“ When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals. ” - Edward Snowden -
Quote Interpretations:
• The quote reflects a moral failure in a corrupt system. If exposing wrongdoing is labeled a 'crime', the system has inverted its values: loyalty to power matters more than justice, and silence is rewarded over integrity.
• Those who commit crimes while holding authority have a strong incentive to criminalize exposure because transparency threatens their control. Rulers insulate themselves from accountability by making whistleblowing 'illegal'. Succinctly, if truth-telling is punished, the problem isn’t the truth-teller. It’s who is in charge.
• If revealing illegal acts is treated as illegal, then the label “criminal” loses its moral meaning and becomes a weapon. The state gets to decide that disobedience and truth-telling are the real threats, while actual harm is normalized or buried. In such societies, legality and legitimacy drift apart: what’s legal may be wrong, and what’s right may be illegal.
- Food for Thought
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