Ed Snowden, the CIA/NSA, and the movies


Posted On: Wednesday - December 13th 2017 7:06AM MST
In Topics: 
  Movies  US Feral Government



Under "FEATURES" on the left panel of Peak Stupidity, the plan was to have book and movie reviews. That may or may not happen, but I do want to write a bit about the movie Snowden, directed by Oliver Stone. More about the movie below, but first let me write about Snowden, the actual guy.

I was sitting next to a young lady on an airplane, when something got us talking about the airline business, which led to talk about the TSA, as depicted here and other government stupidity. We had been agreeing on just about everything, though she had mentioned she worked for the government (hadn't told me in what capacity though). I was sort of tactful, and did not bring up my canard that "Hey, in China, the smart people always worked for the government, while in Soviet USSA, government works for you [/smirnoff] the stupid people work for the government. Nope, I held my tongue, cause she was pretty and all.

At some point, though, Ed Snowden came up in the conversation, and the lady told me how it was nuts how all the young people actually supported this guy. "Well, because he's a hero!" I opined vociferously. Now, as an aside here, keep in mind, I don't abuse the word like lots of people. "Hero" seems to be the term in use for anyone that does something pretty impressive that is a good thing. BS there. A hero is a guy who risks life and limb to save people or property when he could have rightfully stayed out of the situation completely. I'd say Snowden could fit this bill. He could have kept his nose down, just done his 30 years at "the company" or "the other company", and not worried about the sick violations of American's rights going on with the electronic spying programs. Ed Snowden did risk his life, as otherwise I doubt he'd have ended up holed-up in Hong Kong and then Russia. No, you may say, that can't just execute these people without a big trial and all. Nooo.... he may just drive off an embankment because his brakes failed, or have some type of not so freak nail-gun accident. The people he worked for are real fuck-ups when it comes to all the neocon war-starting they have performed as a "public service" since WWII, but they are good at the actual assassination stuff, at least on the small guys.

Now, the lady didn't disagree on account of the definition of the word hero, except that, yeah, the hero has to be doing something good. She did not think that exposing US Feral Gov't's spying on it's citizens makes him a hero. That's when she mentioned she works for the FBI, so, just supporting the team, I guess...

That was the point when we thought each other idiots agreed to disagree. That's the way political conversations often go, right, but this post is about a movie, come to think of it.

I saw the movie Snowden a few months back. I'll tell you that I was somewhat surprised that it was not a hack job on the man. I say "somewhat", as I saw an interview with that famous director, Oliver Stone that showed he was not part of the usually Hollywood establishment. He had some choice things to say about the US Feral Gov't that you would not usually hear from anyone in Hollywood who "wants to work in dis bidness again". I haven't seen Stone's JFK, but, man there are so many theories on Kennedy's murder, lots that have good reason to be believed. that I wouldn't know what to think of the movie story. (Personally, the theory that the US gov't did not want Kennedy to have the Treasury in charge of making real money again is my favorite. I dunno, I just blo viate g here.)

Anyway, Ed Snowden WAS pretty much depicted as a hero in this movie. I don't know how realistic it is, as it makes him out to have been pretty high up the chain, or at least dealing with the top men. I don't think that's really the way it was. Hollywood always screws up real stories to make the movie. That's to be expected, but was unexpected was the lack of the usual pro-US-BIG-GOV agenda at least as the main story.

Good, but then when I think of this and another movie from long ago (The Recruit) about a guy who joined the CIA, there is still the usual depiction, whether intentional or just ignorance-based, of these people as the crack, hardworking people that probably are few and far between at even this government agency. This has been a Peak Stupidity topic before, though, as part 1, part 2, and part 3, of our series on the complete non-reality of the operatives in the Jason Bourne series of movies. Hey, they are fun to watch, and I hear-tell there's another sequel coming out that WILL be more realistic, to be entitled The Bourne Stupidity (You could probably see that one coming a mile away, right? ;-}




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P.S.: No, I DON'T know whether the casting was good, about the lighting effects, or the skills of the make-up artists. This is not a REAL review, and that's the part of the business I don't care a lick about... oh, and about who was doing who 30 years ago and why she regrets trading sex for roles now.
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