What is your reaction to the information presented in the documentary Citizenfour?  Did the documentary have an effect on your opinion of Edward Snowden?

After watching CitizenFour (for the second time in my life), I am, once again, appalled and afraid. I have always been on Snowden’s side; the rights of the common people should certainly take precedence over the agenda of the ruling powers. The fact that the NSA violated constitutional rights en masse and continued to do so, despite being legally barred from doing so, needed to be brought to light.

I support Snowden’s decision to make that information public and I continue to support the bravery of both Snowden and Glen Greenwald for doing so in the face of great adversity. However, I cannot possibly support the United States in their treatment of Snowden and their handling of the case.

The most jarring part of CitizenFour was not the information that Snowden reveals but rather, the actions of the U.S. Government in response to his actions. The intimidation, the death threats, the charge of treason, the harassment, and just ridiculously mob-like behavior of U.S. officials in the face of Snowden’s actions is disgusting.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with what he did, you should still feel disgusted that your government treated an American citizen so poorly that he had to flee into exile and take extreme precautions to ensure they could not find him – for he was afraid for his life. Not afraid for his freedom, not afraid for his career, but afraid for his very life – afraid that the U.S. Government would silently and ruthlessly end his life.

To me, CitizenFour isn’t a story of privacy and journalism, it’s an expose on the malicious practices of the U.S. Government and their merciless pursuit to defend the secrecy of such practices. Maybe I’m just melodramatic but, that’s how it felt to me.