Stop your embarrassing fawning over Edward Snowden's Twitter feed

Why on Earth is this a thing?

Snowbird
(Image credit: Illustration by Lauren Hansen | Image courtesy Twitter, DeviantArt/vDq)

On Tuesday, Edward Snowden joined Twitter. The internet almost immediately lost its collective mind. This ought to be hugely embarrassing for all involved.

Consider this exchange, chosen almost at random, that both sharply mocks and glibly stokes the media's slobbering freakout over @Snowden. Jared Keller, deputy editor at Maxim, playacted the now-stock character of the media peon firing off clickbait.

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James Poulos

James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.