> they routinely gobble up the narrative that the US is less free than Russia and other autocracies

I have seen little or no evidence to support this contention, and plenty that does not support it.

There are certainly periodic discussions suggesting the US is less free than it's own PR would suggest, but that's not at all the same thing.

I don't think anyone here is saying that the US is less free than Russia. They're saying that this move has PR to that effect as one of its goals.

I think it's more than Snowden is living the dream of every underappreciated IT worker and to speak against him is to speak against that dream, too.

The more I interact on this website, the more i'm convinced this is exactly it. Snowden represents every IT support monkey disrespected by their org, most of whom check Hacker News daily.

I fully agree IT in every industry deserves more respect, but Snowden is thoroughly enjoying his new found celebrity post-defection. To deny this is part of his motivation is to be blind.

Yeah, gimme some of that gobbledygook.. gobble gobble gobble