The Intertribal Warfare at the Heart of American Politics
12th June 2013
In a revealing column at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall (pictured) voices doubts about Edward Snowden (and Bradley Manning before him) less for the details of their leaks of government information than for why he thinks he did it. To Marshall, Snowden is “some young guy I’ve never heard of before who espouses a political philosophy I don’t agree with.” That philosophy, he believes, is one that views that state as “essentially malevolent.” That’s enough to put the columnist and the whistleblower in different tribes, and it’s a good start at explaining why so many Americans have lined up behind government officials on the matter of leaks and surveillance, while many others have cheered leakers and denounced the peeping-tom state.