Is Snowden a patriot? Depends on your definition of country. Patriot: n. A person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. Country: 1) A nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory. 2) The people of a nation. So yes Snowden is a patriot of the people, but not the nation. See? I keep coming back to hierarchy of organizations, from cell, to organ, to human to family to neighborhood to city to state to nation to race and up and up. And the relationship with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But humans make things hard. When they put the individual above all? Should it be? And what's privacy of the individual in the game between nation states? Among class struggles?