I really can't believe some of what I've been reading here today.

[BainsBane]

311. There are at least two

One presents him as defender of the 99 percent vs. the 1 percent; and another describes the entire G-7 as fascists in contrast to Putin.
You cannot have looked at all the links. Then we have a number of people going out of their way to justify military intervention in Crimea, and you can't claim you didn't see all the defenses of Putin after he gave asylum to Snowden.

As far as I can figure, the reasoning seems to work like this:

NSA surveillance is bad

Snowden revealed NSA spying

Greenwald reported NSA spying (So did Bart Gellman, but no one worries about him)

Therefore Snowden and Greenwald are perfect. (That issue has become unseverable from the NSA surveillance). Battles about NSA surveillance were quickly reduced to personality fights about whether or not their characters were flawed or perfect, as though that has anything to do with the NSA.

Putin gave asylum to Snowden.

Therefore criticizing Russia is authoritarian and even (as a graphic in this subthread alleges) red baiting, for a view than means aligning with the 1 percent over the 99 percent.

(Of course Russia hasn't been communist in twenty years, but that seems to have been forgotten. Putin also acts in authoritarian ways toward the political opposition and LGBT citizens.) None of that, for a few, compares to the tyranny of Obama and the NSA. Or at least they can't be bothered to think about it.

Hence allegations that those who criticize Russia have a "agenda against Snowden" (see above in this subthread) are authoritarian or anti-communist (again, above in this subhtread). Additionally, supporters of the President and the Democratic party are labeled "authoritarians," in contrast to supporters of Russia and its invasion of Crimea.

My position is, NSA surveillance is bad. Don't give a fuck about Snowden or Greenwald as personalities.
Military intervention is bad, and that Russian forces do it doesn't make it good.