throughout his 8-years in office (such as closing Guantanamo Bay), and the lack of followthrough that’s been witnessed. His point is that the populace should be wary of placing so much trust in one individual.
“We should be cautious about putting too much faith or fear into elected officials,” said Snowden. “At the end of the day, this is just a president.”
Reiterating what Ghandi preached, Snowden said that people need to be the change they want to see in the world and not wait on the perfect president to be elected (if such as thing exists).
“This can only be the work of the people. If we want to have a better world we can’t hope for an Obama, and we should not fear a Donald Trump, rather we should build it ourselves,” said Snowden.
Following is a clip of the interview:
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