Whistleblowers are the conscience of society, yet suffer gravely
Whistleblowers act against power structures and that&#x27;s the ultimate transgression as far as the power structure is concerned.<p>Transgressions in favor of the state are one thing, you&#x27;ll get a slap on the wrist at most, even personal benefit and promotion in some cases, but transgressions <i>against the state</i> are what will provoke a real response.  See, for example, the incredible vigor pursued against the people who released the collateral murder videos, and not the people in the video who violated the geneva conventions by murdering surrendering combatants.  One transgressed in favor of the state, and one against.  That&#x27;s all that matters.<p>And of course the power structure has investigated itself and found no wrong-doing, something something &quot;you can&#x27;t surrender to a helicopter therefore we were fine to shoot them&quot;, or whatever.  You can&#x27;t get a hmmwv out to a site during a decade-long occupation to take them in, better shoot them I guess.<p>It is the same thing in corporations too:  you can be incompetent or your project can fail, and that&#x27;s fine as long as you don&#x27;t <i>rock the boat</i>.  It&#x27;s actually probably worse to rock the boat and try to save a failing project, not only do you take it on yourself if it fails (which it likely will anyway, because they won&#x27;t listen&#x2F;the project is too far gone) but even if it succeeds you&#x27;ve stuck your head up and shown yourself to not be a yes-man.  We want team players here, not someone who&#x27;s going to kick up a fuss and argue with the boss or jump them on the ladder. Doesn’t matter if what you said was true or not, you don’t transgress the power structures.