As it turns out, fleeing the country and hiding in your nations nominal rival is no way to start a grassroots campaign to thwart civil injustice.
Snark aside, King wanted to lead a movement and take all the associated risks with it. In the end, history showed us that he would become a martyr before seeing his goals met.
I can’t fault Snowden, for wanting only to blow the whistle then immediately seek personal safety.
King was fighting against non technical, publicly understood, explicit interpretations of laws carried out by local/state police.
Snowden was/is fighting against secret interpretations of laws dealing with highly technical subject matter carried out by secret police seeking national security on a global scale.
Moreover, remember that as soon as King spoke out against the national security state in his Beyond Vietnam speech, a great many of his supporters abandoned him and the secret police drastically ramped up their campaign to neutralize him; he was assassinated exactly 1 year later.
Snark aside, King wanted to lead a movement and take all the associated risks with it. In the end, history showed us that he would become a martyr before seeing his goals met.
I can’t fault Snowden, for wanting only to blow the whistle then immediately seek personal safety.