Where did the meme come from that civil disobedience requires you to sit in jail afterwards?

[backscatter712]

15. Snowden is paying a price.

He's in exile, he had to leave his family and his girlfriend. He left his friends, his career, everything he ever knew.

Besides, do you really think that the punishment the US gov't has in mind for him is really proportional to the crime?

It might be worthwhile to do a year in prison, if it was a normal prison, where prisoners weren't abused, and you could get visits from friends and family. But when whistleblowers are threatened with the kinds of sentences normally given to serial killers, and prisoners face supermaxing, beatings, withholding of medical care, complete isolation, no communication with family or anyone from the outside, "suicide watch" treatment like what happened to Manning, etc., it's become clear that the "justice" system here is completely off the rails, and asking anyone to go through that for any reason is insane.

And going to jail is one way of showing moral leadership, but I don't see it as a requirement to engage in direct action or civil disobedience.

Oh, and I personally have gone to jail in an act of civil disobedience, and seen some police violence. Don't assume that I'm ignorant.